History
The Forgotten Declaration of Independence Signers Who Lost Everything for Signing
July 4th celebrates the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Yet these men lost most everything for signing and defying the British Crown.
Arthur Middleton
Public Domain Arthur Middleton was Cambridge educated, traveling widely in Europe before participating in any revolutionary function. Middleton was voted to succeed his father as delegate in the Continental Congress, thereby eventually becoming a signatory of the Declaration.
Following the start of the war, Middleton served in the defense of Charleston, South Carolina. There he was subsequently captured by the British in 1780 at the Siege of Charleston. Middleton was sent as a prisoner to St. Augustine, Florida – joining the aforementioned Edward Rutledge and Thomas Hayward, Jr. Middleton was released by prisoner exchange the next year.
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Lyman Hall
Public Domain Originally from Connecticut, Lyman Hall migrated first to South Carolina and then to Georgia after exchanging the pulpit for a doctor’s bag. The town in which Hall settled, Sunbury, sent him as their delegate to the Second Continental Congress, as Georgia had not been represented in the first. As such, Hall signed the Declaration, one of three physicians to do so.
For Hall and his town’s trouble to get Georgia included in that famous delegation, Sunbury – located in St. John’s Parish – was burned to the ground by British troops, forcing Hall and his family to flee north until the end of the conflict.
The Declaration of Independence and Remembering Those Who Paid the Ultimate Price
In this week where each American takes to the best of summer, we also reflect upon the deeds of those figures that gambled everything to achieve a better form of governance. We hear a great deal about Washington, Jefferson, Hamilton and Franklin. However it must never be forgotten that fate and history were far better to these men than many of their compatriots. While the price was high for many of these revolutionaries, they managed to remarkably hang together throughout this struggle. For if they had not, they most definitely would have hung separately. To them and all who have followed in the American experiment, may we never find our gratitude lost to posterity.
Kristen E. Strubberg contributed to this article
Write to Paul K. DiCostanzo at pdicostanzo@tgnreview.com
