Introduces readers to the lives of the fifty-six men who signed the Declaration of Independence, describing who they were, their professions, and how their lives changed in the years that followed.

Introduction -- A clarification : the real Independence Day -- I : New Hampshire -- Josiah Bartlett : the signer immortalized on The West Wing -- William Whipple : the signer who fought for freedom with his slave -- Matthew Thornton : the signer who led "The Nation of New Hampshire" -- II : Massachusetts -- John Adams : the signer everyone loved to hate -- Samuel Adams : the signer whose brewery went bust -- Elbridge Gerry : the signer who gave us gerrymandering -- John Hancock : the signer who signed first -- Robert Treat Paine : the signer who objected to, well, everything -- III : Rhode Island -- William Ellery : the signer who was two degrees from Kevin Bacon -- Stephen Hopkins : the signer with the worst penmanship -- Samuel Huntington : the signer who became the first U.S. President - sort of -- Roger Sherman : the signer who signed everything -- William Williams : the signer who was certain he would hang -- Oliver Wolcott : the signer who melted King George's heart (and then some) -- V : New York -- Philip Livingston : the prince of New York -- William Floyd : the signer whose home was turned into a stable -- Francis Lewis : the signer whose wife was imprisoned -- Lewis Morris : the signer buried in one of America's poorest neighborhoods -- VI : New Jersey -- Abraham Clark : the signer whose sons were imprisoned -- John Hart : the signer who slept in caves -- Francis Hopkinson : the signer who designed the U.S. flag -- Richard Stockton : the only signer who recanted the declaration -- John Witherspoon : the signer who was also a minister -- VII : Pennsylvania -- John Morton : the first signer to die -- Benjamin Franklin : the signer known throughout the world -- James Wilson : the signer who went broke on shady land deals -- Robert Morris : the signer who financed the war - and ended up in debtors' prison -- George Clymer : the signer whose homes were targeted by the British -- George Ross : the signer related to America's most famous seamstress -- Benjamin Rush : the signer who loved to gossip about other signers -- George Taylor : the signer who started out as an indentured servant -- James Smith : the signer who was coy about his age -- VIII : Delaware -- Caesar Rodney : Delaware's famous midnight rider -- George Read : the only signer who voted against Independence -- Thomas McKean : the signer who waited five years to sign -- IX : Maryland -- Charles Carroll of Carrollton : the last signer to die -- Samuel Chase : the signer better remembered as "Old Bacon Face -- William Paca : the signer who dared to acknowledge his illegitimate child -- Thomas Stone : the signer who died of a broken heart -- X : Virginia -- Carter Braxton : the signer who had eighteen children -- Benjamin Harrison : the signer who played Falstaff to Congress -- Thomas Jefferson : the signer who wrote the Declaration -- Richard Henry Lee : the six-fingered signer -- Francis Lightfoot Lee : the signer who lived in his brother's shadow -- Thomas Nelson Jr. : the signer who ordered troops to fire on his own home -- George Wythe : the signer who was poisoned by his nephew -- XI : North Carolina -- Joseph Hewes : the signer who worked himself to death -- William Hooper : the signer who feared democracy -- John Penn : the signer who taught himself how to read and write -- XII : South Carolina -- Thomas Lynch Jr. : the signer buried at the bottom of the sea -- Arthur Middleton : the signer also known as Andrew Marvell -- Edward Rutledge : the signer who delayed independence by a month -- Thomas Heyward Jr. : the signer-songwriter -- XIII : Georgia -- Lyman Hall : the signer who dragged Georgia into the Union -- George Walton : the signer who was orphaned, impoverished, abused, shot, and imprisoned -- Button Gwinnett : the signer with the $150,000 autograph -- Appendix : Text of the Declaration of Independence ; Time line ; The miscellany of independence.