Declared Independent: The Logic of Revolution

Declared Independent: The Logic of Revolution
with Dr. Robert McDonald, Professor of History, Department of History & War Studies at the United States Military Academy
Feb. 20, 5 p.m. in Club Spartan (338 Case Hall)

If the purpose of government is to protect rights, could the British regime in America be said to function as a government? Not according to Patrick Henry, who as early as 1774 insisted that “we are in a State of Nature!” After Redcoats initiated hostilities and George III declared the colonists out of his protection, people asserted that the king had abdicated the crown in America. The July 1776 Declaration of Independence, in other words, didn’t create a new reality. Instead, it acknowledged a painful fact.

This event is presented as part of the Fife Fellow program.