Independence Hall with Pictures

Independence Hall was built after the American Revolution. Before, it was the Philadelphia State House. Construction started in 1732. At that time, colonists considered themselves proudly to be Englishmen, and the economy was doing well. In the 1750s and 1760s, though, things began to fall apart. In 1754, the French and Indian war between Britain and France began, causing Britain to be bankrupt. To get money, they began taxing the colonists on tea, glass, and other essential items. But the colonists were simply colonists, so they weren't represented in Parliament. The colonists found this unfair, because they weren't being represented in Parliament, they had no control over it.

The First Continental Congress meets with delegates from each of the thirteen colonies to discuss what to do with Britain. Everyone is afraid of the elephant in the room: war with Britain. After six months, fighting breaks out at Lexington and Concord, so they hold a Second Continental Congress to discuss what to do next. They were afraid of declaring independence-after all, it was an act of treason. But all their attempts at peace failed. So they drafted five men to write the Declaration of Independence. Thomas Jefferson was the main author. On July 4th, 1776, the Second Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence. During the war, they tried to set up a new government under the Articles of Confederation. But there was hardly a national government, and the states fought. So delegates from the states met again, except for Rhode Island, at the Constitutional Convention for four months. While originally planning to "fix" the Articles of Confederation, they instead wrote an entire new Constitution with two houses and three branches of government. Checks and balances kept these three branches from becoming unequal to each other. They also debated the issue of slavery, but decided that the states would figure that out for themselves. Philadelphia was the temporary capitol, and in Independence Hall, the first floor was the House of Representatives, and the second floor was the Senate. In 1791 the Bill of Rights was added, and in 1800, the power passed peacefully between George Washington and John Adams.