JOINT BASE CHARLESTON, South Carolina –
On July 2, 1776, the Second Continental Congress voted in favor of independence from Britain. John Adams wrote to his wife, Abigail, that “the Second Day of July 1776, will be the most memorable Epocha, in the History of America.” However, the Declaration of Independence would be adopted on July 4 and signed on August 2, 1776. The Declaration of Independence was written one year into a war with Britain, the most powerful empire of the time. Although the document did not make everyone equal in America, it became a beacon of liberty, resulting in revolts across the world.
Thomas Jefferson wrote the document between June 11 and 28, 1776, in Philadelphia, in a house he was renting near modern-day Independence Hall. The Preamble of the Declaration of Independence describes, or rather, inspires Americans to take up arms and risk their lives for independence from Great Britain, thereby securing a better life. Following the Preamble are 27 grievances against King George III (1738-1820), which impel the colonists to separate from England and justify their rebellion. Jefferson wanted the Declaration to serve as a call to garner support from foreign countries and form military alliances. Spain and France, traditional enemies of Great Britain, waited to see what the Americans could do against a superpower before committing their manpower and money.
As the Northern Campaign stalled in New England, specifically with the British defeat at Saratoga, New York, in 1777 by American forces, the British employed a southern strategy in hopes of quelling the Americans by recruiting colonists sympathetic to the British monarchy (Loyalists/Tories) in the southern colonies of Virginia, Georgia, and the Carolinas.
The tide of war shifted with the French entering the war on the American side in early 1778 and with the Spanish supporting the Americans in 1779. The South experienced some of the bloodiest fighting during the American Revolution, forcing many colonists in the region to choose sides, often in conflict with their neighbors and within their own families. The British Army gained a foothold in the South and won the majority of the conventional battles but miscalculated both Loyalists' support and the tenacity of the backcountry Patriot militias, which ultimately led to the surrender of the British at Yorktown in 1781 and the Treaty of Paris in 1783, securing American independence. Born out of war and the inherent will to be free, the American military was and is the vehicle to defend the freedoms recorded in this hallowed document.