Signing Their Lives Away: The Fame and Misfortune of the Men Who Signed the Declaration of Independence, by Denise Kiernan and Joseph D’Agnese (Quirk Books, 2009). My rating: 5 of 5.
You know Jefferson, Adams, Franklin and Hancock. You might be able to name one or two more. The other signers of the Declaration of Independence are names on a document most of us have never read in full. This book gives each of them a face, a story and, often, a hard ending.
What the book covers
Kiernan and D’Agnese give each of the 56 signers a short profile. Each one covers who the man was, how he came to be in Philadelphia, and what happened to him after he put his name on a document the British Crown considered treason. Some prospered. Many lost property, health, family or freedom. The tone is light and fast, closer to a good dinner conversation than a lecture, and you can read it a few profiles at a time.
What stayed with me
July 4 is not the day they signed. Congress voted for independence on July 2 and approved the text on July 4. Most of the signers put their names on the formal engrossed copy on August 2, 1776. The men who signed were not even the same group who voted. Some had left town, and new delegates had arrived. One signed as late as 1781.
Josiah Bartlett went first, almost every time. The New Hampshire delegate cast the first vote for independence, was the first to approve the Declaration, and was the first after John Hancock to sign the engrossed copy.
New Hampshire’s early constitution. Matthew Thornton’s committee drafted the document that served as New Hampshire’s constitution until 1783, which the authors call the first written constitution adopted in America. As a lawyer, I found that a satisfying piece of trivia.
Black patriots. “As many as five thousand black Americans are believed to have fought on the patriot side during the revolution,” the authors write. The book also notes that enslaved people escaped to the British in large numbers, and that Washington and Jefferson each lost about 20 enslaved people who left to fight for the other side. The authors do not hide the contradiction at the heart of the founding.
Where “gerrymander” comes from. Elbridge Gerry signed the Declaration, later became governor of Massachusetts, and backed a redistricting plan that produced a district shaped, a cartoonist thought, like a salamander. His name has been attached to the practice ever since.
Signing had a price. The cumulative effect of the profiles is sobering. These were mostly men of property and standing. Signing put all of it at risk, and for several of them the risk came due.
Who should read it
Anyone who enjoys American history but wants it in short pieces, parents and grandparents looking for stories to tell before the Fourth of July, and teachers who want a human angle on the founding. It also makes a good gift for the history buff in your family who thinks they have read everything about 1776.
Quotes are short excerpts credited to the authors. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. The price you pay does not change. I read this book on my own, and no one asked me or paid me to review it. See Disclosures.