The Virginia Declaration of Rights, drafted in 1776, influenced the creation of the US Bill of Rights, drafted in 1789. The US Bill of Rights contains the first ten amendments to the Constitution. Since the Virginia Declaration of Rights influenced the creation of the US Bill of Rights, there are many overlapping similarities. Both the Virginia Declaration of Rights and the US Bill of Rights make declarations of the inherent equality of all "men" and that people shall not be deprived of their pursuance of life, liberty, property, or happiness. Of course, the immense irony exists that these bills were created under a system of slavery in which enslaved people held no autonomy and would be killed or severely punished for attempting to pursue their liberty or secure the autonomy of their own lives.

The Virginia Declaration of Rights, as a document, served as the opening paragraphs to the Declaration of Independence. It contains several of the amendments to the constitution that are found within the US Bill of Rights, such as freedom of press, freedom to assemble, freedom of religion, the right to bear arms, protections against cruel and unusual punishment, unlawful search and seizure, self-incrimination, and the right to a trial when facing criminal charges.

Once the United States was an official nation under the US Constitution, the US Bill of Rights was created. The Bill of Rights mirrored the declarations of rights and protections in the Virginia Declaration of Rights, but it is a less wordy document and is written less as a political declaration and more as a formally and legally binding document. Some of the wording of the rights expressed in the Virginia Declaration of Rights has been altered, and the rights found within the Bill of Rights are presented in a different numerical order than they were in the Virginia document.