Declaration Of Independence Logos

How do you pick one document out of the billions in our National Archives and label it as the most important? Can you look back at your life and pick only one moment that is the most significant to you? It is a daunting task, but logic follows that the most significant moment in anyone’s life would be the moment of his or her birth, for if that never occurred then other moments could not follow. Therefore, I believe that the document that marks the birth of our nation, The Declaration of Independence, is unquestionably the most important document in our National Archives. Prior to the Declaration of Independence our country was made up of colonists living under the rule of the British Empire. These colonists were tired of living under

These principals were radical for the time in which they were written, but have inspired many other nations living under the burden of oppression to follow the examples set forth in the document in their own struggles for freedom and self-determination. While the original signers of the Declaration of Independence had a narrower definition of “the people” than we do today and it took 144 years for all citizens of the United States to be considered equal, the principles articulated in the document marked the beginning of sweeping social change not only in America but around the world. Just as the collection of photo albums, files, and old documents packed away in my parent’s attic tells the story of our family, the vast material that makes up the National Archives tells the story of our nation. While each of the items making up the Archives is important in its own right, there is no doubt that the Declaration of Independence is the most important, for it gave life to us as a free