Happy Independence Day!
Today is a day for celebration and summer fun, but have you ever wondered what happened to the 56 men who signed the Declaration of Independence?
• Five signers were captured by the British as traitors, and tortured before they died.
• Twelve had their homes ransacked and burned.
• Two lost their sons serving in the Revolutionary Army; another had two sons captured.
• Nine of the 56 fought and died from wounds or hardships from the war.
These men signed and pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor.
What Kind of Men Signed The Declaration?
Of the men who signed the Declaration, 24 were lawyers and jurists.
Eleven were merchants.
Nine were farmers or large plantation owners.
These were men of means, but they signed the Declaration of Independence knowing full well that the penalty would be death if they were captured.
Carter Braxton of Virginia, a wealthy planter and trader, saw his ships swept from the seas by the British Navy. He sold his home and properties to pay his debts and died in rags.
Thomas McKeam was so hounded by the British that he was forced to move his family almost constantly. He served in the Congress without pay, and his family was kept in hiding. His possessions were taken from him, and poverty was his reward.
Vandals or soldiers looted the properties of Dillery, Hall, Clymer, Walton, Gwinnett, Heyward, Rutledge, and Middleton.
At the battle of Yorktown , Thomas Nelson, Jr., noted that the British General Cornwallis had taken over the Nelson home for his headquarters. He quietly urged General George Washington to open fire. The home was destroyed, and Nelson died bankrupt.
Francis Lewis had his home and properties destroyed. The enemy jailed his wife, and she died within a few months.
John Hart was driven from his wife's bedside as she was dying. Their 13 children fled for their lives. His fields and his gristmill were laid to waste. For more than a year he lived in forests and caves, returning home to find his wife dead and his children vanished.
Independence Hall
What we know today as Independence Hall was built between 1732 and 1756 as the State House of the Colony of Pennsylvania.
But the building has become a part of our history because of the two great documents that took shape there.
The Declaration of Independence, which was adopted by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, set forth the founding principles of the new nation.
Eleven years later, in 1787, these principles were embodied in the United States Constitution, now the oldest written constitution in the world.
Believe it or not, in 1816 this building was saved from impending demolition. In 1948 Congress made it a new National Historical Park and in 1980, it was designated a World Heritage Site.