Join or Die: Every Signer of American Independence: The Founders You Were Never Taught (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9798187058440)

You can name five founders. This book introduces you to all of them.

Fifty-six men signed the Declaration of Independence. Thirty-nine signed the Constitution. Six signed both, for eighty-nine in all, and if you are like most readers, you could name only a handful before opening this book. The rest have been woefully unknown to most of us, quietly dropped from the schoolbooks that kept the famous faces and lost everyone else.

Join or Die brings them all back. Organized by the thirteen colonies that had to learn to become one nation, it gives every signer a short, vivid, true portrait: who he was, what he risked, what he gave to the union, and, where it applies, the slavery and the contradictions that a benevolent book still refuses to hide. It is not a trivia collection and not a rolling indictment. It is warm, readable, and honestly sourced, built around Benjamin Franklin's segmented snake and its warning that separated, the pieces die, and joined, they live.

Inside this book:

• Every signer of both founding documents, the famous and the forgotten, arranged by colony
• The founders who never signed, including Thomas Paine and the women, Abigail Adams and Mercy Otis Warren
• The lesser-known stories: Caesar Rodney's all-night ride, Button Gwinnett's fatal duel, Roger Sherman who signed everything
• An honest reckoning with slavery, from Washington and Jefferson to the founders who fought it
• A complete roster of all eighty-nine signers for quick reference

Written for the reader who loves American history without the flag-waving myth or the cynical takedown, and who always suspected the founding was made by more than five faces on the currency.

By the last page, you will know them all, and be able to tell one true story about each.

Author: Camille Rhodes
ISBN-13: 9798187058440
Publisher: Independently Published
Language: English
Published: 07/13/2026
Pages: 270
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.70lbs
Size: 8.50h x 5.50w x 0.61d