The history books in school never told you a lot of what happened during the Revolutionary War. We didn’t fight just the British. We were truly British subjects that time in history, and we fought our own government for the birth of our new nation. To succeed from Britain and gain our independence we paid a heavy price for our liberties.
Today, some people take these liberties to much for granted, and most do not know the true price that was originally paid, and is still being paid today on a daily basis to sustain our liberties that we all share in this great country of ours.
Whatever happened to the 56 patriotic men after they signed the Declaration of Independence?
Five that signed were captured as traitors by the British, and tortured before they died.
Twelve had their homes ransacked, then burned. Two lost their sons serving in the Revolutionary Army, and another had two sons captured. Nine of the 56 fought and died in the Revolutionary War from wounds or hardships.
They signed and they patriotically pledged their lives, fortunes, and their sacred honor for their new country. What kind of men were they?
Twenty-four of them were lawyers and jurists. Eleven were merchants of various trades, nine were farmer owners of large plantations: men of means, and very well educated. They signed the Declaration of Independence knowing fully well that the ultimate penalty would be death if they were captured by the British during the war.
Carter Braxton of Virginia, a wealthy planter and trader watched his ships swept from the seas by the British Navy. After that, he sold his home and property to pay his debts and died penniless.
Thomas McKeam was so hounded and stalked by the British that he moved his family almost constantly. He served in the Congress without any pay, as he kept his family in hiding. All his possessions were taken from him, and poverty was his ultimate reward.
It was said that vandals or soldiers looted the properties of Dillery Hall, Clymer, Walton, Gwinett, Heyward, Ruttledge, and Middleton. In the battle of Yorktown, Thomas Nelson Jr. wrote; “The British General Cornwallis has taken over my home and is using it for his headquarters.” He somberly urged General George Washington to open fire. The home was destroyed, and Nelson died bankrupt and in poverty.
Francis Lewis had his home and property destroyed as well. The British jailed his wife, and she died within a few months afterwards. John Hart and his 13 children had to flee from his wife’s bedside as she was dying, because of a British attack of their home. His fields and his gristmill were burned and laid to waste. Afterwards, for more than a year he lived in caves in the forest, then returning to find his wife dead and his children vanished. In just a few weeks after he died from exhaustion and a broken heart. Norris and Livingston endured similar fates.
These are their stories and the sacrifices our forefathers made during the American Revolution. These men were not wild-eyed, terrorists. They truly were soft-spoken men of means and education. They already had made their fortunes and security, but they valued liberty more! They stood tall and straight, and unwavering, as they patriotically pledged: “For the support of the 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. That was their patriot gift in forming a new nation with liberty and justice for all that we still enjoy to this day.
So I ask you to please always remember; Freedom is truly never free! Patriotism is (NOT) a sin, and the Fourth of July has always had more to it than fireworks, beer, picnics, baseball games, and another holiday off.
I pray that you will truly show your patriotic support for our great country this and every 4th of July holiday to come, and silently thank God for the patriots who serve today and throughout our history for the freedoms that we all enjoy.
