I'm a bit late posting this, but i thought it was a pretty interesting email from my grandpa:
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 captured
•Nine of the 56 fought and died from wounds or hardships of the Revolutionary War.
They signed and they pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor. What kind of men were they?
•Twenty-four were lawyers and jurists. Eleven were merchants, nine were farmers and large plantation owners. men of means, well educated, 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, Ruttledge, 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.
Hope y'all had a wonderful 4th of July! A wildfire broke out near the state my family is at, its so dry a lot of the oaks are dying back.
