Here are a few places to go to get detail about those allegations.
- Volokh Conspiracy: The Declaration of Independence annotated.
- Founding.com: Annotated Versions.
- Chapman.edu: The Declaration of Independence, Annotated.
- Patriots Line: The Declaration of Independence – The Grievances.
And for a look at the grievances from the other side:
- A Loyalist’s Rebuttal to the DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE.
The author is Thomas Hutchinson. Here is his rebuttal to the opening paragraph, I highlighted an interesting observation of his:
They begin, my Lord, with a false hypothesis, That the Colonies are one distinct people and the kingdom another, connected by political bands. The Colonies, politically considered, never were a distinct people from the kingdom. There never has been but one political band, and that was just the same before the first Colonists emigrated as it has been ever since, the Supreme Legislative Authority [Parliament], which hath essential right and is indispensably bound to keep all parts of the Empire entire until there may be a separation consistent with the general good of the Empire, of which good, from the nature of government, this authority must be the sole judge. I should therefore be impertinent if I attempted to show in what case a whole people may be justified in rising up in oppugnation [opposition] to the powers of government, altering or abolishing them and substituting, in whole or in part, new powers in their stead; or in what sense all men are created equal, or how far life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness may be said to be unalienable. Only I could wish to ask the Delegates of Maryland, Virginia, and the Carolinas how their Constituents justify the depriving more than an hundred thousand Africans of their rights to liberty and the pursuit of happiness, and in some degree to their lives, if these rights are so absolutely unalienable; nor shall I attempt to confute the absurd notions of government or to expose the equivocal or inconclusive expressions contained in this Declaration; but rather to show the false representation made of the facts which are alleged to be the evidence of injuries and usurpations, and the special motives to Rebellion. There are many of them, with designs, left obscure; for as soon as they are developed, instead of justifying, they rather aggravate the criminality of this Revolt.
For the original draft of the document, click here.
