What did Thomas Jefferson use to write the INDEPENDENCE?

Answer 1

A quill Pen, Ink on parchment.

Answer 2

A jar of ink with a feather pointed "pen". plus a few sheets of parchment paper. The bible was probably present(for reference), a wood chair and table.

Answer 3

I'm assuming you're asking about where he got the CONTENTS (words, ideas).


If you want just one IMMEDIATE predecessor I'd say "The CONSTITUTION of Virginia". For the a major ENGLISH 'parent' I'd go back to the English Bill of Rights of 1689.

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EXPLANATION

There are actually MANY documents in the background of the U.S. Declaration of Independence which helped to shape its structure and content, and even some of its language.

It's very likely that Jefferson had access to or had by this time read some of the state constitutions that were being drafted -- many of these included statements of basic rights and a list of the reasons (the king's abuses) for their forming their own new governments. There is ALSO a good chance that some of the specific decisions about what to put in the draft were made by other members of Jefferson's committee (esp John Adams and Benjamin Franklin).

But, to begin with, if you want ONE document that may have been the most IMMEDIATE 'shaper' of the Declaration (though ITSELF going back to others), the answer would have to be the Virginia Constitution, adopted late in June 1776.


Note that there are TWO parts to the Virginia Constitution, and that each contributed to the Declaration of Independence in a different way.

The first part of the document was the "Virginia Declaration of Right"s (VDR), penned by George Mason (June 6, 1776). Some of the language in its opening paragraphs are echoed in the Declaration of Independence, though similar language was actually common in political writings of that day, indeed of the previous century. (By the way, if you continue on in the VDR, you will also see the sort of language later used in the Bill of Rights to the U.S. Constitution.)

The NEXT section was the "fundamental draft constitution". This section had actually been drafted by Jefferson himself. It began by listing GRIEVANCES which justified the state's setting up its own new government, followed by a brief sketch of the form of this new government (as we expect with a "Constitution"). The GRIEVANCE section parallels the central (main!) section of the US Declaration.


Here are copies of these texts:

Draft Constitution - http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/jeffcons.htm

A copy of Jefferson's draft, with this editor's note -- "This draft profoundly . . was THE DIRECT PREDECESSOR of the Declaration of Independence. Shown here is Jefferson's litany of abuses by King George III, a topic of great weight in the Declaration."
http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/treasures/trt003.html

The Constitution of Virginia (as passed June 29, 1776)
http://www.teachingamericanhistory.org/library/index.asp?document=105

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And here are examples of OTHER state documents that Jefferson may have read. Note esp. their lists of GRIEVANCES:

Constitution of New Hampshire - January 1776
http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/states/nh09.htm

Constitution of South Carolina - March 26, 1776
http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/states/sc01.htm

You also might also consider related language in documents from October 1774 -- from the FIRST Continental Congress. In other words, a lot of the basic contents (e.g., the complaints) and ways of expressing things were common in political and legal documents of the time.

Check these out:

Declaration and Resolves of the First Continental Congress
http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/resolves.htm

The Articles of Association
http://www.constitution.org/bcp/art_assoc.htm

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Finally, as I suggested at the start, the various documents being written in the colonies in the 1770s were themselves imitating EARLIER documents. A bit of the language about the rights of a people to establish their own government, and specific expressions about "life, liberty, property and .. happiness" echoed the writings of John Locke. But even more important to the shape and function of the colonial documents were English legal/government documents. The most important of these --and one that did much to shape the colonists' thoughts --was the "English Bill of Rights" of 1689 (explained in its formal title as "An Act Declaring the Rights and Liberties of the Subject and Settling the Succession of the Crown")
http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/england.htm

This document begins with list of GRIEVANCES/abuses (list of wrongs done by King James II, justifying his removal), followed by a list of RIGHTS, then the acknowledgment of William and Mary's rule (in light of their agreement with these 'terms'). Note that this document even FUNCTIONED much like the Declaration! It justified a major change of government, based chiefly on the listed wrongs of the monarch.

(And, as you may have guessed, its list of "rights" opposing the abuses is part of the inspiration for the many colonial letters and documents listing their complaints against the British government... including the list in the Declaration, AND later for the "Bill of Rights" for the U.S. Constitution .)

Answer 4

a quill pen?

Answer 5

his mind and the minds of four other men