Sharp - Not your fathers founders: an amended look at Americas first patriots

Whats All the Fuss About?

The men and women profiled in this book compose a hall of fame of patriots and heroes of the American Revolution. While you may think youve heard all there is to hear about them before, you havent. The stories in this book are not the typical tales readers are used to hearing about the Founding Fathers and the other people who worked behind the scenes to carry out their revolution.

These offbeat profiles are what make this book unique. More importantly, theyll give you a new perspective on the men and women who founded the country. The founders portrayed here were not always as moral and upright as some histories present them. They had foibles and idiosyncrasies. Thats what made them humanand explains why they sometimes acted bizarrely, lived lives of luxury while the country struggled to feed and clothe its army, engaged in scandalous extramarital affairs, etc.

While he was president of the Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia, John Hancock rode around town in an exquisitely decorated chariot, accompanied by fifty armed horsemen and several servants. Benjamin Franklin often defied social mores. In Paris, he played chess late into the night with a close friend of his, a much-younger woman named Madame Brillon de Jouy (17441824), while she lay in her bath. Silas Deane may have been murdered, although no one will ever know for sure because his body was buried in an unmarked grave in England and never repatriated. Deborah Sampson was a male impersonator. These are the stories that make this book required reading if youre trying to gain insights into the real personalities of the men and women who created the United States.

Each profile includes a summary of the patriots life, his or her contributions and achievements, and sidebars that highlight unusual or little-known information. The profiles are listed in alphabetical order because no one was more important than anyone else. All of the people included were instrumental in creating the republic we live in without regard to whose contributions were more significant on a scale of one to ten. includes a brief description of the three Acts of King George III and Parliament that inflamed American patriots and spurred them to seek their independence from Britain.

Quotations to Live (and Die) By!

G EORGE THE T HIRD

O UGHT NEVER TO HAVE OCCURRED.

O NE CAN ONLY WONDER

A T SO GROTESQUE A BLUNDER.

E DMUND C LERIHEW B ENTLEY , B RITISH POET

In these pages, youll find thinkers and doers, the people who wrote the Constitution, the people who fought to protect it, and the people who upheld it. They include statesmen, spies, scalawags, and soldiers. They came from all walks of life. In the face of hostile laws enacted by the British sovereign, and at great risk to their lives and liberty, they were united in a single purpose: to form an independent United States of America.