- Thomas Jefferson, letter to Henry Lee, May 8, 1825, in The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, ed. Paul Leicester Ford (New York: Knickerbocker Press, 1899), 10:343, quoted in Pauline Maier, American Scripture: Making the Declaration of Independence (New York: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 1997).
- Thomas Jefferson, letter to James Madison, August 30, 1823, in The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, ed. Paul Leicester Ford (New York: Knickerbocker Press, 1899), 10:268, quoted in Maier, American Scripture.
- Maier, American Scripture, 101–2.
- Danielle Allen, Our Declaration: A Reading of the Declaration of Independence in Defense of Equality (New York: Liveright, 2014), 47.
- Allen, Our Declaration, 59; and John Adams, diary, 25:6–7, [February?] 1776, Adams Family Papers, Massachusetts Historical Society.
- Worthington Chauncey Ford, ed., Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774–1789 (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1904–37), 3:319.
- Allen, Our Declaration, 58–60; and John Adams, “From John Adams to Richard Henry Lee, 15 November 1775,” Founders Online, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/06-03-02-0163.
- The text in brackets was deleted. Founders Online, “IV. A Proclamation by the General Court, 19 January 1776,” https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/06-03-02-0195-0005.
- Allen, Our Declaration, 59.
- Founders Online, “III. Thoughts on Government, April 1776,” https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/06-04-02-0026-0004.
- Cicero, On Laws, 3.3.8.
- John Adams, “[Wednesday May 15. 1776],” Founders Online, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/01-03-02-0016-0120.
- John Locke, Second Treatise of Government (1690; Indianapolis, IN: Hackett Publishing Company, 1980), chap. 2.6, https://www.gutenberg.org/files/7370/7370-h/7370-h.htm.
- Lund Washington, “To George Washington from Lund Washington, 3 December 1775,” Founders Online, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/03-02-02-0434.
- Abigail Adams, “Abigail Adams to John Adams, 31 March 1776,” Founders Online, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/04-01-02-0241.
- John Adams, “[Notes of Debates on the Articles of Confederation, Continued] July 30. 1776.,” Founders Online, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/01-02-02-0006-0008-0003.
- Virginia Declaration of Rights, § 1.
- Eric Slauter, “The Declaration of Independence and the New Nation,” in The Cambridge Companion to Thomas Jefferson, ed. Frank Shuffelton (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2009), 27–28.
- Danielle Allen, “A Forgotten Black Founding Father,” The Atlantic, February 10, 2021, https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2021/03/prince-hall-forgottenfounder/617791.
- Massachusetts Historical Society, “Petition for Freedom to the Massachusetts Council and the House of Representatives, January 13, 1777,” https://www.masshist.org/database/557.
- Vt. Const. ch. I, art. I.
- Mass. Const. pmbl.; and Mass. Const. pt. I, art. I.
- Allen, Our Declaration, 137.
- Museum of the American Revolution, “When Women Lost the Vote: A Revolutionary Story, 1776–1807,” https://www.amrevmuseum.org/virtualexhibits/whenwomen-lost-the-vote-a-revolutionary-story.
- James Sullivan, “To John Adams from James Sullivan, 9 May 1776,” Founders Online, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/06-04-02-0075.
- John Adams, “From John Adams to James Sullivan, 26 May 1776,” Founders Online, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/06-04-02-0091.
- Adams, “Abigail Adams to John Adams, 31 March 1776.”
- Adams, “Abigail Adams to John Adams, 31 March 1776.”
- John Adams, “John Adams to Abigail Adams, 14 April 1776,” Founders Online, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/04-01-02-0248.
- Annette Gordon-Reed and Peter S. Onuf, “Most Blessed of the Patriarchs”: Thomas Jefferson and the Empire of the Imagination (New York: Liveright, 2016).
- Abigail Adams, “Abigail Adams to John Adams, 7 May 1776,” Founders Online, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/04-01-02-0259.
Portions of this chapter draw on Allen, Our Declaration.