Documents of the American Founding

The Colonial Heritage Foundation reproduces dozens of significant to the American founding. Our reproductions are all printed on an English Common Press, the most popular kind of printing press in North America during the American founding. At this site, you will be able to see images of the originals along images of the reproductions. Each document has a description of its role in the American founding along with a description of its historical context.

The Declaration of Independence

Three versions of the Declaration of Independence are presented here. In order of publication, these are:

The Dunlap Broadside (printed July 4, 1776). This is the first printed version.
The Massachusetts Spy (printed July 14. 1776). This is the most widely circulated printing.
The Goddard Broadside (Printed January, 1777). This is the first "official" printing.

It may be difficult to overstate the effect that the Declaration of Independence had on the minds of people living in America in 1776. By some estimates, prior to the publication of the Declaration, only about 30 percent of American's favored independence over reconciliation. Within a month of July fourth, that number had doubled.

The Constitution

Two versions of the US Constitution are presented here:

Secret First Draft (printed August, 1787). After the Federal Convention debated several proposals for a new constitution, it organized a committee of detail to write a cohesive document using the ideas agreed upon from the various proposals. Their work comprised 23 articles and was secretly printed by John Dunlap and David Claypoole. This version of the Constitution was a working draft, intended for use only in convention discussion.
The First Massachusetts printing (printed September, 1797). Printed by Benjamin Edes and Jonathan Gill, this printing of the proposed constitution accompanies a resolution by the Federal Convention that the Constitution be sent out for ratification as well as a letter from George Washington appealing to the people of the United States of America to ratify the constitution.

By 1787, the thirteen American States were anything but united. Disagreements between the states over trade, navigation rights, paper money, and more left many people wondering if the Union could endure. After Shays' Rebellion in western Massachusetts, it became clear that major adjustments needed to be made to the method of government if the thirteen states were to continue as a single federation.

The printed word was extremely important to the founding of America. Although the literacy rate in eighteenth-century European cities was about 50 percent while in America, the rate approximates 90 percent. Per capita, there are more printing presses in 18th century America than there are anywhere else in the world. New ideas about both the origin of government and its proper role are spread throughout the American colonies through the network of newspapers. Always eager for new content to print, newspaper publishers often subscribed to may other news papers from different colonies and would have no hesitation in reprinting an article they though their readership would appreciate. In this way, a article submitted to a single newspaper in Boston could have been read through out the colonies in a few months.