The Declaration of Independence was adopted by 12 of 13 colonies (New York not voting) on July 4, 1776, but wasn't actually signed by all the delegates until August 2, 1776. Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration of Independence and member of the Committee of Five died on July 4, 1826. John Adams, not very liked, also a committee member, died on the same day.
In a famous clause that was ultimately deleted from the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson cited the African slave trade as one of the examples of British oppression. Jefferson refers to the English government's repeated vetoes of attempts by colonial legislatures to restrict or halt the import of slaves. Virginia, especially, had profited from a great natural increase in its slave population and had no desire for a further slave "surplus" or for competition with its own profit of selling slaves to South Carolina and Georgia. By including only three-fifths of the total numbers of slaves into the congressional calculations, Southern states were actually being denied additional pro-slavery representatives in Congress. While there were a few Founding Fathers who were pro-slavery, the truth is that it was the Founders who were responsible for planting and nurturing the first seeds for the recognition of black equality and for the eventual end of slavery.
The 56 men who signed this important document in American history had only one man who signed it on July 4th. John Hancock, whose name appears above and larger than all the other names. The names of all the signers of the Declaration of Independence were kept secret by the colonists for almost a year, because the British government had offered a $2,500 reward for those men’s names, considering them guilty of high treason, a crime punishable by death! What a price for freedom, giving up everything that you loved for a cause that you believed in heart and soul.
HBO ran a series on John Adams this past weekend. It was as close to the History Channel as can get. I really enjoyed it, maybe because I did go to Independence Hall a few months ago and imagined what it was like. The mural above, by John Trumbull, was not liked at all by John Adams because he said it was false. The members were not always together at one time and they were all not very peaceful!
