The Declaration of Independence - Thomas Jefferson (Comp. Review)

Question 1

How does a writer use language to persuade someone?

Answer 1

A writer appeals to emotion or reason, offers opinions, and urges action

Question 2

What is persuasive writing?

Answer 2

Writing that is meant to convince readers to think or act in a certain way.

Question 3

Who was Jefferson’s intended audience for the Declaration of Independence?

Answer 3

Jefferson wrote to the King of England, George III.

Question 4

What are charged words? Give an example.

Answer 4

Words that are likely to produce a significant emotional response; tyranny.

Question 5

Paraphrase Jefferson’s main point in the first paragraph.

Answer 5

1) All men have certain unalienable rights (Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness)
2) It is the job of the government to protect these rights
3) If a government fails to protect these rights, the people may abolish that government and create a new, more just one.
4) If a group of people wish to be rid of the political ties that bind them to another entity, they must explain why they wish to separate.
5) The King of Great Britain has unjustly ruled the colonies, so they are choosing to break away.

Question 6

Why does Jefferson introduce the ideas that one does not change a government for “light and transient” causes?

Answer 6

Jefferson does this to 1) prevent further generations from using the Declaration to justify overthrowing their government for no reason, and 2) to prove that the colonies are breaking away for serious issues/reasons.

Question 7

What does the statement about submitting facts to a “candid world” suggest about the intended audience?

Answer 7

That the world will judge Jefferson’s words fairly/honestly.

Question 8

In the Declaration, Jefferson gives a list of long grievances against the King. Name three.

Answer 8

1) The King has kept standing armies in the colonies during times of peace.
2) The King has cut off the colonies’ trade with the rest of the world.
3) The King has imposed taxes on the colonies without their consent
4) *The King dissolves the colonies representative houses when they go/speak out against his ordinances.

Question 9

Why does Jefferson include such a long list, and how are all the listed items similar?

Answer 9

• Jefferson includes such a long list to accentuate the placement of blame on the King in the situation of the colonies’ separation. He also uses the list to make the colonists feel anger against the King of England.
• The items in the list are similar because they all place blame directly on King George III and shame him.

Question 10

What support does this catalog of offenses provide for Jefferson’s argument?

Answer 10

This catalog of offenses demonstrates that the King of Britain at the time was not a fit ruler, and was, in fact, a tyrant over the Thirteen Colonies, which supports Jefferson’s argument that the colonies had to break away from England.
- They give evidence for the cause of the American Revolution!

Question 11

How would you have responded to the Declaration of Independence if you were the King of England?

Answer 11

I would have been extremely angry; the document would be placing blame directly on me and tarnishing my reputation.

Question 12

How would you have responded to the Declaration of Independence if you were a Native American?

Answer 12

I would be very angry if I were a Native American reading the Declaration of Independence, because the land mass that is now known as the United States of America was originally Native American land, and the colonists who fought for “their” independence and for “their” home country simply came in and took it from the indigenous people.

Question 13

What points about human rights does Jefferson make at the beginning of the Declaration?

Answer 13

That all men (who are equal) have unalienable (natural) rights, which are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, that are dictated by God’s law; these rights cannot be taken away from any human being under any circumstance.

Question 14

Why does Jefferson begin with these observations before addressing the colonists’ situation

Answer 14

• To appeal to the readers’ sense of justice
• To inform the reader of the standards to which they are holding the government and the rights that they feel they deserve
• By outlining the rights that the colonists DO have, Jefferson can display the King’s violation of these rights.

Question 15

List three grievances against the King included in the Declaration of Independence.

Answer 15

1) The King has tried to encourage the Native Americans to fight against the colonists (“inciting domestic insurrections”)
2) The King has forced the colonists to shelter troops in their own homes.
3) The King has kept troops in the colonies during times of peace, without the consent of the colonies’ legislatures.

Question 16

What is the purpose of listing 20+ grievances?

Answer 16

To demonstrate the desperate need of the colonies to distance themselves from the empire of Great Britain/the King.
- The grievances justify the colonial cause.

Question 17

What does Jefferson claim has happened at “every stage of these oppressions”?

Answer 17

Jefferson claims that the colonies have tried to logically and politely reason with Great Britain/the King. Every time they express their need for compensation, however, they are met with no cooperation/firm rejection.

Question 18

What if Jefferson’s purpose in presenting this information?

Answer 18

• To display the colonies in a positive moral light to try and appeal to the reader to view them as a righteous group of colonies, repeatedly mistreated and abused. Jefferson wants to appeal to the reader’s emotions; he uses pathos to do this.
• To further display the King’s injustice.

Question 19

How would you rate the overall effectiveness of Jefferson’s argument? Why?

Answer 19

The effectiveness of Jefferson’s argument is very high, because it clearly outlined to the King of Great Britain where the colonies stood on the matter of revolution and why they stood there.
- Jefferson also uses charged words and appeals to the reader’s sense of reason and emotions.

Question 20

The time period in which this document was written is often referred to as the Age of Reason because of the emphasis on logic at the time. What elements of Jefferson’s Declaration demonstrate logic, or reason?

Answer 20

The detailed explanations of the King’s wrongs and Jefferson’s reasonable approach to the hefty claims he is making in the document display logic, reason, and ethics (ethos).