The great American experiment, 250 years in the making, is certainly something to celebrate! It’s amazing to me to think of the courage it took for the founding fathers to draft and sign the Declaration of Independence, knowing that they were making themselves targets of violence and ridicule. At least 30% of the colonists at the time were opposed to independence and subjected many of the signers to cruel treatment and conspired with the British to punish them.

Many people know the more famous names who went on to author the Articles of Confederation, the Federalist papers, and eventually the Constitution, but some delegates of the Continental Congress suffered a worse fate and aren’t spoken of as often. For instance, one of New York’s delegates, Francis Lewis, had his home destroyed and his wife taken prisoner as retribution for taking a stand against the king. Arthur Middleton of South Carolina, Thomas Nelson of Virginia, and Richard Stockton of New Jersey lost their homes or lives — or both — after being attacked by Loyalists.

Perhaps people forget about the thread of anti-independence that ran through the colonies because we prefer to think that everyone saw the immediate wisdom of the principles of liberty, equality, and rule by the........

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