The New York Public Library holds in its vast collections one of the most important documents in American history: an original manuscript of the Declaration of Independence handwritten by Thomas Jefferson. In addition to being a cornerstone of our country, the Declaration of Independence is one of the great documents of the human intellect and has laid the foundation of democratic movements that have transformed the world for more than two centuries. 

In celebration of the birth of the United States and the democratic values upon which it was founded, the Library is honored to share this renowned historical treasure with Library visitors for a limited time. This copy of the Declaration of Independence is significant not only for its historical importance, but also for the language it contains, which is different from the version that was eventually ratified on July 4, 1776. Notably, Jefferson's copy includes a lengthy condemnation of the slave trade:

"he [the king of Great Britain] has waged cruel war against human nature itself, violating it’s most sacred rights of life & liberty in the persons of a distant people who never offended him, captivating & carrying them into slavery in another hemisphere, or to incur miserable death in their transportation thither. this piratical warfare, the opprobrium of infidel powers, is the warfare of the CHRISTIAN king of Great Britain. determined to keep open a market where MEN should be bought & sold, he has prostituted his negative for suppressing every legislative attempt to prohibit or to restrain this execrable commerce: and that this assemblage of horrors might want no fact of distinguished die, he is now exciting those very people to rise in arms among us, and to purchase that liberty of which he has deprived them, by murdering the people upon whom he also obtruded them; thus paying off former crimes committed against the liberties of one people, with crimes which he urges them to commit against the lives of another."

But before the Declaration of Independence was ratified, this passage was removed; its excision was intended primarily to appease the delegates from Georgia and South Carolina. Jefferson was distressed by the alterations to his text, and in the days immediately following July 4 he made copies of the complete text that had been submitted to Congress. These copies were sent to his fellow Virginia delegates who had been absent from the proceedings, Richard Henry Lee and George Wythe. The Library's copy of the Declaration in Jefferson's own hand is one of these very copies in which the author reinserted the portions that had been changed by Congress. Jefferson's copy of the Declaration of Independence has been safely preserved by The New York Public Library since it arrived as part of the collection of Dr. Thomas Addis Emmet in 1897.

These changes, and others, shine a light on the fascinating politics of the Continental Congress and the American Revolution. You can read more about the document and its historical context, and plan your visit to see this piece of American history in person.