All language subtitles for Thomas.Jefferson.2025.S01E02.Independence.720p.AMZN.WEB-DL.DDP2.0.H.264-NTb

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"Thomas Jefferson"...

Jefferson is
born into a family

that has wealth and privilege.

His first memory
is being held by a slave

on horseback on a pillow.

But despite the fact
that he's a plantation prince,

he begins
to develop a reputation

as a young man who will rail
against British rule.

Taxes and tariffs are being
imposed on the Americans

in ways that they
had no say in.

It's taxation
without representation.

And so the Sons of Liberty
organized political opposition

to these unpopular
British taxes.

So you see
the Boston Tea Party.

To Jefferson,
the Boston Tea Party

is an eruption of
a long-slumbering resentment.

Is that really going to
light a spark of revolution?

Absolutely.

In the 1760s
and early 1770s,

Great Britain begins
to levy hefty taxes

on American colonists

in order to finance some
of their wars abroad.

The colonists resent these
taxes and begin to push back.

The resistance culminates
in the Boston Tea Party

in December, 1773.

After losing 46 tons
of tea in Boston Harbor,

Britain begins
to punish the colonists

for their insubordination.

When Great Britain began
to realize that the Colonies

were becoming more and more
disagreeable and unruly,

they say, well, we're going
to do something about that.

It's interesting.

The British are the ones
who changed the relationship

between the colonies because
they imposed a series of taxes

that causes people
on both sides of the Atlantic

to reevaluate
that relationship

and think
about who's in charge.

One of the methods
of retaliation

were the Quartering Acts,
which meant

that British troops
would be quartered

inside your private home.

They say,
"We're protecting you."

Well, what they're doing
is seeing what's

going on inside that home.

Is that family communicating
or talking with anyone else?

Does that family
have particular arms?

The original Quartering Act
from 1765

had expired in 1770.

But this updated revival,
which passed in 1774,

is one
of four punitive measures

known as the Intolerable Acts.

In September of that year,
political leaders

across the colonies decide
to gather in Philadelphia

to come up with a response.

This meeting becomes known

as the First
Continental Congress.

The plan was to try
and persuade Britain

to repeal obnoxious taxes.

At the time, Jefferson
is just 31 years old.

As a junior member of the
Virginia House of Burgesses,

he's not invited to attend the
First Continental Congress,

but he's determined to make
sure his beliefs are heard.

He writes a letter
in 1774 called

"A Summary View of
the Rights of British America."

And it's meant to be
instructions for the Virginia

delegates to the First
Continental Congress,

so it was not written
for publication

in the first instance.

It's an outlay of everything
that the British government

and everything
that King George III

has kind of done wrong.

Jefferson writes,

"His Majesty
has from time to time

"sent among us large bodies
of armed forces

"not made up
of the people here,

"nor raised by the authority
of our laws.

"Did His Majesty possess
such a right as this?

"It might swallow up
all our other rights

whenever he should
think proper."

He's saying,
Parliament is asking us

to do things that,
as British subjects,

we should not be asked to do.

We have been loyal,
and kings have never imposed

this on their subjects.

Virginians, especially elite
Virginians like Jefferson,

they take great pride in their
status as British subjects.

They also believe
they are great men.

They don't think
they're the hoi polloi.

And so they see these
as a direct affront to them.

It's a shot
across the bow of Britain

and also a rallying cry
for people at home.

"Kings are the servants,

"not the proprietors
of the people.

"Open your breast, sire,

to liberal
and expanded thought."

He says, "Let not
the name of George III

be a blot in history."

That's a devastating critique.

He's suggesting
that George III is the head

of state in Virginia
as the king,

but Virginians
should be basically allowed

to govern themselves,
or Americans more generally

should be allowed
to govern themselves.

He's arguing that Virginians
and colonists in all

of the Colonies should have
the same rights as anybody

living in the British Isles.

As the revolutionary cause
is gaining some steam,

it needed ideas.

It needed an articulation
of what the goal was.

And Jefferson finds himself

before the Declaration
of Independence

articulating the case
for independence.

But he's not ready yet
to declare independence.

He's looking for a way
in which Virginians

can retain a measure
of sovereignty

while remaining loyal
to Britain.

It's a kind of waystation
that proves impossible,

but that's what
he's going for in '74.

As the delegates prepare
to head off to Philadelphia,

Jefferson comes down
with dysentery.

Unable to deliver
his fiery letter

to the House of Burgesses
in person,

he sends it
via his enslaved valet.

Jupiter Evans
travels by himself

to Williamsburg to deliver
this document about freedom

to the Speaker
of the House of Burgesses.

Jupiter certainly
knows the roads,

he knows the taverns,

he knows the inns
along the way.

Jupiter Evans
and Thomas Jefferson

have been traveling together
throughout his entire life.

And so "A Summary View of
the Rights of British America"

arrives to the House of Burgesses

via an enslaved person,
and people in Williamsburg

are so impressed with it,
they publish it before they

go to Philadelphia.

It's very, very well-written,

and it's a very
persuasive account.

And it is being read by people
who are politically aware,

people who are committed
to this resistance movement

against Britain.

It is indeed
the galvanizing of not only

the opinion of Virginia,
but the opinions

of the 12 other colonies.

It is read on both sides
of the Atlantic,

so it does make an impact.

But before 1774,
not everybody was

on the side of the Patriots.

At this point, patriotism,

it wasn't a great
majority movement because,

after all, the American
Patriots, the revolutionaries,

were traitors.

When you think about it,
why would anybody want

to leave the British Empire?

It was the greatest empire
in the modern world.

What people want
is peace and security.

You, as a good subject,
owe your allegiance

to a monarch who protects you.

It's a kind of covenant,
protection for allegiance.

And so some people are saying,
we're still loyal to the king.

The First
Continental Congress

intends to strengthen colonial
rights while still remaining

loyal to the British Crown.

They passed a resolution
to boycott British goods

unless the King repeals
the Intolerable Acts.

King George responds
by sending more British troops

across the Atlantic.

By the winter of 1775,
things are coming to a head,

really, in New England.

In the wake of the Boston
Tea Party and the boycotts,

the British were
putting pressure

on the so-called Patriots
in Massachusetts,

and the Patriots
in Massachusetts

were stockpiling arms
in the event

that there might be a war.

Jefferson and so many others realized,

we've had enough, and we're
crossing the Rubicon.

All of these methods
to subdue us

have resulted
in a frenzy of retaliation.

It's just beginning
to bubble over.

Jefferson lived the
experience of being a colonist

in British North America
who resented

and increasing
imperial authority.

He had engaged
with the great ideas

of natural rights and liberty.

And when these intersected,

he was in exactly
the right place

at the right time.

As the conflict with Great
Britain continues to escalate,

Jefferson hones
his rhetoric and reputation.

The young lawyer uses his keen
intellect and articulate prose

to stoke patriotic sentiment,
awaiting his chance to become

the voice of a revolution.

In April, 1775,
tensions between Great Britain

and the American Colonies
reached a boiling point.

Thomas Gage,
who was the Military Governor

of Massachusetts,
abolished civilian government

in Massachusetts and replaced
it with a military government.

He dispatched a British column
to seize arms

that the would-be Patriots
were stockpiling.

But Gage underestimates
the colonists.

Thanks to an elaborate
warning system on the evening

of April 18, 1775,
riders like Paul Revere

are dispatched
across Massachusetts

to warn the Patriots
about the impending raid.

The British troops
encountered a group

of Patriot militia in
the nearby town of Lexington

early in the morning
of April 19, 1775,

and shots were exchanged
between the British

and the settlers
at that point.

There was a prolonged fight
throughout that day,

and there were
considerable casualties,

particularly
on the British side.

Lexington electrifies
the Colonies because the idea

that British troops could
indiscriminately open fire

on anyone played
into an anxiety

that imperial authority
was out of control.

This is a crucial turning
point because the position

that Jefferson
had taken back in 1774

in "A Summary View of
the Rights of British America,"

the claim that,
we're just British people

who happen to live
on this side of the water,

no longer seemed tenable
because the soldiers

of that king were killing
American settlers.

And this started
the War of Independence.

Meanwhile, far from
the fighting in Massachusetts,

Jefferson immerses
himself in the design

of his new home, Monticello.

Jefferson says that it's
a particularly happy setting.

His marriage to Martha was
a very, very close marriage.

They both love music.

She played the harpsichord,
and he played the violin.

And they like to do duets.

And that was a big part
of their lives.

There are books
that they read together,

contemporary fiction,
I suppose we would call it.

He was a father who was very,
very devoted to his daughters.

And strangely enough,
I mean, even though he said

that he never thought
about women's education,

his daughters
had a great education.

Jefferson was
highly prescriptive.

He would tell them,
read this many times a day,

do dance or some kind
of physical activity

this many times a day.

He's involved in a way
that is about making them

the best young,
polite Virginia gentry women.

And then in May, 1775,
delegates from all 13 colonies

are invited back
to Philadelphia

to debate future relationships
with Britain.

This time, the 32-year-old
author of "A Summary View"

is offered a seat
at the table.

This Congress
is going to take

on the role and the actions
of a government.

He knows that.

This is an important
historic moment,

and he's going to be one
of the men for that moment.

Philly is the metropolis
of colonial America.

It's got thousands of people.

It's big
by American standards,

by British American standards.

It's the entrepot
of the Colonies

both for trade,
but also for migration.

It's a bustling port city.

It will be the biggest city
that he's ever been to

to that point in his life.

At the Second
Continental Congress,

all the great leading lights
of the Colonies advocating

for liberty are convening.

And remember,
everything was done in secrecy

when that Continental
Congress met

in the Statehouse
in Philadelphia

because these were acts
of treason.

The Congress went
from having to organize

a kind of economic boycott
of British goods

to trying to manage a war.

The people who get sent
to the Continental Congress

are people who are locally
prominent in their colonies,

but they're not
necessarily widely known

beyond their colonies.

Really, the only one
who has much of a reputation

beyond his colony
is George Washington

because he achieved
a reputation as a soldier.

But Jefferson,
he's becoming famous.

He's becoming well-known

because of "A Summary View
of the Rights

of British America."

Jefferson is the young talent

who's of the manor-born,
who has the intellect

and the benefit
of a formal education.

He is better than anybody
talking about liberty

and pushing the Colonies
towards independence.

But there was
still more than a year

until he writes the
Declaration of Independence,

but he's on the cusp of that.

It's this weird liminal moment
when some people are saying,

"We're still loyal to the king,

even though we're trying
to kill his soldiers."

It was a confusing period,
but also a clarifying period

for a lot of people,
including Jefferson.

For the first time,
Jefferson meets the men

who will become his mentors,
friends, and eventual rivals.

John Adams is one
of the famous men

of Colonial America.

Adams knows Jefferson's
reputation because he's told,

that's the guy who wrote
"A Summary View."

Both of them pledge
their admiration for each other

and say, you know,
I hope we'll be friends.

Adams is big and bulbous
and balding and outspoken

and funny.

And Jefferson is taller,
thinner, younger, quieter.

Adams is a guy
who does his best work

and his best thinking
in the courtroom,

making the case.

But Jefferson doesn't
like to speak in public,

and he doesn't like conflict.

He's very quiet in debate.

Jefferson is the synthesizer
of different ideas.

He's passionate, he's
romantic, he's more radical,

and he does
his best work alone.

But they are both
articulators of freedom.

Adams and Jefferson
develop an enduring bond

and become allies
despite their distinctly

different personalities.

The Founding Fathers
toiled to decide

the fate of the colonies.

One of the largely forgotten
but most important dates

in the American story
is November 7, 1775,

when the Colonial Governor
of Virginia, Lord Dunmore,

issues a proclamation
calling on enslaved people

to take up arms
against rebellious colonists,

and therefore,
would gain their freedom.

Now, Lord Dunmore was
not a great abolitionist.

Lord Dunmore was not
bothered about slavery.

Lord Dunmore issued
his proclamation

from the deck
of a British warship

because his authority
in Virginia

had completely collapsed.

So this is an act
of desperation

to try and undermine
the Patriot movement.

Many enslaved people choose
to fight for the British,

but the Dunmore
proclamation comes

with unforeseen consequences
for the Crown.

In the end, it really
served to alienate many people

in Virginia who were wavering
between the Patriots

and the British

because many of the great
Virginia planters,

and even smaller planters
took up arms against the king

to protect slavery.

The threat of being killed by
their own slaves is what says,

OK, I'm going to side
with the American cause here.

And so patriotism
was actually energized

and strengthened
by Dunmore's proclamation.

Jefferson himself,
as a lifelong slave-owner,

has a particularly
visceral reaction

to Dunmore's declaration.

19 people leave
his plantation

to fight for the British Army
during this time.

Jefferson takes this
as an affront.

He's utterly appalled, and he
thinks that the British Army

is acting immorally
because they are

using slaves as leverage here.

The ambient anxiety
was that enslaved people

would take up arms
against their masters.

Thomas Jefferson
is one of those masters.

Many years later, he says,
Blacks will never forgive

the things that we've done.

He feared retribution.

So the Dunmore proclamation
takes a deep elemental fear

on the part of white colonists
and marries it

with the deepening fear
of imperial power.

So two of the things that
they're most worried about

are suddenly allied,
and it's an explosive moment.

On October 13, 1775,

the Second
Continental Congress

authorizes funding
for two ships

to intercept British forces,
marking the birth

of what will eventually
become the United States Navy.

Then, as 1776 begins,
an incendiary document ignites

more revolutionary fervor.

In January of 1776,
Thomas Paine,

who's a newly-arrived migrant
from Britain,

published a pamphlet
called "Common Sense."

It argues,
it's common sense that we

should declare independence.

He says,
don't worry about the future.

America will thrive
as long as eating

is the custom in Europe
because we can export food.

We'll be fine in the long-run.

It's the short-run, we have
to declare independence

and win this war, and the
publication of "Common Sense"

is a key part
of mobilizing the public

in favor of independence.

But as the colonists
moved closer to cutting ties

with Britain,
32-year-old Thomas Jefferson

is distracted.

His letters home
have gone unanswered,

and he fears
his wife Martha is ill.

They had lost
their infant daughter Jane

in the fall of 1775,
and in the winter of '76,

Martha is pregnant again.

Jefferson noted that
pregnancy was not easy on her

and wishes he were
in Virginia with her

because he has seen
how frail she is.

Jefferson returns home
to find Martha

has suffered a miscarriage.

He takes a few weeks
to nurse her back to health.

He is ready to leave,
but his mother, Jane Randolph,

passes away.

Talk about being
in a time of turmoil.

He doesn't write
a lot about that,

but he's dealing with a world

that is without one
of the people

who's been there
his entire life.

But in May of 1776, the
Virginia House of Delegates

passes resolutions
calling for independence.

And so back in Philadelphia,
John Hancock appoints

a committee of five men

to draft a Declaration
of American Independence.

And Jefferson,
who is known for his writing,

goes back to Philadelphia
to be on this committee.

So the famous
Committee of Five,

we're talking
famous Founding Fathers.

John Adams of Massachusetts,

Benjamin Franklin
of Pennsylvania,

perhaps less famous,
Robert Livingston of New York,

and Roger Sherman
of Connecticut,

are also on this committee.

All of these men are older
than Jefferson, all of them

are more experienced
than Jefferson.

They're all accomplished
writers, but some of them

are very accomplished
and had published extensively.

So, they gather
at Dr. Franklin's house

to decide who is going
to take up that pen

and lead us
in drafting this declaration.

Well, they all look
to Franklin.

He's their mentor.
He's their elder.

He's been to England.

Franklin, for a moment,
thinks and finally answers,

"Gentlemen, as I grow older,

"I do not care to have anything
else I may write receive

the scrutiny of a committee."

And it is Adams who says,

"Jefferson writes
as well as anyone."

"Oh, no," Jefferson says,
"No, you should write it."

"No," Adams says,
"No, I cannot write it.

"I'm somewhat considered
obnoxious and disliked.

They will not have
this go through."

Everybody agrees that
Jefferson is the best writer

of the group, and I mean,
when you think

about Franklin and Adams,

that's a tremendous compliment
to Jefferson.

This is all building up to,
hey, you write pretty well.

Maybe we should
give you a big job.

The glamorous work is giving
the speeches, making the case,

getting your name
in the papers.

The hard work
is being delegated

to this younger Virginian
who wields a great pen

and is known for that.

And so Jefferson gets drafted
to be the draftsman.

Expectations are high.

Thomas Jefferson carries
the weight of declaring

independence on his shoulders.

On June 11, 1776,
Jefferson begins

writing what will become known

as the Declaration
of Independence.

Jefferson was definitely
aware of the stakes.

They were challenging
a system of government.

They were cutting themselves
off from a great power.

That is a huge risk.

Anything could happen.

He has rented two rooms
on the second floor

of a newly-built
brick townhouse

on the southwest corner
of 7th and High Street

in Philadelphia.

The front room is about,
what, 15 feet by 10 feet,

a bedroom more
or less half the size.

There's only candlelight.

It's a very intimate setting.

It's the ideal arena
for a man

who is solitary
in his nature, as many,

if not most, writers are.

You imagine
this fire of the mind.

He sits in his Windsor chair
searching for inspiration

because he has
a great challenge.

How can you distill
big ideas into something

clean and crisp
and clear and direct

that can inspire people?

And because it
had to accomplish

both a domestic purpose
and a diplomatic purpose.

The Americans knew
they couldn't take on

the British alone.

They needed the French,
and they needed

the Spanish who might
support a new country

against the United Kingdom.

And so this was
an occasion for him

to make a broad pronouncement
about the nature of mankind.

And that's why he went big
instead of just saying,

"We're leaving."

Well, Jefferson
takes this opportunity,

and boy does
he make the most of it.

He writes a great document.

Even though he's borrowing
from Enlightenment thinkers,

he's shaving words,
he's tightening,

he's condensing,
he's synthesizing.

It drove John Adams
crazy that Jefferson

got so much credit for this.

Because there was nothing

in the Declaration
of Independence

that had not been hackneyed

around revolutionary circles
for years.

Absolutely true.

But somebody had
to describe it,

somebody had to distill it,
somebody had to frame it.

And that's the frame
that we still pursue.

It's not easy to erase ink.

So he's crossing out
that mistake,

he's writing the correction
above or beneath.

At night, he transcribes
all the mistakes

and makes it clear once again,
and then the next morning,

he makes more mistakes.

What he comes out with,
while not perfect,

it's all there.

On June 28, 1776,
Jefferson takes his 1,500-word

first draft of the Declaration
of Independence

back to the Committee of Five
for review.

The first draft
that's presented to the group

would be recognizable as
the Declaration we know today.

He loses a climactic paragraph
that's very grandiose

about people parting ways

and traveling
down different roads.

The Committee
of Five also removes

a controversial
paragraph criticizing

slavery and holding Britain's king

responsible for its spread.

"He has waged a cruel war
against human nature itself,

"violating its most
sacred rights of life

"and liberty in the persons
of a distant people

"who never offended him,
captivating and carrying them

"into slavery
in another hemisphere,

or to incur miserable death in
their transportation thither."

What do we make
of this allegation written

by a man who owned slaves,
presented to a room

full of people,
many of whom enslaved others,

that the king of Great Britain

was responsible for
the transatlantic slave trade.

He's trying
to basically wash his hands

of moral responsibility for
slavery by blaming the king,

saying, in effect,
that slavery was imposed

upon us here in the Colonies
for your financial benefit.

What his actual thoughts were
I just can't wrap my mind

around that he does propound
this universal view

of what a person is,
and what freedom is,

and what something even
as subjective as happiness

looks like,
but at the same time,

can't look at--won't look
at the meagerest definition,

which is the definition
of the word "all."

"All men, all people."

It's an interesting thing
to think of him in that house

on Market Street
with Robert Hemmings,

who is, at the time,
14 years old.

As Jefferson is talking about,
all men are created equal,

he's there with his wife's
enslaved half-brother.

People in Congress were
smart enough to take that out,

realizing not only
that some slaveholders

actually wanted slavery,
but they didn't feel

it was a moral wrong.

And they knew the idea
that the colonists did not

have any role to play
in the slave trade

just wouldn't hold water.

The reasons why this passage
is written and then removed

are some of the most contested
in American history.

Look, on one hand,
we can simply throw this out.

We can say, this is absurd.

This is a rhetorical excess.

Frankly,
it's nonsense as history.

It's hypocrisy.

I have a lot of sympathy
with this view.

However, I want
to suggest a counterview.

The fact that the clause
on the slave trade

mentions the rights
of a distant people

that King George III
has allegedly violated

suggests that the same natural rights

that white British colonists
in America are fighting

to uphold and asserting
that they have

in the Declaration
of Independence

should indeed apply
to those Africans

and descendants
of those Africans

who they're enslaving.

Even if Jefferson
does not realize,

that is what he's saying.

I wish it had
stayed in because he

refers to them as people.

So there's no question,
when people ask, well,

does he mean all men
are created equal?

Does it mean Black
people as well?

Well, this passage makes clear
that he is talking

about people
of African descent as people,

and they had been
treated cruelly.

So I think it could
have been useful later on

if it had remained there.

Had the Declaration
of Independence

included dealing with slavery,
what would the nation be?

Would it have been
a different nation?

Part of the tragedy
of American history

is that the trumpets
are sounding,

you know,
the troops are marching.

It feels as though we're
entering this new epoch

in the history of the world.

And yet, it was so incomplete.

The fact
that the core contradiction

of the idea that all men
are created equal

and Jefferson
being a slaveowner

and that original sin
being baked in that cake

gnaws at us still.

But it ultimately
doesn't reduce its power.

It remains something
that we aspire to.

The Declaration
of Independence is

the most concise articulation
of the idea of America

and how we were different.

We're a nation
based on an idea,

not a tribal identity,
and that anyone who subscribes

to that idea,
which is revolutionary,

can become a part
of this country

and pursue your own American
dream of life, liberty,

and the pursuit of happiness.

In the final week
of June, 1776,

the Declaration
of Independence sits

under careful review
from the Committee of Five,

and then the whole Congress.

Its author, Thomas Jefferson,
finds the process agonizing.

Like any good writer,
he's a little resentful

about the changes.

He's so driven crazy by the
rewriting and the criticism

that his knee is going up
and down with anxiety.

And Franklin reaches over
and puts his hand

on Jefferson's knee.

Franklin tries to calm the
young man down by telling him

a story about a person who's
been contracted to write

a sign for a hatmaker.

And the words keep
getting whittled down

until there's just the sign
and a picture of a hat on it.

Words are the essence,
the DNA for a writer.

And when people edit you,
when people question you,

they are, in many ways,
questioning your very essence,

and Jefferson felt that keenly.

Here's someone
who his whole life has

believed that
his words could change

the direction of a society.

Here's someone who has been
refining his definition

of the individual
as outlined by his heroes

in order to create a society
that stands on those things,

and someone who has already,
in his previous writings,

been rehearsing this list of
grievances against the throne.

So this is a culmination
of everything

in his career so far.

Finally, after 21 days
of editing and revisions,

the Congress
approves the final draft

of the Declaration
of Independence.

In the end, they keep most
of Jefferson's draft intact.

He, for the rest of his days,
believed his draft was better

and circulated it among friends
and preserved his copy

so that his version would
be available to posterity.

That opening paragraph,
it's 52 words,

is close to perfect.

"When in the course
of human events,

"it becomes necessary
for one people

"to dissolve
the political bands

"which have connected them
with another,

"and to assume,
among the powers of the Earth,

"the separate
and equal station to which

the laws of nature and
of nature's God entitle them."

He writes that we are
all endowed by our creator

with certain rights,
including life, liberty,

and the pursuit of happiness.

He says, identity, the worth,
the value of a person

is tied not to power
or station or birth.

It's something
that has to do with nature.

That's so powerful
that it keeps reconstructing

the country down the line.

The wit of adding
"happiness" always stuns me.

It's not a guarantee,
but you're guaranteed

the pursuit of happiness,
which implies freedom.

It implies joy.

It implies
an individuated vision.

It's going to be a little
bit different for everybody.

And it is, in part,
to help mobilize people,

by appealing to their anxieties
and emotions.

He makes Americans
into victims.

Vulnerable, susceptible,
their nerves shot.

It's a divorce decree.

The king
is an abusive husband.

There's that long kind
of bill of attainder

against George III,
all those crimes

that he has
allegedly committed.

"He has refused
his assent to laws,

"the most wholesome and
necessary for the public good.

"He has dissolved
representative houses

"repeatedly for opposing, with
manly firmness, his invasions

"on the rights of the people.

He has obstructed the
administration of justice."

He has, he has, he has.

It's quite rhythmic.

"These united colonies are,
and of right,

"ought to be free
and independent states,

"that they are absolved
from all allegiance

to the British Crown."

Those ideas continue
to reverberate,

not just through the colonies
and inspiring a revolution,

but centuries later, quoted
by people around the world.

That's catching
lightning in a quill.

In some ways,
the Declaration overtakes

even the Constitution
for emotional and spiritual

primacy in the country.

It's an address
to a candid world.

It signals to other powers
that the rebellious colonists

are not going
to reconcile with Britain.

Our rights don't come
because we're

British subjects anymore.

Our rights,
they are natural rights.

These are universal rights.

We are here.

We are the United States
of America,

and we're not going anywhere.

Despite its ironies
and imperfections,

the Declaration
of Independence remains

one of the most influential
documents in human history.

It has enshrined its author
indelibly into the fabric

of the American story.

Jefferson's words
arguably are

the most powerful words
ever originally

rendered in English.

And it's changed
an immense number of lives

around the world.

People don't think
of Jefferson

as a global figure, but he is.

We see many, many countries
issuing declarations

of independence, some
of which use the very language

of the Declaration

because Jefferson believed
there would be

a global movement for liberty.

So it's the Declaration
of American Independence,

not to celebrate American
exceptionalism, actually,

on the contrary, to say
it's the first of these,

but there are going
to be more.

And there would be more.

On July 2, 1776,
the Continental Congress

decides to officially declare
independence from England.

They're meeting in secrecy.

So the doors
are shut and locked

and the shutters drawn.

On both sides
of the statehouse,

there are horse stables.

That heat must have been
so incredibly heavy,

and the flies are
all over the place,

but also,
they were smoking tobacco.

That was considered one of
the methods to ward away flies.

After two more days
of edits,

on the morning
of July 4, 1776,

56 of the 60 delegates
approved the final text

of the Declaration
of Independence,

establishing the United States
as an independent nation.

Adams famously predicted

that July 2nd
was the important day

because it was
the day that Congress

voted for independence.

He said,
"Americans would always

"remember July 2nd
as their day of jubilee

and celebrate with fireworks
and banquets and so on."

Well, Adams got that wrong.

We celebrate
on the 4th of July.

But he was right about
the big thing, which is, OK,

this is something
we're going to celebrate.

This is our national founding.

This is the thing,
as he saw it,

that binds us all
together regardless

of our political differences.

On July 4, 1776, Jefferson
and Adams take the Declaration

to John Dunlap,
a printer down the street,

to be copied and distributed.

And then they wait.

That evening, Dunlap prints
up nearly 300 broadsides.

The majority were
handed out to the people

on the sidewalks
in Philadelphia.

And then you have it appearing
front page news that next day.

And on the 8th of July, in
the courtyard of the statehouse

in Philadelphia, a colonel
of Pennsylvania militia

stands up and reads
the Declaration formally

for the first time
to nearly 4,000 individuals.

They tossed their hats
up in the air.

The bells begin to toll,
particularly that which

we refer to as the Liberty
Bell at Independence Hall.

And July the 9th,
General Washington orders

the Declaration
of American Independence

to be read before his troops.

But as celebration settled,
the nascent county

faces a harsh reality.

Signing the Declaration
was signing

your own death warrant.

They were subjects
of King George III,

and now they were rebels.

Now the hard work begins.

They need to win the war,
an upstart group of rebels

from a small collection
of colonies

an ocean away
from the greatest empire

the world has seen since Rome.

All the smart money's
against them.

And this is the beginning
of hard times.

With a war to win,
a debt to cover,

and a new government to build,
the new nation struggles.

Thomas Jefferson
and the other Founding Fathers

face a daunting task
with the fate

of the young republic
at stake.