A chunk of Jefferson's argument comes through the juxtaposition between the colonies and the British, where the British are oppressors of the suffering colonists, naturally.

Jefferson begins the text with many sentences that are thinly veiled as broad philosophical statements, but are clearly meant to reference the current situation. Why would he write about the nature of government, and that people should dismantle their government if it turns to "absolute Despotism" (6), if it didn't apply to the Americans?

The answer is he wouldn't, of course. That would be weird.

Finally, Jefferson gets down to business (to defeat the Huns…wait, sorry—wrong century and continent). After all that nice talk about people's right and what government should do, he adds: "The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States" (8). This is a pretty big accusation against the king, and sets up the colonies as victims, or at the very least opponents.

Jefferson continues with many, many examples of the king's misdeeds, such as: "He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures" (20).

Let's dissect this particular example. What do we learn from it?

• Jefferson doesn't seem to feel that the army has any real connection to the colonies, even though at the time this event occurred, the British army was the colonies' army as well.
• The king is doing something the colonies did not agree to.
• The king is putting a military body in the colonies against their will, which is a fishy thing to do to your own subjects.

Each of these accusations casts the king, and therefore the British government, in a bad light by talking about the bad things it has done to the colonists. Jefferson reminds the readers that, "In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury" (38).

Again, it's colonists versus the British, and the colonists get bulldozed by mean ol' Britain.

To drive the point home, Jefferson spends a whole paragraph reminding everyone that the colonists tried to bypass the government and appeal to the common folk of Britain, their fellow subjects, and were ignored there too.

All of these reminders and accusations and statements set up a struggle between Britain and the colonies, the oppressors and the oppressed, the longtime champion vs. the underdog. By fostering this sense of us vs. them, Jefferson can further justify declaring independence, and remind the colonists why they agreed to this crazy idea in the first place.