What is the significance of Thomas Jefferson replacing the word subjects wit citizens?

Answer 1

But in a moment when history took a sharp turn, Jefferson sought quite methodically to expunge the word, to wipe it out of existence and write over it. Many words were crossed out and replaced in the draft, but only one was obliterated.

Over the smudge, Jefferson then wrote the word "citizens."

No longer subjects to the crown, the colonists became something different: a people whose allegiance was to one another, not to a faraway monarch.

Scholars of the revolution have long speculated about the "citizens" smear -- wondering whether the erased word was "patriots" or "residents" -- but now the Library of Congress has determined that the change was far more dramatic.

Using a modified version of the kind of spectral imaging technology developed for the military and for monitoring agriculture, research scientists teased apart the mystery and reconstructed the word that Jefferson banished in 1776.

"Seldom can we re-create a moment in history in such a dramatic and living way," Library of Congress preservation director Dianne van der Reyden said at Friday's announcement of the discovery.

Answer 2

Thomas Jefferson replacing the word "subjects" with "citizens" in the Declaration of Independence was significant because it emphasized the idea of self-governance and individual rights. It shifted the focus from a monarchy and a population ruled by a king to a nation of individuals with inherent rights and the power to govern themselves. This change reflected the broader ideals of democracy and was a fundamental shift in the conceptualization of government.