Timeline of events leading to the American Civil War colonial period in Virginia, slavery had been a part of the socioeconomic system of British North America and was recognized in the Thirteen Colonies at the time of the United States' Declaration of Independence (1776). Since then, events and statements by politicians and others brought forth differences, tensions and divisions between the people of the slave states of the Southern United States and the people of the free states of the Northern United States (including Western states) over the topics of slavery. The large underlying issue from which other issues developed was whether slavery should be retained and even expanded
United States Declaration of Independence that the Declaration of Independence was signed. The adoption of the Declaration of Independence was dramatized in the 1969 Tony Award–winning musical "1776" and the 1972 film version, as well as in the 2008 television miniseries "John Adams". In 1970, The 5th Dimension recorded the opening of the Declaration on their album "Portrait" in the song "Declaration". It was first performed on the "Ed Sullivan Show" on December 7, 1969, and it was taken as a song of protest against the Vietnam War. The Declaration of Independence is also a plot device in the 2004 American film "National Treasure". United