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The Price They Paid
Author: Unknown
not copyrighted
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 in the revolutionary army.
One had two sons captured.
Nine of the 56 fought and died from wounds or hardships of the revolutionary
war.
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 or both, looted the properties of Ellery, Clymer,
Hall, 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.
The owner 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. A few weeks later
he died from exhaustion and a broken heart.
Norris and Livingston suffered similar fates.
Such were the stories and sacrifices of the American Revolution.
What kind of men were they?
Twenty-four were lawyers and jurists. Eleven were merchants. Nine were
farmers and large plantation owners, They signed the Declaration of Independence
knowing full well that the penalty would be death if they were captured.
They were not wild eyed, rabble-rousing ruffians. They were soft-spoken
men of means and education. They had security, but they valued liberty
more. Standing tall, straight, and unwavering, they pledged:
"For the support of this declaration, with firm reliance on the protection
of the divine providence, we mutually pledge to each other, our lives,
our fortunes, and our sacred honor."
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