imported>Josephakellogg: Kellogg was misspelled with 1 g. I added the second g

2024-07-11T18:10:43Z

Kellogg was misspelled with 1 g. I added the second g

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{{Short description|Colonial American petition against British policies}}
[[Image:Sheffield Declaration in Massachusetts Spy.JPG|thumb|Sheffield Declaration, as printed in ''The Massachusetts Spy'']]

The '''Sheffield Declaration''', also known as the '''Sheffield Resolves''', was a [[Colonial America]]n petition against British policies and manifesto for individual rights, drawn up as a series of resolves approved by the Town of [[Sheffield, Massachusetts]], on January 12, 1773 and printed in ''The Massachusetts Spy, Or, Thomas's Boston Journal'' on February 18, 1773. The meeting took place in the [[Colonel John Ashley House]], a property listed in the [[National Register of Historic Places]] in Ashley Falls, a neighborhood of Sheffield, Massachusetts.

The resolves were debated and approved by a committee of eleven local citizens: Deacon Silas Kellogg , Col. John Ashley (committee moderator), Dr. Lemuel Bernard, Aaron Root, Major John Fellows, Philip Callender, Capt. William Day, Deacon Ebenezer Smith, Capt. Nathaniel Austin, Capt. Stephen Dewey, and [[Theodore Sedgwick]], who wrote the text.<ref>James M. Banner, Jr. "Sedgwick, Theodore"; ''[[American National Biography Online]]'', February 2000.</ref>

The Declaration's [[s:Sheffield Declaration|first resolution]] was that "Mankind in a state of nature are equal, free, and independent of each other, and have a right to the undisturbed enjoyment of their lives, their liberty and property," These words are echoed in the most famous line of Thomas Jefferson's [[United States Declaration of Independence|Declaration of Independence]] three years later: "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."

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Further reading==
*Brown, Richard D. "Massachusetts Towns Reply to the Boston Committee of Correspondence, 1773". ''The William and Mary Quarterly'', Third Series, Vol. 25, No. 1 (Jan., 1968), pp. 22–39.
*Brown, Richard D. ''Revolutionary politics in Massachusetts: the Boston Committee of Correspondence and the towns, 1772–1774''. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1970.
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{{American Revolution origins}}

[[Category:Massachusetts in the American Revolution]]
[[Category:1773 in the Thirteen Colonies]]
[[Category:1773 in the Province of Massachusetts Bay]]
[[Category:1773 documents]]
[[Category:History of Berkshire County, Massachusetts]]
[[Category:Sheffield, Massachusetts]]

Sheffield Declaration - Revision history

imported>Josephakellogg: Kellogg was misspelled with 1 g. I added the second g