Before one reads and accepts this article as fact,  one needs to read an
additional
one at this site:
http://www.ctssar.org/articles/price_paid.htm

which is comments and corrections on the article on the email below by E.
Brooke Harlowe, Asst. Prof. and Coordinator, Intl Studies major/minor,
Dept. of Political Science,  Susquehanna University, Selinsgrove PA 17870.

Melba
-----Original Message-----
Date: Saturday, June 24, 2000 8:21 PM
Subject: RE: Signer's of Declaration of Independence


I ran across the below info. researching a signer of the Declaration of
>Independence and found it quite interesting.
>
>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 sons 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. A few weeks later he
>died from exhaustion and a broken heart.  John Hart died in 1779, without
>ever seeing his family again. Norris and Livingston suffered similar fates.
>
>Such were the stories and sacrifices of the American Revolution.  These
>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."
>
>They gave you and me a free and independent America. The history books
>never told you a lot about what happened in the Revolutionary War.  We
didn't
>fight just the British. We were British subjects at that time and we fought
>our own government!
>
>
>==============================
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==============================
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