(These factoids were forwarded to us by an associate. The original author is unknown.)
Have you ever wondered what happened to the 56 men who signed the Declaration of Independence?
Five 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 of the Revolutionary War.
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, Gwinett, 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 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.
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This is an old email that gets recirculated every year around this time. See http://www.snopes.com/history/american/pricepaid.asp
Reading the Snopes link, it’s interesting that none died in custody, and the reason for four of them being arrested was not because they signed, but because they were taking part in military action against the British.
Illegal combatants??
Is it too strange that EVERY facet is false??? I think James Bond 007 may have wrote this author unknown piece for the Her Majesty, the Queen’s pleasure.
There is the rosy view of history that is as easy to believe as it feels good.
Too bad it’s not.
To King George!
LOL, it’s truthiness in action!
Would that those who start wars, be their motives base or noble, suffer as much as those who fight them…
E pluribus unum.
Hopefully, including dead heros and fact checkers, alike.
Have a happy Fourth.
this is a fake and I’ve seen it many times before.
none of it is factual.
please delete.
This is almost all made up. It doesn’t even get the spelling right of some of the men it purports to honor (it’s Thomas Mckean not Mckeam, for example).
You only hurt your credibility when you post this sort of trash. How are we supposed to trust you on the hard stuff when you botch the easy stuff?
Check snopes: http://www.snopes.com/history/american/pricepaid.asp
Could you please explain how you consider yourself a journalist if you post trash like this without even googling it?
They certainly sound like insurgents trying rid their country of an unwanted occupational force to me.Ooops sorry they are the founding farthers….Strange how perspective changes.