Why Did America Declare Independence? (It Wasn’t Taxes)

Most people learn that the American Revolution began over taxes. But the real conflict was much deeper: who has the right to rule?
 

Timothy Sandefur

Timothy Sandefur is vice president for legal affairs at the Goldwater Institute, where he holds the Clarence J. and Katherine P. Duncan Chair in Constitutional Government. He has litigated important cases involving economic liberty, private property, and other individual rights in courts nationwide. He is also the author of several books, including Freedom’s Furies: How Isabel Paterson, Rose Wilder Lane, and Ayn Rand Found Liberty in an Age of Darkness (2023), Frederick Douglass: Self-​Made Man (2018), and Cornerstone of Liberty: Property Rights in 21st- Century America (second edition, coauthored with Christina Sandefur), as well as scores of scholarly articles on a wide range of subjects.

He has written for Reason, National Review, The Wall Street Journal, The Weekly Standard, and The Objective Standard, where he is a contributing editor. He has taught at Pepperdine University, University of the Pacific’s McGeorge School of Law, George Mason University, and Arizona State University, where he held the 2023–2024 Barry Goldwater Chair in American Institutions.

Barbara Galletti
Senior Producer, Lib​er​tar​i​an​ism​.org

Barbara Galletti is the Senior Producer of Lib​er​tar​i​an​ism​.org. Over the past decade, she has worked toward the dissemination of the ideas of liberty and making complex information more accessible. She holds a BA in Law from Universidad de Lima and an MS in Media Science from Boston University.

In this interview, we explore the ideas behind the Declaration of Independence — from the fight over Parliament’s power, to the philosophy of natural rights, to why the words “all men are created equal” became an inspiration far beyond America’s borders.

The Declaration was not just a political document announcing independence. It was a statement about the limits of power and the rights of individuals — ideas that continue to shape debates about freedom today.