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Donate NowThomas Jefferson was the principal author of the Declaration of Independence, which created the United States. To celebrate the Declaration's upcoming 250th birthday on July 4, 2026, Monticello is launching Declaration Book Club, featuring short readings, lively videos, and probing questions to spark discussion of our past, present, and future as one people, created equal. What did Jefferson and his cosigners declare in 1776--and how do you pursue life, liberty, and happiness today?
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
Declaration of Independence, Second Continental Congress, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Dr. Jane Kamensky, President and CEO of Monticello
Guiding Questions
Timeline: Making and Sharing the Declaration of Independence
Reading Resources
Readings of the Declaration by veteran first-person Thomas Jefferson interpreter Bill Barker
“. . . all eyes are opened, or opening, to the rights of man. . .”
Thomas Jefferson to Roger Weightman, June 24, 1826, Monticello, Virginia, United States of America
Dr. Andrew Davenport, Vice President for Research and Saunders Director of the Robert H. Smith International Center for Jefferson Studies
Introduction: “I shall not die without hope,” Dr. Andrew Davenport
Guiding Questions
Timeline: The Declaration Reaches Middle Age
Reading Resources
After Thomas Jefferson’s Death
“I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed:
'We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.'”
Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom
Auriana Woods, Director of Monticello's Getting Word African American Oral History Project
Introduction: “What Makes Us American,” Auriana Woods
Guiding Questions
Timeline: The Declaration Around the World
Reading Resources
Monticello’s Declaration Book Club is a civic engagement initiative sponsored by and in collaboration with More Perfect.
Celebrate the legacy of American freedom and independence with our collection of Declaration of Independence products.
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