Declaration of Independence, 1776 - copy of final draft, pg. 2

4 pages. American Philosophical Society, Philadelphia, PA.

Thomas Jefferson was never happy with the edits made by Continental Congress to his Declaration of Independence. Following a unanimous vote by Congress on 4 July 1776, Jefferson wrote out copies of the original version of his Declaration (now lost) to five or six friends.

This version, one of only two that are complete (the other is owned by the New York Public Library), was presented to Richard Henry Lee, President of Congress, on 8 July 1776.

The disarrayed condition of the colonies in 1764 — economies and societies in flux with changes wrought by war, governments trying simultaneously to adjust to international peace and cope with the effects of Indian insurrections — helps explain how the colonists reacted to British efforts to reform imperial relations.… But the single most significant factor was the depression that by 1764 had fastened a clammy grip on trade in every colony, and which would not fully release it until the decade had ended.

— Fred Anderson

Crucible of War: The Seven Years’ War and the Fate of Empire in British North America, 1754 - 1766 (2000)