Abstract
<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title> <jats:p>There was a time when the Declaration of Independence was news. The traditional story of the Declaration focuses on the delegates in the Continental Congress, particularly the men tasked with drafting the text. But many people were involved in the process of spreading the news. This exploration of the Declaration in 1776 reveals how the text was communicated to people in the United States and around the Atlantic. This history begins with a resolution issued by the Continental Congress on May 15, 1776, the first text that was perceived to be a declaration of independence. That same day, the Virginia Convention passed a resolution that eventually led to the Declaration of Independence. The news of independence coincided with the arrival in New York of a British fleet led by the King’s Commissioners for Restoring Peace, a smallpox outbreak in Boston, a treaty conference with the Maliseet and Mi’kmaq nations, and other unique circumstances. The Declaration travelled to Europe through London, where printers censored, excerpted, and changed the text, and printed it alongside misinformation about the United States. Congress hoped that the Declaration would foster a new national identity and encourage European powers to form alliances with the new nation. But, by the time Congress’s secret agent in France finally received a copy of the Declaration from Congress, independence was old news. The questions of who experienced the news of independence, when, and how reveal an expansive and complex history of a critical moment in the American Revolution.</jats:p>