Chuck Norris’ July 3 WorldNetDaily column claimed to offer “7 little-known facts about the Declaration of Independence,” but some of them weren’t, um, factual. Like this:
7. All 56 signers of the Declaration paid a price for their rebellion and our freedom.
For a number of years, an email widely circulated with some history, some legend and some falsehoods about what happened to the 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence. But here’s the real scoop, as I detailed in my Official Chuck Norris Fact Book, where I also cite the sources.
At least 12 signers had their homes and property taken, ransacked, occupied, or burned. Vandals or soldiers looted the properties of William Ellery, George Clymer, Lyman Hall, George Walton, Button Gwinnett, Thomas Heyward Jr., Edward Rutledge and Arthur Middleton.
Robert Morris’ home was overtaken as well, and Philip Livingston lost several properties to the enemy. John Hart’s farm was looted, and he had to flee into hiding.
Francis Lewis had his home and property destroyed. The enemy then jailed his wife, and she was held for months before being exchanged for wives of British soldiers.
Carter Braxton of Virginia, a wealthy planter and trader, lost his ships and cargo to the British navy.
Thomas McKean wrote to John Adams in 1777 that he was “hunted like a fox by the enemy, compelled to [move] my family five times in three months.”
Five signers were captured by the British as prisoners of war and had to endure deplorable conditions as such. One signer lost his son in the Revolutionary Army, and another had two sons captured.
On Nov. 30, 1776, one signer, Richard Stockton, a lawyer from Princeton and longtime friend of George Washington, was captured in the middle of the night by loyalists and jailed by the British. Stockton endured weeks and months of brutal treatment and starvation. When he was finally released, his health would never be the same. He is actually the only signer to recant his endorsement of the Declaration, followed by him swearing his allegiance to King George III.
In fact, as fact–checks have found, these claims come from an email that has been circulating for years and his been largely debunked:
- There is no evidence that the five signers were treated any worse than any other prisoner of war.
- Carter Braxton’s ships were captured by the British because ships were key military targets, not because he signed the Declaration.
- Thomas McKean had not yet signed the Declaration at the time he claimed he was being hunted by the British.
- While Francis Lewis did have “his home and property destroyed,” there’s no evidence it was done specifically because he signed the Declaration.
- There’s little evidence that those 12 signers who “had their homes and property taken, ransacked, occupied, or burned” were victims of retaliation, given that the homes of much more prominent signers in areas occupied by the British were not looted or vandalized.
Looks like Norris needs to issue a revised edition of his “Official Chuck Norris Fact Book.”
But Norris wasn’t done. His July 10 column served up “5 more little-known facts about the Declaration of Independence,” in which he cited “historian David Barton” to claim that the American Revolution was about “trust in God and commitment to the American cause” and not taxes. You might recall that Barton saw his book about Thomas Jefferson withdrawn from the market because of factual inaccuracies (only to be republished, largely uncorrected, by WND). So if Barton is being cited, it’s unlikely that facts are involved.