You've never declared independence. Worth noting, by the way, that the Congress edited out more than a quarter of Jefferson's original declaration, and he forever after insisted that they'd, quote, mangled it. Anyway, I would argue the heavy lifting of the American Revolution was already done by the declaration. In truth, by the time the shooting started, most of the colonists were already self-governing and had developed a sense of themselves as something separate and different from Great Britain, as evidenced by these Committees of Correspondence, which functioned as shadow governments, eventually reaching out to foreign governments, establishing an espionage network, tarring and feathering loyalists and royal officials, which, by the way, is incredibly painful and dangerous to the victim, and even recruiting physicians to tell American men that drinking British tea would make them weak and effeminate. Thanks, Thought Bubble. Now, despite all this, about 20% of colonists remained loyal to Great Britain throughout the war, especially in the major cities that Britain occupied. Also, lots of slaves continued to support the British, especially after Britain promised that any slaves who fought with them would be freed.