PowerPoint Presentation - Declaration of Independence

(By Thomas Jefferson, June 1776)

Please:

Why I publish my PowerPoint Presentation?

My PowerPoint Presentation was prepared to facilitate the brainstorm session of the Congress in summer 1776.  The presentation was for internal use and confidential.  

I was surprised to learn that Mr. Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg PowerPoint Presentation was badly and unfairly criticized for “the poor slide design and the limitation of the Microsoft PowerPoint itself”.   I’m therefore publishing my presentation on this site to demonstrate that PowerPoint was a good tool for my presentation: It offered good templates and had no limitation on what I needed to present.

It was not my intention to endorse Mr.  Abraham’s work since I died on July 4, 1826 while he’s presentation was on November 19, 1863.  

How was This Presentation Prepared?

I picked template “Brainstorm Session” for my slides while trying to catch up with my schedule and spare some time to fight the horse flies (Overwhelming  –   Mr. George Wythe and a few others who helped me prepare the presentation can prove).  I reduced the number of slides from 8 (available from the template) to 5 to leave more time for my fellow delegates of the Congress to discuss.  They, unfortunately, used the extra time to cut down my draft, which made me wonder that keeping all the 8 slides could have been a better strategy.

I love the slide “Rules” the most.  I kept everything as-is from the template for this slide and added a bit of comments.   Without this wonderful template, I could have missed the presentation and this great country could have remained a humble colony.   Thank you Microsoft for saving this country!

Where was This Presentation Prepared?

I rented Jacob’s rooms for the fresh air and nice suburb view that I figured might be helpful for my writing.  Unfortunately, this arrangement really bugged me: 1) The horse flies from the stable across the street constantly came to check my progress; 2) The bed was too tiny for my mighty body; 3) I was charged extra because "the rooms are close to be finished” – despite the fact that there was  no high speed connection.

 Thank you for joining us!  Once again, Please click here to tell your friends that we are going independent.  We thank you for your support!

 Your Friend,

 Thomas Jefferson

P.S. Your comments and suggestions are welcome.  Please email me at: tjefferson@whitehouse.gov

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