ASU professor dispels myths about Declaration of Independence

Catherine O’Donnell, associate professor of history in the School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies at Arizona State University, spoke with the Arizona Republic about the Declaration of Independence. She offered information that may surprise some and lead to reflection about our nation’s birth and our sense of identity.

“Colonists thought of themselves as being Georgians or Rhode Islanders, not Americans,” she says. “Americans had been proud of being British ... Arguing for their rights as human beings, rather than as British subjects, is part of what made the declaration revolutionary and surprising.”