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  1. Robert Morris -A signer of the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation and the Constitution, Morris was a Philadelphia merchant who raised money, often from his own pocket, so that George Washington could feed, clothe and pay his restless soldiers. Morris made it possible for Washington to take his troops to Yorktown, Virginia where he defeated British General Charles Cornwallis, winning the Revolutionary War.

    Morris joined the resistance against the Stamp Act (1765), an effort by Parliament to extract tax revenue from the American colonies. He supported the Non-importation Resolutions, affirming that American merchants would stop importing goods from England until the Stamp Act was repealed.

    On December 30, 1786, the Pennsylvania Assembly named him as a delegate to the Constitutional Convention. Although he faithfully attended all the meetings, he didn’t participate much in the debates. He supported ratification of the Constitution and served a term as U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania.

    He used his shipping fortune to buy land throughout the Union, and by 1795 he had acquired over 6 million acres. His aim was to promote the development of farms and towns, but European wars reduced the flow of immigrants, and settlement proceeded more slowly than he had expected. The mortgages and taxes were more than he could pay. Creditors had him arrested, and he was sentenced to Philadelphia debtor’s prison from 1798 to 1801. Humiliated and broke, he died on May 7, 1806. It was a sad end for the practical man who had done so much to help America achieve independence.


  2. Thomas Paine - Outraged by the April 1775 Battle of Lexington where the British killed American militiamen, he began working on a pamphlet. It was published in January 1776 and sold an estimated 100,000 copies within a few months. The pamphlet, Common Sense, denounced tyranny and called for American independence -- something hardly anyone had talked about until then.

    In December 1776, Americans were discouraged by defeats, and Paine wrote a stirring essay. George Washington read to his men on Christmas. This inspired them to win a much-needed battle victory against British forces in Trenton. Paine wrote more essays which became The American Crisis. The second essay coined the term "United States of America."


  3. William Franklin - Although well-liked at first, his strong attachment to England and British authority soon made him unpopular. After the American Revolution began, he sided with the Loyalists and quarreled bitterly with his father, Benjamin Franklin. The New Jersey congress ordered (1776) his arrest, and he was imprisoned in Connecticut until he was exchanged in 1778. Franklin went to England in 1782, never to return. In 1784 he was reconciled with his father.


  4. John Adams - Adams emerged into politics as an opponent of the Stamp Act and, after moving to Boston, was a leader in the Revolutionary group opposing the British measures that were to lead to the American War for Independence. Sent (1774) to the First Continental Congress, he distinguished himself, and in the Second Continental Congress he was a moderate but forceful revolutionary. He proposed George Washington as commander in chief of the Continental troops. He favored the Declaration of Independence, was a member of its drafting committee, and argued eloquently for the document. Adams was one of the negotiators who drew up the momentous Treaty of Paris (1783), ending the American War for Independence. He eventually became the second President of the United States.


  5. Isaac Sears - Sears was a leader in the resistance to the Stamp Act in New York City, helped organize the Sons of Liberty, and remained prominent in the agitation against the British during the next decade. Arrested in 1775 for anti-British activities, he was rescued at the prison door by his comrades. When news of the battle of Lexington reached New York, Sears led a mob that drove prominent loyalists from the city and seized the British arsenal. After the British capture of New York in 1776, Sears went to Boston and promoted privateering for the remainder of the war. He was later elected to the New York state assembly.


  6. Ethan Allen - Prior to the American War for Independence, he and his brothers became the leaders of the Green Mountain Boys who tried to keep unsettled land away from becoming part of the colony of New York. The Governor of New York put a price on the heads of him and two of his followers, but Ethan was not captured. After the outbreak of the American Revolution, he made the Green Mountain Boys into an independent patriot organization. Joined by Benedict Arnold and some Connecticut militia, Ethan Allen and his men captured Fort Ticonderoga from the British on May 10, 1775. Legend says that when the British officer asked him under what authority he acted, Ethan Allen roared, “In the name of the Great Jehovah and the Continental Congress!” Allen then urged an expedition against Canada, and the Green Mountain Boys tried to capture Montreal before the main Continental army arrived Ethan Allen was captured (Sept., 1775) by the British. In 1778 he was exchanged for a captured British man. He returned to Vermont, which had declared its independence from England but was not yet recognized as a state by the Continental Congress. Ethan and his brother Ira then devoted themselves to keeping Vermont from becoming part of Great Britain. Ethan Allen died before Vermont became a state of the United States.


  7. John Morton - John Morton was a political leader in the American Revolution and a signer of the Declaration of Independence for Pennsylvania. He was a member of the Pennsylvania assembly, the Stamp Act Congress, and the Continental Congress (1774–77). He died in 1777.


  8. Thomas Hutchinson - When Thomas Hutchinson was appointed royal governor in 1771, he was perhaps the most powerful man in the colony, but he had bitter political enemies among the radicals, notably Samuel Adams. Though he considered the Stamp Act and other government measures unwise, he had favored strict enforcement, and his unpopularity caused a mob to sack and burn his mansion in 1765. His unpopularity increased after he became governor, and he favored strenuous measures against the growing discontent. These views were exposed when letters he had written to English friends were made public. In 1773 he refused to let the tea-laden ships clear Boston Harbor and thus brought on the Boston Tea Party. As tension grew worse he was replaced as governor by Gen. Thomas Gage and moved to England.


  9. Sam Adams - Adams was a political leader in the American Revolution and signer of the Declaration of Independence for Massachusetts. He drafted a protest against the Stamp Act in 1765 and was one of the organizers of the non-importation agreement (1767) against Great Britain to force repeal of the Townshend Acts. He drew up the Circular Letter to the other colonies, denouncing the acts as taxation without representation. More important, he used his writing abilities in colonial newspapers and pamphlets to get people upset with the British. His writings helped to bring about the Boston Massacre. With the help of such men as John Hancock he organized the revolutionary Sons of Liberty and helped to encourage a revolt through the Committees of Correspondence. He was the moving spirit in the Boston Tea Party. In 1775 Gen. Thomas Gage issued a warrant for the arrest of Adams and Hancock, but they escaped punishment and continued to encourage moderates and liberals to take action against England. Samuel Adams was a member of the Continental Congress. After the independence from England, the political leaders said Adams was too “radical” and he was replaced by more conservative leaders, who considered Adams irresponsible. He later served as governor of Massachusetts.


  10. Joseph Warren - Joseph Warren was a political leader in the American Revolution. Warren participated in the fight against the Stamp Act (1765). He became a member of the Boston Committee of Safety and in 1774 drafted the Suffolk Resolves, encouraging forcible resistance to the British. The Suffolk Resolves was later endorsed by the Continental Congress. On the night of Apr. 18, 1775, he dispatched William Dawes and Paul Revere to warn Sam Adams and John Hancock that the British were marching on Concord. Warren was killed in the battle of Bunker Hill (1775).


  11. James Otis - James Otis was an American colonial political leader who resigned to oppose the issuing of writs of assistance by the court of Massachusetts; the writs, which authorized customs officials to search for smuggled goods, were virtually general search warrants. Arguing eloquently before the court, Otis claimed that the writs violated the natural rights of the colonials as Englishmen and that any act of Parliament violating those rights was void. Otis lost the case but soon became the leader of the radical wing of the colonial opposition to British measures. He was elected to the colonial assembly and was made head of the Massachusetts committee of correspondence. In his speeches and pamphlets, Otis defined and defended colonial rights. He proposed and participated in the Stamp Act Congress, and his ideas were used in the protests drafted by that body. Hated by the conservatives, his election as speaker of the assembly was vetoed by the royal governor. After the passage of the Townshend Acts Otis helped Samuel Adams draft the Massachusetts circular letter to the other colonies denouncing the acts. In 1769, Otis was struck on the head during a quarrel with a commissioner of customs. He subsequently became insane and took no further part in political affairs.


  12. Thomas Cushing - Thomas Cushing’s father employed Samuel Adams was for a short time. Thomas fell under the influence of Adams and became prominent among the popular leaders who were preparing the way for the Revolution. In May, 1766, he was elected to the Massachusetts assembly, and immediately afterward, when James Otis, who had been chosen speaker, was refused by Governor Bernard, Mr. Cushing was chosen speaker instead. He was speaker of the house until 1774, and as such occupied, in the eyes of the British, a prominence greater than his abilities entitled him to. Cushing was not fitted for leadership, and, on several occasions showed himself weak-kneed. In 1772, along with Hancock, he opposed the formation of committees of correspondence, and afterward refused to serve on one to which he had been appointed. He was elected in June 1774, to the first Continental congress, and in February 1775, to the second. In April 1775 the King of England instructed British General Gage to seize Cushing and send him over to England to be tried for treason. In July 1775, when Massachusetts formed a new government, Mr. Cushing was chosen a member of the council. In the Continental congress he opposed a declaration of independence. In 1783 and several following years he was lieutenant governor of Massachusetts. He was a member of the Constitutional Convention, held in January and February 1788, that ratified the Constitution.


  13. John Dickinson - John Dickinson was an American patriot and statesman. Dickinson originally led the conservative wing opposing Benjamin Franklin and defending the proprietary system. The Sugar Act and the Stamp Act led him to write a pamphlet in protest. As a member of the Stamp Act Congress he helped draw up the petitions to the king, but he opposed all violent resistance to the law. The passage of the Townshend Acts in1767 led to the colonial nonimportation agreements and the publication of Dickinson's famous Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania, which appeared in the Pennsylvania Chronicle in 1767 and 1768. He pointed out that these laws disagreed with the current English constitutional principles, but he favored trying to get a peaceful agreement with England rather than revolt. Dickinson came to be regarded as the leader of the conservative group, which opposed not only British actions but also the ideas of such radicals as Samuel Adams. He was a delegate to the First Continental Congress and drew up a petition to the king. However, he still hoped for peaceful reconciliation even after the opening of hostilities, and he refused to sign the Declaration of Independence. He continued to be the leader of the conservative patriots in Pennsylvania and Delaware and held state posts. His draft formed the basis of the Articles of Confederation. He presided over the Annapolis Convention, and in the subsequent U.S. Constitutional Convention, Dickinson was a delegate from Delaware and a leading champion of the rights of the small states. He later wrote vigorously in support of the Constitution.


  14. Joseph Galloway - Joseph Galloway was an American Loyalist leader. He entered the Pennsylvania assembly in 1756 and soon joined Benjamin Franklin in petitioning the king to abolish the proprietary government of Pennsylvania. As speaker of the Pennsylvania assembly he tried to keep peace between the colonies and the British government. He believed that the growing conflict could be settled by legal means, especially by a written constitution for the empire. Galloway served as a delegate to the first Continental Congress and proposed a plan for union between the colonies and Great Britain. Unable to keep neutrality in the American Revolution, he joined Sir William Howe after the British occupied Philadelphia and acted as civil administrator during the British occupation of the city. Later Galloway moved to England and became the spokesman of American Loyalists there.


  15. Thomas Rankin - Thomas Rankin was a British Methodist Episcopal pastor who preached that the people of the American colonies should do whatever the King of England tells them. In 1776 as he was preaching, he was told that he would be seized by a body of militia. He continued preaching, but he was not bothered. In September 1777, he fled from his church and entered the British lines. On reaching Philadelphia, which was being controlled by the British army at that time, Rankin declared from the pulpit his belief "that God would not revive his work in America until they submitted to their rightful sovereign, George III." He tried to get all the British preachers in the American colonies to return to England. After his return to England in 1778 he was supernumerary for London until a few mouths before his death.


  16. Ben Franklin - Franklin held local public offices and served for a long time in charge of the post offices for the colonies. He did such a good job of reorganizing the post offices to make them run better that he became very well-known.. He became the Pennsylvania delegate to the Albany Congress (1754) where he encouraged the colonies to work together rather than to act like separate countries. The British government did not like that idea. He was in England when the Stamp Act was passed and made the colonists angry. He protested the act but asked the colonists to obey the law. Because of that he lost some of his popularity in the colonies until he later changed his mind and started trying to England to repeal the act. As trouble between the British government and the colonies grew, Franklin's went back to America. There, while his son, William Franklin, was becoming a leader of the Loyalists, Benjamin Franklin became one of the greatest statesmen of the American Revolution. He refused to even mention that he had a son because he was so upset that his son was a Loyalist. They would not talk with each other until many years later just before Benjamin Franklin died, Benjamin Franklin was a delegate to the Continental Congress and tried to convince the people of Canada to join the patriot cause. He was appointed to the committee that drafted the Declaration of Independence, which he signed. He was chosen as one of the American diplomats to negotiate peace with Great Britain after the war.


  17. Thomas Jefferson - Thomas Jefferson worked in the Virginia House of Burgesses to encourage other political leaders to become patriots. He was a founding member of the Virginia Committee of Correspondence. He wrote a paper saying that the British Parliament had no authority in the colonies and that the American Colonies’ only bond with England was voluntary allegiance to the king. He was a delegate to the Second Continental Congress and helped to write almost the entire Declaration of Independence. He served as the Governor of Virginia through the trying last years of the American Revolution when Virginia was invaded by the British. He later became the third President of the United States.


  18. George Washington - George Washington was a member of the Virginia House of Burgesses and became a leader in Virginia among those who were against the British acts. He was a delegate to the Continental Congress. After the American Revolution broke out at Concord and Lexington, the Congress organized for defense, and, Washington was named Commander in Chief of the Continental army. He found out the American army was unorganized, poorly disciplined, and did not have much equipment. Plus, they frequently refused to follow orders, and would sometimes just go home when they did not want to fight any longer. With the colonists becoming very discouraged, Washington invaded New Jersey on Christmas night in 1776. He crossed the Delaware River, and surrounded and defeated the British at Trenton. He then went to Princeton and defeated a second British force. During the winter Washington and his army stayed at Valley Forge. Even though the army was cold and hungry, after spending time at valley Forge with Washington, they became well-trained and very devoted to him. British General Cornwallis surrendered to Washington on Oct. 19, 1781. Washington made the American Revolution successful. He later became the first President of the United States.


  19. Lord Dunmore - Lord Dunmore was the British colonial governor of Virginia. While colonists in Massachusetts and Pennsylvania were getting upset over the British laws, Lord Dunmore was having the colonists in Virginia get into battles with the Native Americans. When the news of Lexington and Concord reached Virginia, Dunmore removed the colony's gunpowder so that the people in Virginia could not shoot their guns. That made the Virginians mad. They threatened to kill him, so he ran off to stay on a ship. He declared martial law in Virginia and sent out loyal troops to attack any people who tried to fight against the British law. In July 1776 he was forced to return to England. From 1787 to 1796 he was governor of the Bahamas.


  20. James Wilson - James Wilson was a signer of the Declaration of Independence, He was a member of the Pennsylvania convention (1774) and in the following year was elected a delegate to the Continental Congress. Although he strongly believed that what the British Parliament was doing was wrong, he did not think that the colonies should declare independence until July 1776. He was very influential in writing the Constitution, making sure that the President of the United States had a lot of power. He later served in the U.S. Supreme Court.


  21. Patrick Henry - Patrick Henry was a political leader in the American Revolution, He frequently talked about how bad the Stamp Act was and in the years that followed helped get the Southern colonies to agree to declare their independence from England. He was very good at giving speeches and is famous for the lines: “If this be treason, make the most of it” and “Give me liberty or give me death.” He was a delegate to the Virginia House of Burgesses, the Continental Congress, and the Virginia provincial convention. He was the Governor of Virginia during the beginning of the American War for Independence. Henry opposed ratification of the U.S. Constitution, believing that states needed more power than the national government. He worked successfully to have the first 10 amendments (Bill of Rights) added to the Constitution.


  22. John Hancock - John Hancock was a political leader in the American Revolution and a signer of the Declaration of Independence. From an uncle he inherited Boston's leading mercantile company, and naturally he opposed the Stamp Act and other British trade restrictions. In 1768 his ship Liberty was seized because the British soldiers said he was smuggling goods. The people of Massachusetts rioted because of this, and the ship was burned. Hancock came out looking like a hero. He joined Samuel Adams in encouraging people to fight against England. In 1775, British General Thomas Gage issued a warrant for the arrest of him and Samuel Adams, but they escaped. Hancock was a member and president of the Continental Congress. His name appears first (and largest) on the Declaration of Independence, and the term “John Hancock” is often used to mean a signature. He was governor of Massachusetts.


  23. Daniel Dulany - Daniel Dulany was probably one of the most famous lawyers in the American colonies. He opposed the Stamp Act and wrote a pamphlet against the act. He lost his popularity, however, when in 1773 he wrote newspaper articles defending some the extra British fees. Dulany was a Loyalist during the Revolution and most of his property was confiscated by the state in 1781.


  24. Benjamin Thompson - Thompson remained loyal to the British. He left America in 1775 and returned to America later as a Colonial Officer in the British Army. He was in charge of the British troops in Charleston and on Long Island. Benjamin Thompson may have also acted as a British spy against the Continental army. After the war, Thompson served the elector of Bavaria. Throughout his life he continued his scientific studies regarding gunpowder, heat and light. Before leaving America, he founded a chair in physics at Harvard and established medals for physics at the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.


  25. Jonathan Boucher - Reverend Jonathan Boucher remained a strong Loyalist. For months he preached and prayed with a pair of loaded pistols beside him. A crowd of 200 men once confronted him in the new church. With a pistol in one hand he seized their leader, and together they marched to Boucher's house. Boucher was allowed to leave without harm. He returned to England with his wife in1775.


  26. Christopher Sower - Christopher Sower was accused of treason. He suffered imprisonment, abuse, and confiscation of his property as a result of clearly stating he did not think America should fight England during the Revolution.


  27. James Duane - James Duane was a political figure in the American Revolution. Although he took a cautious approach in the pre-revolutionary activities in New York City, his interest in colonial rights won him a seat in the Continental Congress. He was always very cautious in all his decisions. He served on various Revolutionary committees and helped draft the Articles of Confederation. Toward the close of the war Duane served as mayor of New York City. He was a member of the Constitutional Convention that ratified the U.S. Constitution.


  28. John Singleton Copley - When violence toward England started to get serious, Copely decided to leave Boston and study painting in Italy and England. Today Copley is considered the greatest of the early American painters.


  29. Thomas Nelson - Thomas Nelson was an American Revolutionary general and a signer of the Declaration of Independence. He was a delegate to the Continental Congress, commander of the Virginia militia in the Revolution, and governor of the state of Virginia. Nelson lost his fortune aiding the Revolutionary cause and died impoverished.


  30. Paul Revere - In the period of growing colonial discontent with British measures after the Stamp Act (1765), Paul Revere was a fervent anti-British propagandist. He early joined the Sons of Liberty, took part in the Boston Tea Party, and was a courier for the Massachusetts Committee of Correspondence. Revere became a figure of popular history because of his ride on the night of Apr. 18, 1775, to warn the people of the Massachusetts countryside that British soldiers were being sent out to start the American Revolution at the Battles of Lexington and Concord,. Revere never did reach his destination at Concord because he was captured by the British. He fought in the Continental Army, but his military career was not very good. At one point he was arrested for disobeying orders (though a court-martial later acquitted him of the charges). In 1780 he returned to silver-smithing.


  31. David George - At the beginning of the war, preachers were stopped from coming into black communities, and the minister asked David George to continue preaching in his place. George’s master’s children then taught him how to read and write so he could preach from the Bible. When his master abandoned his farm to flee British troops, George started working for the British and acted as a food broker for their troops in Savannah, Georgia. As the war drew to a close, some friendly British arranged for him to get safe passage to Canada where he would be safe and free.. He continued to preach, but was met with violent racism wherever he went. He eventually moved to Africa where he took on an important political position.


  32. Abigail Adams - Abigail Adams was the wife of John Adams. While he was drafting the Declaration of Independence, she wrote many letters to him, encouraging him to “remember the ladies” and gain political freedom for them as well. Her wish was not granted. She became one of the most distinguished and influential first ladies in the history of the United States.