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4 pages. National Archives, Washington, DC.
This document represents the form in which Jefferson submitted it, together will corrections, additions, and deletions made by Adams and Franklin, but the Committee of Five and by Congress.
Declaration of Independence, 1776 - “Rough Draft,” pg. 2
One of the most stubborn myths of American history is the idea that the frontier promoted equality of material condition. This national folk legend is, unhappily, ver much mistaken. With some exceptions, landed wealth was always highly concentrated throughout the southern highlands, as it would be in the lower Mississippi Valley, Texas and the far southwest. Inequality was greater in the backcountry and the southern highlands than in any other rural region of the United States.
Albion′s Seed: Four British Folkways in America (1989)