The fifty-six signers of America's Declaration of Independence risked their “lives, fortunes, and sacred honor” to found a new country. In this classic work, Benson J. Lossing describes the lives of each of the founding fathers, their greatest achievements, and what impelled them to take such an incredible risk. While some are well known to us – Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, John Hancock – much of the pleasure in this book comes from reading about the lesser-known signers, and about the many challenges they faced throughout their lives in the young United States. Appendices contain Thomas Jefferson's original version of the Declaration, an analysis of its grievances, the subsequent Articles of Confederation and US Constitution, and the offending Stamp Act. This ebook edition includes an active table of contents, reflowable text, and 50 period engravings of the faces and signatures of the signers.Table of Contents: • Introduction. • New Hampshire: Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton. • Massachusetts: John Hancock, John Adams, Samuel Adams, Robert Treat Paine. • Rhode Island: Elbridge Gerry, Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery. • Connecticut: Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott. • New York: William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris. • New Jersey: Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark. • Pennsylvania: Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross. • Delaware: Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean. • Maryland: Samuel Chase, Thomas Stone, William Paca, Charles Carroll, of Carrollton. • Virginia: George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton. • North Carolina: William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn. • South Carolina: Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton. • Georgia: Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton. • Robert R. Livingston, (of New York, not a signer). • The Declaration of Independence. • Articles of Confederation. • The Federal Constitution. • The Stamp Act. • Names of Delegates to the Constitutional Convention.