Monday, February 11, 2008

Tonight's homework - Declaration of Independence

How do the revisions to the Declaration of Independence affect the meaning of the original document? Be specific...

For instance, pull out one or two of the revisions and discuss how they change the meaning...

"majesty" was changed to "king of Great Britain." The word majesty implies something royal and respected. The American colonists don't believe that the king is majestic. Instead, John Adams wanted the text to read King of Great Britain which is who he is without any fanfare. They didn't want to disrespect his title, but they also didn't want him to be treated with any more respect than they felt he deserved.

33 comments:

pcjem49@netzero.com said...

Revisions changed as it was revised because it was intended to show the general interests of each colony or state.

LAWRENCE... said...

The revisions that were in the declaration of independence changed the meaning of the document in a lot of ways. They will definitely affect the way other people look at it. The declaration of independence became more powerful after the revisions.
For ex: (this is actually my other homework that we were told to do) They had added an only between; been answered and by repeated injury. They probably put it there because they wanted to be more specific and to show that only after many injuries had they answered.

Spencer said...

spencer rivera-
declaration of independece changes
The first change I came across was the word "continually" to "opposing."
After that was changed the whole paragraph had a different meaning it went from king george continually went against us to king george was the opposite of our ideas and thoughts. This is one of the changes I found the paragraphs I read.
After Thomas Jefferson wrote a draft of the declaration of independece it had alot of changes to it to become the declaration of independece that freeded the patriots. Simple words were changed but it meant so much

Jonathan P said...

The many revisions made in the Declaration of Independence changed what the document meant very drastically. Like Lawrence mentioned, whyatever was changed also changed the way that people looked at the Declaration of Independence. For example, when "deluge us in blood" was changed to "destroy us," that sentence became much more powerful. Some revisions made did not affect the Declaration of Independence as much though. The Declaration of Indipendence has changed very much from when it was first written.

HANLIM said...

The first revision I saw in the Declaration of Indenpendence is "important" to "valuable". I think that change was really important because important means that it matters. But valuable means it is really needed. The part of the sentence said "abolishing our most important laws", and that means the law was important but when they changed the sentence into "abolishing our most valuable laws", it changed the meaning totally different. When they changed the sentence it meant that the law is really needed now.

Yeojin Seong said...

H.W: Declaration of Independence:
The revisions to the Declaration of Independence affect the meaning of the orginal document. They effect in one way by being specific. Some readers might misunderstand. One of the changes that they made were the word independence to seperate. I think they made this change to show that they didn't mean it as alone, they meant that they were seperate and different from them.

Women's Education said...

The revisions made to the decleration of independence made a drastic change in its meaning. This is because some of the words used in the beginning were very respectful and more sincere then the words used in the final document. Also, there were some words which made the decleration sound more important and jokingly than others, but the editors caught on to them quickly. This is how the revisioins made on the decleration changed its meaning.

Andrea Quintana said...

The changes of the Declaration of Independence did change the meaning of the document because the words that were changed were very different from the first ones. For example one revision that i noticed was the word "important" to "valuable". It is different because IMPORTANT means that its really important that it means something big, but VALUABLE means that it has a price and that it has a great meaning. The sentence was " Abolishing our most important laws" which was later revised to " Abolishing our most Valuable laws". I have to agree with Spencer when he said that even if there are words changed, it still means a lot.

phil ciciariello said...

In the declaration of independence there was this one change thattook me a few minutes to figure out the differents of this one word being taken out. It meant a huge deal to the congress because it said "as a state" but they took colony. The reason behind that was colony mean to be owned by a bigger pieace of land. Also state mean to be a individual and that was a message they tring to the britsh. That was one thing that showed me how important it meant to the americans. That is my blog post for tonight.

RayDragon24 said...

The revisions for the Declaration of Independence was put out better than before. People probably didn't understand some words and then was put into an easier way to say it. The new revisions came out much better and like Lawrence said stronger.
Ex-"We hold these truths to be [sacred &undeniable]..."
They changed the words sacred and undeniable simply into "self-evident".

天(>^.^)>Adam<(^.^<)天 said...

The revisions that were made in the Declaration of Independance changed the documant in many ways. It will change the way people, or in this case, the king, look at it. For example, when they change majesty to king of britain, they are saying that they are no longer part or Britian. Also when they change the old words into "made by our creator" they are saying that god gave them the right to be free.

天(>^.^)>Adam<(^.^<)天 said...

Ohh sorry, forgot to put my name. SuperSilverSteely is Adam Liang from class 731

Ashley said...

There was this one important change that my group and I had to focus on. They had changed the word "colony" to states because when we had looked up the word colony it said a group to be owned by a very bigger piece of land and state said to be a individual group. So I guess they wanted to be more like a "State."

notsosmart said...

it was to show that each colony had a say in it to change what they thought should be changed.

Anthony B said...

I could not find any thing.I couldnt even understand what it was saying. One thing i found was they called the king CHRISTIAN KING. I think that they said that to show that they have there oun religions. And also to make a statment. I don't no what though.

notsosmart said...

it was to be specific so that no one can make a mistake like you said majesty so no one can mistake it for another majesty like maybe the ruler of china or another country.

®ãymøñd°.ºŽéñg said...

The edits to the draft of the declaration were made for certain reasons, either to make it stronger, clearer, or just simple edits. As an example, one of the edits were from "road to glory and happiness" to "road to happiness and to glory". There is no significant change but, like Ms. Moreno said, it has stronger feeling. There was also a part where it said, "deluge us in blood" and they changed it to "destroy us". In this case I can see clearly how it is stronger, deluge us in blood makes a impression that they just want to soak us in our own blood, but somehow, you get a feeling that your not exactly completely dead, in destroy us, you sense they want to kill us completely.

Olivia Drimer said...

Revisions in the declaration of independence changed the meaning. They made the declaration stronger. In one case the words "were likely to" were changed "would inevitably" to show it was definite.

Michelle said...

Revisions changed as it was revised because when the colonists read over what they wrote, they realized some things they said were not true. Like for example Majesty was crossed out and changed to "King of Great Britain". Calling the king Majesty was like saying the people liked him and respected him. But they didn't or else their wouldn't be anything like a Declaration of Independence because they wouldn't need it if they were happy with his ways. Obviously they were not. So they couldn't call him majesty that is a big mistake because they didn't respect him like that. This is why things were changed in revision.

StACEy BBy [: said...

I think even the small details that get changed, make a big difference in the way it it presented and the way it sounds. After one word changes, the whole paragraph has a different meaning. One change I came across was instead of referring to the king as a "majesty" (which is a word for respect) such as royalty, greatness, charm, etc.. They wanted to show that they had n respect for him so they changed the word "majesty" to just King. If the paragraph still contained the word "majesty" the king would feel special, and honered. However, by changing it, it made the king know that they do NOT appreciate him because of what he is doing to them.

♥ Gabby @(O.o)@ said...

The word “Colonies” is changed to states. This is because Colonies means that it is still run under the same government, but can be settled elsewhere. States is when the country is independent, and is run by their own empire. The people writing the Declaration of Independence changed with because they are hoping to become their own state, and try to find a new leader.

StACEy BBy [: said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
StACEy BBy [: said...

by the way, this is StAC3Y!!
i forgot to sign my name sorry ;]

Anonymous said...

i dont change nothing because i did not find nothing nethier did my group

lightbulb82@earthlink.net said...

"...we hold these truths to be sacred and undeniable that all men are created equal". This was changed to "...we hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal". I think this is an important change because they are saying that it isn't that equality is something they value but something they feel everyone should know and it should be obvious. This better shows their views towards slaver then sacred and undeniable.

lightbulb82@earthlink.net said...

last post by:

-Tessa Horn

sorry i forgot my name.

DaNgEr <3 (KASSIE) said...

MAKE UP HOMEWORK:
I did no changes to the revisions to the Declaration Of Independence nether did my group

Dimitri Rulez said...

Things in the declaration changed as people revised it because they thought of better things to add in such as things that most people in each colony had problems with

mizz-spoiled said...

The revisions that were in the declaration of independence changed the meaning of the document in a lot of ways. liks"deluge us in blood" was changed to "destroy us," that sentence became much more powerful.

mike ortiz said...

The changes on the Declaration of Independence did change the meaning of the document because the words that were changed were very different from the first ones. Like one revision that i noticed was the word "important" to "valuable". It is different because important means that its really important that it means something big, but valuable means that it has a price and that it has a great meaning. The sentence was " Abolishing our most important laws" which was later revised to " Abolishing our most Valuable laws". I also have with agree with Spencer when he said that even if there are words changed, it still means a lot.

Natalia said...

I think the revisions changed the document by making its meaning more powerful that it made people really think and changed the way we acted towards it. It also made it more simple to understand and I think thats what defined the meaning.

Julian Oddo said...

Thomas Jefferson wrote a different document from the Declaration of Independence that was finalized. Some states wanted some things to be taken out and some things to be added.It declared freedom from England.The first of the two changes was the word important changed to valuable. Important means that it is having great meaning and valuable means having great value in money. They also changed the word Colony to State as it represented that we were a free country.

→¤♥Tayyyyeeeee_Babbbiiieee x3♥¤← said...

There were meany changes in the Declaration. These changes made the meaninq of the Delaration much more pawerful. One chanqe I noticed was, the word "sufferd" in the sentence, "He has suffered the Administration of Justice..." was changed to "obstructed". By chanqing this word, this sentence has a new meaninq.