By early 1776, even ardent Virginia Patriots still hoped Britain might redress colonial grievances short of full independence. Thomas Paine’s Common Sense energized Virginia’s middling and lower classes in particular, creating bottom-up pressure on the planter elite. George Mason’s Virginia Declaration of Rights was adopted in June 1776, and a new state constitution followed days before the Declaration itself, framing the Revolution as an orderly transfer of sovereignty. Richard Henry Lee proposed independence in Philadelphia, and Thomas Jefferson drafted the Declaration, drawing heavily on existing Virginia documents. News of the Declaration reached Williamsburg around July 19. The document was printed in the Virginia Gazette the next day and was proclaimed publicly by sheriffs at county courthouses. A Richmond reading in August 1776 drew roughly 1,000 people and produced “universal shouts of joy,” though Patriot militia presence and committees of safety effectively suppressed public dissent. Washington ordered the Declaration read aloud to the Continental Army, providing a crucial, unifying morale boost to soldiers who had been fighting for a year.
Interviewees
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Maggie Creech
- Director of Education, Virginia Museum of History and Culture
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James Herrera-Brookes
- Melanie Trent De Schutter Senior Director of Research & Publications, Virginia Museum of History and Culture
