DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE ESSAY

The American Declaration of Independence is a document that was approved by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, and that announced the separation of 13 North American British colonies from Great Britain. It was written following the concepts of both the Enlightenment ideas of freedom and liberty in accordance with "Natural Law".


I agree with Howard Zinn’s interpretation of the Declaration of Independence because he argues that the colonists upper-classes wanted to trigger revolution against England by using an “inspiring and patriotic language” to persuade the lower classes, avoiding class conflict, but stirring enough to built patriotic feelings. This leads me to think that the upper-classes used the lower classes for defending privileged economic interests and I would say that this document was used to bring together people from the colonies to protect the economic interests of the privileged Bourgeoisie.


The document says that the “all men are created equal, with unalienable rights”. The document was written to "unite large number of colonists and persuade those who had grievances to turn against England", what I think that means they were deceived and forced to follow what they were proposed; without liberty. I don’t think that ideological principles of the Enlightenment like liberty or happiness were the ones that moved the upper-class colonists to write this document and start a revolution, moreover, he says that some Americans “were omitted” like Indians, slaves or even women, so they did not had all the rights the should have.
An evidence that supports Zinn arguments is the tone, language and adjectives used in the list of grievances. A patriotic tone is used to unite colonists against England, giving examples about their brutality and destruction caused in America. Some of these injustices would affect only the rich and powerful colonists, and that makes me think that the economic is the main reason why they would want to start a revolution.


As a conclusion, I think the abusive taxes and economic problems were the main causes by which the upper-class colonists started a revolution against England. They used an inspiring and patriotic language to unite many colonists and turn them against England, thus triggering the American Revolution.