Season of Independence Primary Sources
Take a closer look at the primary sources the Museum used to inform its storytelling in building the Season of Independence interactive feature.
Instructions by the Virginia Convention to Their Delegates in Congress, May 15, 1776
This newspaper from Boston, Massachusetts includes a printing of the instructions from Virginia’s assembly to their delegates at the Second Continental Congress.
Rhode Island Act Repealing Allegiance to Great Britain, May 4, 1776
Via this act, Rhode Island’s General Assembly formally rejected King George III and broke their legal ties to him months before independence was officially declared by the Second Continental Congress.
New Jersey State Constitution, July 2, 1776
New Jersey adopted a constitution that declared its own independence from Great Britain on July 2, 1776.
Charlestown, South Carolina Grand Jury Presentments, April 23, 1776
This documentation of Grand Jury Presentments in Charlestown, South Carolina makes numerous legal arguments for why South Carolina and other American colonies would be justified in dissolving their connection to Great Britain.