{"id":98582,"date":"2026-08-27T09:36:41","date_gmt":"2026-08-27T14:36:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/?p=98582"},"modified":"2026-08-27T09:36:43","modified_gmt":"2026-08-27T14:36:43","slug":"kansas-humanities-event-discusses-declaration-of-independence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/?p=98582","title":{"rendered":"Kansas Humanities event discusses Declaration of Independence"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By ABIGAIL SHEARER<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tiger Media Network<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Tuesday, Tonia M. Compton, a history professor at Kansas Wesleyan, visited the Hays Public Library to lead a discussion about the Declaration of Independence as part of the Kansas Humanities series for America\u2019s 250th anniversary. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Compton began by providing background on why the Declaration of Independence was necessary. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first expansion into the Western Hemisphere was in 1492 with Columbus. About 100 years later, the French & British also arrived, with the British going to the Caribbean, but most settled in what would become the United States. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were many attempts at colonization, with the first successful one being in 1607 in Jamestown. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe colonies that were created were created for economic profit; so the theory at the time was an economic theory called mercantilism,\u201d Compton said. \u201cMercantilism posited two things. It posited first that there was a limited amount of actual wealth in the world.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The second is the power that comes with wealth. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the colonists wanted religious freedom, they also wanted to be wealthy. Britain wanted to be wealthy from the colonies. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c(From) 1610 to 1620, roughly about a decade\u2019s worth of migration from Britain to the northern colonies of Massachusetts Bay,\u201d she said. \u201cAbout 20,000 people migrated to the Northern colonies in that decade. 50% of them were not Pilgrims or Puritans.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Colonies like Virginia grew up with the idea of plantation agriculture, which Compton defined as cultivating a single crop, with the sole purpose of exporting it for profit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cColonists believed you had to have a cheap labor source, and the cheap labor source that emerged over the course of the 1600s in the southern colonies, and in the urban colonies as well, was enslaved African labor,\u201d Compton said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The French and Indian War (The Seven Years\u2019 War) was the turning point for the revolution. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Seven Years’ War is when George Washington gained his battle experience; it was not a great start. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He was a militia leader, and his men encountered Frenchmen; Washington and his men built Fort Necessity and remained for days before attempting an attack. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

They lost half of their men, and the other half fled back to Virginia. By the end of the war in 1763, the relationship between the colonies and Britain was strained. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1763, Britain appointed a new prime minister who knew how much debt it was in and sent a peacetime army to enforce the taxes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

By 1765, the Stamp Act was enforced, and because of the lack of representation in Parliament, the Stamp Act Congress was formed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFor the first time, the colonists have representatives from all colonies get together in one place to talk about, \u2018How are we going to respond as a group to this new British tax of the Stamp Act?\u2019… It was a first step, and it showed them that it was possible to do that,\u201d Compton said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Colonists did not approve of this tax and would sometimes target the tax collectors and publicly tar and feather them as a sign to the King. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Compton discussed the importance of understanding US history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was a horrific act; so it is really important that we keep in mind, when we celebrate this generation that created the United States, that they also reverted to extra-legal violence as part of their process,\u201d she said. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t just a legitimate war.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By 1770, Sam Adams was among the many at the forefront of the Sons of Liberty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Sons of Liberty were responsible for much of the agitation of the public crowds that acted against the various revenue acts in the 1760s, including that they would be the ones to host the infamous Boston Tea Party,\u201d Compton said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Boston Tea Party started because the King enforced the East India Company’s monopoly. This enraged many merchants like John Hancock. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe response to the Tea Act was that you had merchants who were now being affected, negatively affected by it,\u201d Compton said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Boston Tea Party created what the colonists called the Coercive Acts. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

These acts prompted the colonies to convene the First Continental Congress, which King George III declared an illegal assembly. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1775, Thomas Paine joined the Patriots and wrote the famous Common Sense, which was written for anyone to read. In the hope of convincing them to join their cause. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAt this time, historians estimate that about 50% of the colonial population has not chosen a side. About 25% were Patriots, 25% Loyalists, and the other 50% had not yet made up their minds,\u201d Compton said. \u201cThomas Paine’s comments are said to have swayed many thousands of those undecided people to the Patriot cause.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By late June 1776, Congress approved the Lee Resolution, which was drafted by Richard Henry Lee of Virginia. The Resolution called for the Continental Congress to issue a statement of independence. They appointed a committee of three. Ben Franklin, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the end, Thomas Jefferson wrote it. It was presented to Congress on July 1st, then edited to remove Jefferson’s most famous edit: \u201cthe king had forced the institution of salvery upon the colonies\u201d. The Declaration was approved on July 4th, 1776. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Throughout the Declaration, the Congress blamed King George III for the rift, not Parliament. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Compton then broke down the non-grievance part of the Declaration of Independence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, starting with:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The room discussed how Jefferson explained that independence is a natural law and the law of God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The second and most famous part states :<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c\u2018Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness\u2019 is actually a modification of John Locke\u2019s political philosophy, where he said \u2018Life, Liberty, and Property\u2019 were the natural rights of mankind,\u201d Compton said. \u201cJefferson\u2019s really trying to emphasize here that there are fundamental rights to live as free people and have a fulfilling life through that.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The third part states:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The room discussed that because the government had become arbitrary, dictatorial, and destructive, the government was no longer functioning as it should; so they are going to make a new one with the rights from passage two. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Part 4 states:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This part contains the grievances. It again shows that the King has repeatedly injured the colonists and compares him to an unfit tyrant. This is also where the idea that the monarchy is not the best way to lead comes in. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Part 5 states:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We, therefore, the Representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This part indicated that by the nature of god and nature\u2019s law, \u201cthe good People of these Colonies\u201d are independent.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Compton pointed out that the Declaration was to free 13 independent states, not one country. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lastly, Part 6 states:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This last part explains the rights they now claim to have, free from Britain. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read the Declaration of Independence here<\/a>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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