Michael Hattem

And he says that the blow given by the Congress appears to be leveled at his majesty, but the wound was intended for us.

So there is a real sense of people in Britain taking the declaration personally, as a personal insult, just like they took the colonists' resistance and protests against parliamentary legislation as sort of personal insults to everyday Britons.

Absolutely.

And I mean, it goes back to the 1700s because there was an enormous amount of literature that explored the natural history and the potential of North America and lots of

literature aimed at trying to convince people to go to North America, right?

So there is a really, really long tradition of that.

But it's also the case that just that by the 1770s, the colonies of North America accounted for a significant portion of the British imperial economy.

Particularly by, one, providing raw materials and then buying the finished goods that were manufactured in England.

And so for the British, that's the thing that they're fighting to maintain.

It's not an ideological war for them.

They still want their war debt paid off.

Yeah, it's a matter of maintaining this important part of our economy, basically.

Right.

Yeah, that is a really interesting question.

So the first printing of the Declaration is done by John Dunlap, who's a printer in Philadelphia.

He did a lot of printing for the Congress.

And on July 4th, as soon as the document is voted on and finalized, it's sent over to Dunlap to make these broadsides.

A broadside is a one-sheet.

It's just a one-sheet publication.

And that could be...