George Mason: Virginia Declaration of Rights - Milestone Documents

George Mason: Virginia Declaration of Rights

( 1776 ) Commentary by Nicole Mitchell, University of Alabama at Birmingham and Michael J. O'Neal, Ph.D.

Audience

As much for the members of the Virginia Convention and the citizens of Virginia, Mason wrote the Virginia Declaration of Rights for all American colonists. Like his contemporaries Patrick Henry, James Madison, and Thomas Jefferson, among others, Mason was outraged at the actions of the British parliament. He fully believed that all men were created equal and independent. The first American document of its kind, the Virginia Declaration of Rights appealed to what most Virginians considered their fundamental rights.

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Patrick Henry before the Virginia House of Burgesses (Library of Congress)

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