Five of the signers of the Declaration of Independence were captured by the British, considered to be traitors, and were tortured before they died.
The homes of twelve of the signers of the Declaration were ransacked and burned.
Two of the signers lost their sons in the Continental Army and one signer had two sons that were captured.
Nine of the 56 signers fought during the revolution and died from the wounds and hardships they experienced during the War for American Independence.
The signers of the Declaration of Independence pledged their lives, fortunes, and sacred honor.
Twenty-four of the signers were lawyers and jurists.
Eleven of the men were merchants.
Nine of the men were farmers, large plantation owners, and men of means who were well educated. Consequently, they signed the Declaration of Independence clearly knowning the penalty was death if they were captured by the British.
Carter Braxton of Virginia was a wealthy planter and trader. He saw his vessels destroyed by the British Navy. Braxton sold his home and property to pay his debts. Tragically, he died in poverty.
The British hounded Thomas McKean who was forced to constantly move his family to protect them. McKean served in Congress without compensation while he continued to hide his family. His possessions were taken from him and poverty was his reward for patriotism.
The properties of Ellery, Clymer, Hall, Walton, Gwinnett, Heyward, Rutledge, and Middleton were looted by vandals and soldiers.
Thomas Nelson Jr. was informed that British General Cornwallis had seized his home in Yorktown. His home became the headquarters of Cornwallis. At the Battle of Yorktown, he urged General George Washington to fire upon his home. The structure was destroyed and Nelson eventually died bankrupt.
The home and properties of Francis Lewis was destroyed. The British imprisoned his wife and he died within a few months of captivity.
The wife of John Hart was dying as he fled from her bedside. His thirteen children fled from the family home. His farm fields were laid waste and his grist mill was destroyed. John Hart lived in forests and caves for more than a year. Eventually when he was was able to return home; he discovered that his wife was deceased and his children gone. Within a few weeks; John Hart died from a broken heart and exhaustion.
Norris and Livingston were American patriots who suffered similiar fates.
The men who signed the Declaration of Independence were not wild-eyed, rabble-rousing ruffians. The signers were educated soft-spoken men of means. Many of these patriots had financial security before the War for American Independence but valued liberty more than their economic welfare.
They stood firm and unwavering in their convictions as 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."
These men gave us a free independent America. The is much the secular humanistic educational system has never told us of what happened during the Revolutionary War.
We were British subjects at the time we fought the British army. We were British subjects resisting the tyranny of our own government. Perhaps you should consider the reasons our Founding Fathers grew to hate a standing army and chose to ratify the Second Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America.
Amendment II (1791)
"A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed."
We must not take our liberties for granted; they are a inalienable gifts from God.
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