On July 2, 1776, the Second Continental Congress voted to declare independence. But that vote didn’t begin with the Declaration of Independence.
It began on June 7, 1776, when Richard Henry Lee of Virginia introduced a three-part resolution that would set the American Revolution on its definitive course. Lee’s resolution called for independence, foreign alliances, and a confederation of states. Think of it as a three-legged stool. Without all three legs, the United States couldn’t achieve or sustain its independence.
Historians Woody Holton and Terrance Rucker take us inside Richard Henry Lee’s Virginia Resolution and the process of independence. Together, they reveal how Virginia’s April 1776 elections cleared the way for Lee’s resolution, how ordinary voters, county conventions, and town meetings from Massachusetts to Georgia drove the push for independence, and what the backroom lobbying and floor fights in Congress looked like as delegates debated whether to embrace Lee’s resolution or reject it.
This episode was made possible with support from the Massachusetts Historical Society, the first historical society in the United States.
About the Show
Ben Franklin’s World is a podcast about early American history.
It is a show for people who love history and for those who want to know more about the historical people and events that have impacted and shaped our present-day world.
Episode Summary
Woody Holton is a Professor of History at the University of South Carolina and a multi-award-winning historian with research expertise in the American Revolution. He is the author of five books about early America, including his Bancroft Prize-winning biography Abigail Adams and, most recently, Liberty is Sweet: The Hidden History of the American Revolution.
Terrance Rucker is a senior historical publication specialist in the Office of the Historian at the United States House of Representatives. He completed his doctorate in history at George Washington University and has research expertise in congressional elections. As a senior historical publication specialist, Terry assists in editing the online biographical directory of the United States Congress and other publications, including the four-volume Minorities in Congress series.
During our conversation, Woody and Terrence reveal:
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- How ordinary voters, county conventions, and town meetings drove the push for independence
- Why Virginia, and specifically Richard Henry Lee, had to be the colony and the delegate to introduce the independence resolution
- What the three-part structure of Lee’s resolution reveals about how the founders understood what independence would actually require to achieve and sustain
What You’ll Discover
- When independence first became a serious topic among Continental Congress delegates
- How Thomas Paine’s Common Sense shifted public opinion toward independence
- How Dunmore’s Proclamation galvanized Virginia landowners toward supporting independence
- What Virginia’s April 1776 elections revealed about popular support for independence
- The significance of John Adams’s May 15, 1776 resolution recommending that colonies form new governments
- The text and three-part structure of Richard Henry Lee’s Virginia Resolution of June 7, 1776
- Why the Declaration of Independence was just one leg of a three-legged stool
- Why Virginia, and not another colony, had to lead the push for independence in the Continental Congress
- Why Richard Henry Lee specifically introduced the resolution rather than one of Virginia’s other delegates
- What the floor debates and backroom lobbying over Lee’s resolution looked like in June 1776
- How Maryland and Pennsylvania ultimately came to support independence
- How the Continental Congress’s committee structure shaped its approach to the three parts of Lee’s resolution
- Where historians rank the Lee Resolution among the most important acts of the American Revolution
Links to People, Places, and Publications
Time Warp Question
What might have happened if Congress had voted down the Virginia Resolution? When do you think the Second Continental Congress would have moved for independence? And how do you think the Revolution would have been different if Congress had voted the Virginia Resolution down?
Complementary Episodes
🎧 Episode 141: A Declaration in Draft
🎧 Episode 366: James Wilson & the U.S. Constitution
🎧 Episode 424: Dunmore’s Proclamation & the American Revolution in Virginia
🎧 Episode 431: Thomas Paine’s Common Sense at 250
🎧 Episode 440: Jefferson’s Cut Grievance and the British Monarchy’s Role in Slavery
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