VA, USA
Richard Henry Lee Proposes Independence Resolution
June 7, 1776
Acting on instructions from the Virginia Convention in Williamsburg, Richard Henry Lee introduced a resolution in the Continental Congress declaring "that these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States." The resolution, which had been authorized by Virginia's revolutionary government, set the formal process of declaring independence in motion.
The Congress delayed the vote to allow time for other colonial delegations to receive authorization from their home governments. When the vote came on July 2, 1776, Lee's resolution passed. The Virginia Convention's decision to instruct its delegates to propose independence — made in Williamsburg weeks earlier — was the political act that triggered the Declaration.
People Involved
Virginia's most electrifying revolutionary orator, whose speeches in the House of Burgesses against the Stamp Act and later cry of "Give me liberty, or give me death" helped galvanize colonial resistance. He served as the first and sixth governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia.