In 1776, the English colonists living along the eastern seaboard of North America had had enough. They were tired of the way the British government was telling them what to do. They were tired of King George III appointing their governors to run the colonies for the king’s benefit. They were tired of their locally elected governments being dissolved if the King didn’t like their decisions. They were tired of paying tariffs and taxes imposed by a government in which they had no voice. They were tired of the lack of justice, of punitive laws violently enforced by the King’s armies. They were tired of being treated as second-class citizens in their own land. So in June, the Continental Congress appointed a committee to draft a Declaration of Independence. Thomas Jefferson, aided by some of the ablest minds in the new world, prepared a remarkable document that was signed and published on July 4, 1776.