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Signers of the Declaration of Independence

Have this divided up and read aloud by several student volunteers:

Student #1: Have you ever wondered what happened to the 56 men who signed the Declaration of Independence? Five signers were captured by the British as traitors, and tortured before they died. Twelve had their homes ransacked and burned. Two lost their sons serving in the Revolutionary Army; another had two sons captured.

Nine of the 56 fought and died from wounds or hardships of the Revolutionary War. 
They signed and they pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor. 
What kind of men were they?

Student #2: Twenty-four were lawyers and jurists. Eleven were merchants, nine were farmers and large plantation owners; men of means, well educated, but they signed the Declaration of Independence knowing full well that the penalty would be death if they were captured.

Carter Braxton of Virginia, a wealthy planter and trader, saw his ships swept from the seas by the British Navy. He sold his home and properties to pay his debts, and died in rags.

Thomas McKeam was so hounded by the British that he was forced to move his family almost constantly. He served in the Congress without pay, and his family was kept in hiding. His possessions were taken from him, and poverty was his reward.

Vandals or soldiers looted the properties of Dillery, Hall, Clymer, Walton, Gwinnett, Heyward, Ruttledge, and Middleton.
Student #3: At the battle of Yorktown, Thomas Nelson, Jr., noted that the British General Cornwallis had taken over the Nelson home for his headquarters.

He quietly urged General George Washington to open fire. The home was destroyed, and Nelson died bankrupt.

Francis Lewis had his home and properties destroyed. The enemy jailed his wife, and she died within a few months.

John Hart was driven from his wife's bedside as she was dying. Their 13 children fled for their lives. His fields and his gristmill were laid to waste. For more than a year he lived in forests and caves, returning home to find his wife dead and his children vanished. 
Adult Leader: Some of us take these liberties so much for granted, but we shouldn't.
So, take a few minutes while enjoying your 45h of July holiday and silently thank these patriots. It's not much to ask for the price they paid.

Remember: freedom is never free!

(Received over the internet. If someone knows the source, please let me know so that I can obtain proper permission.)

The Marine Corp's Worst Battle

To make this presentation more interesting, get six volunteers from among your class to each read a portion about one of the men in the memorial. Also, find a picture of this memorial, either in a textbook to show them or on the Internet to run off on an overhead transparency or in PowerPoint. Then, you can point to the picture to get students involved visually.?

James Bradley, author of "Flags of Our Fathers," was in Washington, D.C. to speak at the Iwo Jima memorial the following day. A group of middle school students were visiting Washington, D.C. and stopped at the Iwo Jima memorial, the largest bronze statue in the world and representative of one of the most famous photographs in history; that of six brave soldiers raising the American Flag at the top of a rocky hill on the island of Iwo lima, Japan, during World War II. James Bradley was there that evening to say good night to his dad, who had since passed away. He spoke these words to that group of teachers and students.

"My name is James Bradley and I'm from Antigo, Wisconsin. My dad is on that statue, and I just wrote a book called "Flags of Our Fathers" which is #5 on the New York Times Best Seller list right now. It is the story of the six boys you see behind me. Six boys raised the flag."

(Student #1) "The first guy putting the pole in the ground is Harlon Block. Harlon was an all-state football player. He enlisted in the Marine Corps with all the senior members of his football team. They were off to play another type of game. A game called World War II But it didn't turn out to be a game. Harlon, at the age of 21, died with his intestines in his hands. I don't say that to gross you out, I say that because there are generals who stand in front of this statue and talk about the glory of war. You guys need to know that most of the boys in Iwo Jima were 17, 18, and 19 years old."

(Student #2) (He pointed to the statue) "You see this next guy? That's Rene Gagnon from New Hampshire. If you took Rene's helmet off at the moment this photo was taken and looked in the webbing of that helmet, you would find a photograph. ..a photograph of his girlfriend. Rene put that in there for protection because he was scared. He was 18 years old. Boys won the battle of lwo Jima. Boys, not old men."

(Student #3) "The next guy here, the third guy in this tableau, was Sergeant Mike Strank. Mike is my hero. He was the hero of all these guys. They called him the "old man" because he was so old. He was already 24. When Mike would motivate his boys in training camp, he didn't say, 'Let's go kill some Japanese' or 'Let's die for our country.' He knew he was talking to little boys. Instead he would say, 'You do what I say, and I'll get you home to your mothers."'

(Student #4) "The last guy on this side of the statue is Ira Hayes, a Pima Indian from Arizona. Ira Hayes walked off lwo Jima. He went into the White House with my dad. President Truman told him, 'You're a hero.' He told reporters, 'How can I feel like a hero when 250 of my buddies hit the island with me and only 27 of us walked off alive?' So you take your class at school, 250 of you spending a year together having fun, doing everything together. Then all 250 of you hit the beach, but only 27 of your classmates walk off alive. That was Ira Hayes. He had images of horror in his mind. Ira Hayes died dead drunk, face down at the age of32 ...ten years after this picture was taken."

(Student #5) "The next guy, going around the statue, is Franklin Sousley from Hilltop, Kentucky - a fun-Iovin' hillbilly boy. His best friend, who is now 70, told me, 'Yeah, you know, we took two cows up on the porch of the Hilltop General Store. Then we strung wire across the stairs so the cows couldn't get down. Then we fed them Epsom salts. Those cows crapped all night. ' Yes, he was a fun-Iovin' hillbilly boy. Franklin died on Iwo Jima at the age of 19. When the telegram came to tell his mother that he was dead, it went to the Hilltop General Store. A barefoot boy ran that telegram up to his mother's farm. The neighbors could hear her scream all night and into the morning. The neighbors lived a quarter of a mile away."

(Student #6) "The next guy, as we continue to go around the statue, is my dad, John Bradley from Antigo, Wisconsin, where I was raised. My dad lived unti11994, but he would never give interviews. When Walter Cronkite's producers, or the New York Times would call, we were trained as little kids to say, 'No, I'm sorry, sir, my dad's not here. He is in Canada fishing. No, there is no phone there, sir. No, we don't know when he is coming back.' My dad never fished or even went to Canada. Usually, he was sitting there right at the table eating his Campbell's soup. But we had to tell the press that he was out fishing. He didn't want to talk to the press."

You see, my dad didn't see himself as a hero. Everyone thinks these guys are heroes, 'cause they are in a photo and a monument. My dad knew better. He was a medic. John Bradley from Wisconsin was a caregiver. In Iwo Jima he probably held over 200 boys as they died. And when boys died in Iwo Jima, they writhed and screamed in pain. When I was a little boy, my third grade teacher told me that my dad was a hero. When I went home and told my dad that, he looked at me and said, 'I want you always to remember that the heroes of Iwo Jima are the guys who did not come back. Did NOT come back.'

So that's the story about six nice young boys. Three died on Iwo lima, and three came back as national heroes. Overall, 7,000 boys died on Iwo Jima in the worst battle in the history of the Marine Corps. My voice is giving out, so I will end here. Thank you for your time. "

The teachers and students alike realized this "wasn't just a big old piece of metal with a flag sticking out of the top." It is a vivid reminder that we enjoy freedom, but at a great cost and sacrifice. From the Revolutionary War to the War in Iraq, we must remember that freedom has and continues to come with a price.

Discussion Questions:

1. Why do you think it's sometimes difficult for those who've never served in the armed forces to fully appreciate the freedom we have? 
2. Why is it that many people seem to have no appreciation for the freedoms they have? 
3. Why should we speak out against the wrongs in our country and work toward the good?
4. How did Martin Luther King make our country a better place to live?
5. Some people seem to see only our country's imperfections. How can we not overlook these imperfections without losing our patriotism?
6. How can we grow in our appreciation for our country?
7. Why is it important to obey our country's laws, even when we think some of them are stupid? (We might not know the reasons behind some of the laws.)
(Story found in lesson plan from Lockheed/Martin, Marietta Diversity Counsel, for Kennesaw Mountain High School in Kennesaw, Georgia. If anyone knows the original source, please let me know.)

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