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"Our Lives, Our Fortunes, and Our Sacred Honor"
Very few of the fifty-six men who signed the Declaration of Independence knew each other before the Continental Congress convened. For some, the trip to Philadelphia was their first experience outside of their own colony. Among the signers, there were twenty-four lawyers, twelve merchants, four physicians, and two ministers. Musician Francis Hopkinson of New Jersey and printer and scientist Benjamin Franklin also signed their names. More than half were slave owners, including many wealthy planters like Jefferson, who held hundreds of slaves. The average age was forty-four -- Franklin was the oldest at seventy, and South Carolina delegate Thomas Lynch, Jr., was the youngest at twenty-six. Eight of the signers were born in the British Isles. |