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Honorable Treason: The Declaration of Independence and the Men Who Signed It
HARDCOVER - SPINE NOT CREASED HAS LITTLE SHELF WEAR - TIGHT BINDING - NO DUST JACKET - NO WRITING - CLEAN TEXT - SPINE OF PAGES HAS FEW WATER STAINS - LITTLE SHELF WEAR TO CORNERS AND SIDES - 1976 - NOT EX LIBRARY - NOT A REMAINDER - I SHIP DAILY AND TRACKING IS GUARANTEED!!
- GenresHistory
252 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1976
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About the author
David Freeman Hawke
25 books5 followersDavid Freeman Hawke was professor emeritus of American history at Lehman College of the City University of New York, where he taught from 1972 until his retirement in 1986.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
June 1, 2013
Author Hawke, an expert on the Declaration of Independence, has assembled here brief biographies of all 56 signers of the Declaration, tying the whole together with a narrative covering the period from the earliest agitations in the colonies until the formal affixing of the final signature. His stated intent is not so much to give the facts about each signatory, those being available in standard reference books, but some sense of their characters.
What I learned included the following:
-At no time were all the signers at the same place at the same time.
-Virtually all of them were well-to-do men, some quite wealthy
-Virtually all were married with very many children, often by more than one woman.
-While we know how the colonies voted on independence, we do not necessarily know how all the delegates voted. Some signatories apparently did not vote for independence, only changing their minds later.
-Only one Catholic signed.
-The commonest profession was that of lawyer.
-Presbyterians were prominent.
-Many, and not just Southerners, were slaveholders.
-July 4th was not the day the delegates voted for independence, nor was it the occasion of either the presentation or of the signing of the declaration. So far as John Adams was concerned, July 2nd was to be celebrated as Independence Day.
-Jefferson's original text was strongly against slavery and the excision of this was the greatest change effected by the Congress.
Given the shortness of most of the biographies, this would be an ideal book for the bathroom or for such persons who read for less than fifteen minutes upon going to bed.
What I learned included the following:
-At no time were all the signers at the same place at the same time.
-Virtually all of them were well-to-do men, some quite wealthy
-Virtually all were married with very many children, often by more than one woman.
-While we know how the colonies voted on independence, we do not necessarily know how all the delegates voted. Some signatories apparently did not vote for independence, only changing their minds later.
-Only one Catholic signed.
-The commonest profession was that of lawyer.
-Presbyterians were prominent.
-Many, and not just Southerners, were slaveholders.
-July 4th was not the day the delegates voted for independence, nor was it the occasion of either the presentation or of the signing of the declaration. So far as John Adams was concerned, July 2nd was to be celebrated as Independence Day.
-Jefferson's original text was strongly against slavery and the excision of this was the greatest change effected by the Congress.
Given the shortness of most of the biographies, this would be an ideal book for the bathroom or for such persons who read for less than fifteen minutes upon going to bed.
Displaying 1 of 1 review