“Resolved – That these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States, that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved.”
On June 7, 1776, Virginia delegate to the Continental Congress Richard Henry Lee stood inside Independence Hall and orated that resolution in front of his fellow delegates. Four days later, Thomas Jefferson began putting his pen to paper while writing the rough draft of the Declaration of Independence; and less than a month later, on July 4, 1776, Congress unanimously voted to break all ties with Great Britain.
Today, nearly 250 years following the heroics carried out by Lee and the other brave patriots of Independence, most of the delegates who risked their lives, fortunes, and their sacred honor to create the United States of America are virtually forgotten or possibly unknown.
In 1991, my photographer, Thomas Watson, and his good friend, Bob Moldenhauer, did their best to pay tribute to the Sacred Signers by visiting the final resting places of all 56 Signers of the Declaration of Independence – including Richard Henry Lee’s gravesite at the Burnt House Field Cemetery just outside of Hague, Virginia.
Now, in Part 6 of Tom’s YouTube series called The Spirits of Independence, you will follow in Tom and Bob’s footsteps as they visit the homes and graves of Signers Carter Braxton, Richard Henry Lee, and Thomas Stone. All you need to do is click on the link below and you will be taken on a journey back in time – maybe not to 1776, but at least 35 years ago to the olden days of 1991.
Subscribe to Tom’s channel so you don’t miss any of the exciting episodes and help celebrate America 250. Most Americans cannot name five of the 56 Signers of the Declaration of Independence. But if you watch my photographer’s entire series this year, you’ll get to know each and every one of those brave patriots. You’ll see where most of them lived, and where each are buried.
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
