The Virginia Declaration of Rights was written by George Mason in 1776, and it laid the foundation for the opening paragraphs of the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights (the first 10 amendments of the U.S. Constitution). In this essay, you will compare the three documents and highlight some of the similarities they share. This will demonstrate how the Virginia Declaration of Rights influenced the later documents, and, by extension, how influential Virginia was to the founding of the United States.
You will compare the Virginia Declaration of Rights with the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights and write an essay discussing the similarities between them. The required paper length does not include the title page or bibliography.
You should discuss at least two similarities the Virginia Declaration of Rights shares with the Declaration of Independence, and at least two similarities the Virginia Declaration of Rights shares with the Bill of Rights.
The assigned documents can be found on the National Archives website. ****Direct links are listed in the Founding Documents Essay Resources for this assignment. ****These three documents should be the only sources consulted for this assignment, as all the analysis present in this essay should be original to you.
