Britannica Sources used in this answer

What ideas about natural rights appeared in the Declaration of Independence?

Created from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.

American Revolution *The Surrender of Lord Cornwallis* (at Yorktown, Virginia, on October 19, 1781), oil on canvas by John Trumbull, completed in 1820; in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda, Washington, D.C. The painting captures the moment when major fighting during the American Revolution ended and the colonies achieved independence.

The Declaration of Independence asserts that all individuals are created equal and are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, specifically identifying life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.12

These ideas were heavily influenced by the political philosophy of John Locke, who argued that individuals in a state of nature possess inherent rights to life, liberty, and property. The Declaration reflects the social contract theory, which posits that governments are instituted among men specifically to secure these natural rights and derive their just powers from the consent of the governed.3412

When a government persistently violates this agreement and fails to protect these fundamental rights, the document asserts that the people have both the right and the duty to alter or abolish it and establish a new government. This framework transformed individual natural rights into a collective justification for revolution and the establishment of a new body politic.145