Purple Door Productions — the company that will declare independence
| Colony / Role | Character | Actor | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| New Hampshire | |||
| Dr. Josiah Bartlett | Gabe Terry | Also plays Robert Livingston (NY) | |
| Massachusetts | |||
| John Adams | Stanley Seay | ||
| John Hancock | Jason Burkhead | President of the Congress | |
| Rhode Island | |||
| Stephen Hopkins | Doug Fox | ||
| Connecticut | |||
| Roger Sherman | Kelsey Meek | ||
| New York | |||
| Lewis Morris | Lyrica Harris | ||
| Robert Livingston | Gabe Terry | Also plays Dr. Bartlett (NH) | |
| New Jersey | |||
| Rev. John Witherspoon | Angela Westmoreland | Also plays Col. McKean (DE) | |
| Pennsylvania | |||
| Benjamin Franklin | Matthew Blue | ||
| John Dickinson | Graeme M. Taylor | ||
| James Wilson | Brandi Harrelson | ||
| Delaware | |||
| Caesar Rodney | Marla Bullock | ||
| Col. Thomas McKean | Angela Westmoreland | Also plays Rev. Witherspoon (NJ) | |
| George Read | Thomas Cochrane | Also plays R.H. Lee (VA) | |
| Maryland | |||
| Samuel Chase | Stacey Couey | ||
| Virginia | |||
| Richard Henry Lee | Thomas Cochrane | Also plays George Read (DE) | |
| Thomas Jefferson | Chase Frederick-Escabi | ||
| North Carolina | |||
| Joseph Hewes | Rebecca Sears | ||
| South Carolina | |||
| Edward Rutledge | Randy Burkhead | ||
| Georgia | |||
| Dr. Lyman Hall | Valerie Humphrey | Also plays Abigail Adams | |
| Wives | |||
| Abigail Adams | Valerie Humphrey | Also plays Dr. Hall (GA) | |
| Martha Jefferson | TBA | ||
| Congressional Staff & Others | |||
| Washington's Courier | Mose Harris | Also plays Andrew McNair | |
| Secretary Charles Thomson | Herman Allison | ||
| Custodian Andrew McNair | Mose Harris | Also plays Courier | |
| Leather Apron / Courier u/s | Renny Westmoreland | ||
Inside the Pennsylvania State House — where the fate of a nation was decided
No documented seating plan survives from the Second Continental Congress. This layout follows the NPS conjectural reconstruction: northern colonies to the north side, southern colonies to the south, with the President presiding from a raised platform. Each colony sat at its own table covered in green baize. The only original artifacts surviving in the room are the Rising Sun chair and a decorative cockleshell frieze.
Who they really were, what they believed, and how the musical brings them to life
How each colony voted — unanimity was required
| Colony | Region | Delegates (Actors) | Position in the Musical |
|---|---|---|---|
| New Hampshire | North | Dr. Bartlett (Gabe Terry) | Pro-Independence |
| Massachusetts | North | John Adams (Stanley Seay) | Pro-Independence — the driving force |
| Rhode Island | North | Stephen Hopkins (Doug Fox) | Pro-Independence |
| Connecticut | North | Roger Sherman (Kelsey Meek) | Pro-Independence |
| New York | North | Lewis Morris (Lyrica Harris), Robert Livingston (Gabe Terry) | Abstaining ("courteously") |
| New Jersey | North | Rev. Witherspoon (Angela Westmoreland) | Pro-Independence |
| Pennsylvania | Mid-Atlantic | Franklin (Matthew Blue), Dickinson (Graeme M. Taylor), Wilson (Brandi Harrelson) | Divided — Franklin for, Dickinson against, Wilson the swing vote |
| Delaware | Mid-Atlantic | Rodney (Marla Bullock), McKean (Angela Westmoreland), Read (Thomas Cochrane) | Divided — Rodney & McKean for, Read against |
| Maryland | South | Samuel Chase (Stacey Couey) | Swing — ultimately votes for |
| Virginia | South | R.H. Lee (Thomas Cochrane), Jefferson (Chase Frederick-Escabi) | Pro-Independence — Lee proposes the resolution |
| North Carolina | South | Joseph Hewes (Rebecca Sears) | Follows South on slavery, ultimately votes for |
| South Carolina | South | Edward Rutledge (Randy Burkhead) | Anti — demands removal of anti-slavery clause |
| Georgia | South | Dr. Lyman Hall (Valerie Humphrey) | Swing — ultimately votes for |
What the National Park Service knows — and doesn't know — about how the Assembly Room actually looked and functioned in 1776
The Assembly Room measures approximately 40 by 40 feet. NPS restoration teams spent decades studying paint layers, receipts, letters, and the 1784 Pine-Savage engraving Congress Voting Independence — the most accurate contemporary image of the room — to reconstruct its appearance. The room today reflects that research, though it blends elements from both the Second Continental Congress (1775–1783) and the Constitutional Convention (1787). Only two original artifacts survive in the room: the Rising Sun chair (made by John Folwell in 1779 for the Pennsylvania Speaker, used by Washington during the Convention) and a decorative cockleshell frieze carving on the wall behind the Speaker's platform. Everything else — the tables, chairs, tablecloths, screens, window shades — is either period-appropriate (from the 1750s–1780s but not original to this room) or a modern reproduction. The British may have destroyed much of the original furniture during their 1777–78 occupation of Philadelphia. Source: NPS, "How Was the Assembly Room Furnished in the 1700s?" (2023); NPS, "Restoring the Assembly Room" (2023).
No documented seating plan survives from the Second Continental Congress. The current arrangement — northern colonies on the north side (left, facing the Speaker's platform), southern colonies on the south side — is the NPS's best conjectural reconstruction. Each of the thirteen colonies had its own table. The tables faced a raised platform at the front of the room where the President of Congress (Hancock) presided. The Secretary (Thomson) likely sat at or near the President's table. The arrangement was inherited from the Pennsylvania colonial legislature, which had used the room since 1735 with tables for its eleven counties facing the Speaker. Source: NPS, "Assembly Room Furnishings" (2023).
Each table was covered with a loosely woven green wool fabric called baize. The baize served multiple practical purposes: it absorbed sound (improving acoustics in a room full of arguing men), absorbed stains (from ink, food, and drink), and blocked drafts coming up from below. A surviving receipt dated 1748 documents the purchase of baize covers specifically to address acoustic problems. The green color was standard for courtrooms, offices, and libraries — perceived as neutral, practical, and dignified. The modern reproductions in Independence Hall replicate this. Source: NPS, "Assembly Room Furnishings"; original receipt cited therein.
Surviving receipts document that Philadelphia chair makers crafted sack-back Windsor chairs for the Assembly Room. The chairs visible today date to 1750–1780 and represent the work of many different Philadelphia makers — they are period-appropriate but not the specific chairs the delegates sat in. Windsor chairs were the standard institutional seating of the era: sturdy, stackable, and relatively inexpensive to produce in quantity. They were not comfortable for long sessions. Source: NPS, "Assembly Room Furnishings."
The President presided from a chair on a raised platform at the front. During the Second Continental Congress, Hancock did not sit in the Rising Sun chair (which wasn't made until 1779). He sat in an earlier Speaker's chair that has not survived. On the President's table sat the Syng inkstand — a silver inkstand made by Philip Syng Jr. in 1752 for the Pennsylvania Assembly. It includes a quill box and a shaker for sprinkling sand over wet ink to speed drying. This inkstand was used for the signing of both the Declaration and the Constitution. It is one of only two original artifacts in the room and is now displayed in the Great Essentials Exhibit. There may also have been a Bible on the table. A Bible printed by Robert Aitken in 1782 is currently displayed. Source: NPS, "Assembly Room Furnishings"; NPS, "Independence Hall: International Symbol of Freedom."
A large glass chandelier hung from the ceiling — the one displayed today is a historic piece from the period but was not the original chandelier (a hook in the ceiling from the original survives). Folding screens stood in each of the eastern (front) corners of the room. Window shades (not Venetian blinds, which came after 1784) covered the windows. The shades were a source of constant tension: delegates wanted the windows open for ventilation in the brutal Philadelphia summer heat but closed for secrecy — they had pledged that their deliberations would remain confidential. The compromise was typically shades down, windows partially open, which kept out most prying eyes but did little for the heat. Source: NPS, "Assembly Room Furnishings"; receipts for window shades (1750s) and Venetian blinds (post-1784) cited therein.
Philadelphia in the summer of 1776 was swampy, humid, and brutally hot. The delegates wore wool suits, stockings, and many wore wigs. The room had no ventilation beyond the windows, which were frequently closed. Horseflies from nearby stables were a constant torment — McNair's war with them in the musical is historically grounded. The physical misery was not incidental to the story: it shortened tempers, accelerated debate, and created pressure to reach decisions quickly so delegates could go home. John Adams described being "unwell" from the heat repeatedly in his diary. The discomfort helps explain why Congress was willing to make compromises (including removing the anti-slavery clause) that they might have fought harder over in cooler weather and calmer circumstances. Source: Adams Diary, Massachusetts Historical Society; David McCullough, John Adams (Simon & Schuster, 2001).
Based on the NPS evidence, the essential elements are: thirteen tables (or as many as staging allows) covered in green cloth, arranged in two rough semicircles facing a raised platform with a larger table and chair for Hancock. Windsor-style chairs grouped around each table. An inkstand on the President's table (a quill, ink pot, and sand shaker). Folding screens in the front corners if space permits. The color palette is green (baize), brown (wood), and the warm tones of a room lit by candle and natural light. The room should feel small — these men were crammed together in a space roughly the size of a large living room, arguing about the fate of a continent while sweating through their clothes and swatting flies.
Who was allied with whom, who despised whom, and the personal dynamics that drive every scene in the show
Adams and Dickinson had worked together productively during the First Continental Congress in 1774, but by the summer of 1775 they were bitter enemies. Adams's frustration boiled over in a private letter to James Warren on July 24, 1775, in which he called Dickinson "a certain great Fortune and piddling Genius" who had "given a silly Cast to our whole Doings." The letter was intercepted by the British when the courier, Benjamin Hichborn, was captured at a ferry crossing in Rhode Island. The British published it in Tory newspapers on both sides of the Atlantic. The humiliation was devastating. Adams recorded in his diary what happened next: "Walking to the Statehouse this Morning, I met Mr. Dickinson, on Foot in Chesnut Street. We met, and passed near enough to touch Elbows. He passed without moving his Hat, or Head or Hand. I bowed and pulled off my Hat. He passed hautily by." Because Dickinson was widely respected, other delegates shunned Adams for weeks. Benjamin Rush later wrote that Adams became "an object of nearly universal detestation" and was forced to walk the streets alone. Adams later admitted to General Charles Lee that the letter was written "in a pet just after a warm squabble" and was "a gross misrepresentation." The breach was never fully repaired. Source: Adams Diary, Massachusetts Historical Society; Founders Online, National Archives (Adams to Abigail, July 24, 1775); Benjamin Rush, Autobiography, ed. George W. Corner (Princeton UP, 1948); Jane E. Calvert, "Puritan John Adams and Quaker John Dickinson: A Reassessment," AEI America at 250.
Adams respected Franklin's intellect and international reputation but found him exasperating. Franklin was 34 years older, far more famous, and approached politics with an irony and indirection that drove the blunt, earnest Adams to distraction. Adams complained privately that Franklin was lazy in committee work and spent too much time socializing. Franklin, for his part, found Adams tiresome and overly combative — he reportedly told Adams that he had made "a practice of never contradicting anybody," a comment Adams took as a rebuke. Their relationship deteriorated further when they served together in Paris during the war, where their different diplomatic styles clashed openly. Despite all this, they worked together effectively when it mattered — particularly in pushing Jefferson to write the Declaration and in managing the Congressional debates. Their relationship was one of strategic alliance, not affection. Source: McCullough, John Adams; Gordon S. Wood, The Americanization of Benjamin Franklin (Penguin, 2004).
In 1776, Adams and Jefferson were close allies. Adams was the one who pushed Jefferson to write the Declaration, arguing (as the musical dramatizes) that a Virginian's name would carry more weight with southern colonies. Jefferson was quiet and reserved; Adams was loud and combative. They complemented each other. Their friendship deepened during diplomatic service in Europe in the 1780s. It was destroyed by partisan politics in the 1790s — Adams the Federalist, Jefferson the Democratic-Republican. They didn't speak for over a decade. In 1812, at the urging of Benjamin Rush, Adams wrote to Jefferson, and a remarkable late-life correspondence began — 158 letters over 14 years touching on philosophy, religion, politics, and mortality. They died on the same day: July 4, 1826, the 50th anniversary of the Declaration. Source: Gordon S. Wood, Friends Divided: John Adams and Thomas Jefferson (Penguin, 2017); Founders Online, Adams-Jefferson correspondence.
Benjamin Franklin's son William was the Royal Governor of New Jersey — the colony Witherspoon represents in the musical. William was a committed Loyalist who refused his father's entreaties to resign. In January 1776, he was placed under house arrest; after the Declaration, he was formally arrested and imprisoned in Connecticut for two years. His wife Elizabeth pleaded with Congress to visit him as her health failed. George Washington personally intervened on her behalf. Congress refused. Benjamin did nothing to help. Elizabeth died in 1778 without seeing her husband again. William's son Temple sided with his grandfather, deepening the wound. After the war, William fled to England and wrote to his father seeking reconciliation. Benjamin's reply was chilly. They met once more, briefly, in 1785 — a businesslike encounter about property. Benjamin's will left William virtually nothing, writing that his son's actions "against me in the late war" had estranged him. William died in London in 1813, never having returned to America. When Franklin sits in that chamber joking and strategizing, his son is in a prison cell because of the cause Franklin is advancing. That is a piece of Franklin's emotional landscape the musical never shows. Source: American Battlefield Trust, William Franklin biography; Founders Online, Franklin to William Franklin, August 16, 1784; National Geographic, "How the American Revolution Estranged Ben Franklin and His Loyalist Son" (2024).
Thomas McKean and George Read attended the same school as boys — along with John Dickinson. They grew up together in the border region between Delaware and Pennsylvania. By 1776, they were on opposite sides of the most consequential vote in American history. McKean was fiercely pro-independence; Read believed separation was premature and dangerous. Their friendship survived the political divide — unlike Adams and Dickinson. After the Declaration passed, Read signed it despite having voted against independence, and he went on to serve as a Senator and Chief Justice. McKean left Congress to fight with Washington. The Delaware deadlock in the musical — which necessitates Rodney's legendary ride — was between two men who had known each other since childhood. Source: Constitution Center, signer biographies; Delaware Division of Historical and Cultural Affairs.
The tension between northern and southern delegates was not polite disagreement. It was regional, economic, cultural, and often personal. New England delegates viewed southern planters as lazy aristocrats living off enslaved labor. Southern delegates viewed New Englanders as hypocritical merchants who profited from the slave trade while condemning it. Edward Rutledge, at 26, represented a South Carolina planter class that considered itself the natural aristocracy of the colonies and resented being lectured by northern tradesmen. The anti-slavery clause debate brought these tensions to the surface, but they had been simmering since the First Continental Congress. "Molasses to Rum" is not just Rutledge's argument — it is the South's argument against northern moral superiority, and it is historically grounded. New England ships carried enslaved people. New England distilleries processed molasses. New England merchants profited at every step. Source: Joseph J. Ellis, American Creation (Knopf, 2007); Pauline Maier, American Scripture (Knopf, 1997).
Stephen Hopkins's fondness for rum was legendary and served a political function. In a Congress riven by regional and ideological divisions, Hopkins was one of the few delegates who socialized freely across faction lines. His age (69), his humor, and his willingness to share a drink made him approachable in ways that Adams, Dickinson, and Rutledge were not. The musical uses his drinking as comic relief, but it also reflects a historical reality: informal socializing — in taverns, boarding houses, and over meals — was where much of the real political negotiation happened. The debates in the chamber were often performances; the deals were made over dinner and drinks. Source: William R. Staples, Rhode Island in the Continental Congress (Providence, 1870); Constitution Center biography.
Jefferson almost never spoke in Congress. Adams later wrote that during the entire time they served together, he could not recall Jefferson ever uttering more than a few sentences in open debate. Jefferson's power was in his pen, not his voice. This made him an unusual figure in a body dominated by orators like Adams, Dickinson, Lee, and Rutledge. His selection to write the Declaration was partly because of this — he was less polarizing than Adams, less distractible than Franklin, and his reputation was as a writer rather than a speaker. His silence in the chamber while his words were being debated and cut is one of the musical's most dramatically effective choices: the author forced to watch his work dismantled by committee. Source: Adams, Autobiography; Dumas Malone, Jefferson and His Time, Vol. 1: Jefferson the Virginian (Little, Brown, 1948).
Witherspoon did not arrive in Congress until late June 1776 — just days before the independence debate. But he arrived with enormous moral authority. As president of the College of New Jersey (Princeton), he had educated a generation of American leaders. His students included James Madison, Aaron Burr, and dozens of future judges and legislators. The British had specifically targeted his college, calling it a "seminary of sedition." He was the only active clergyman in Congress and the only college president to sign the Declaration. His late arrival means he had no part in the factional disputes that had been festering for months — he came in with fresh conviction and the clarity of someone who hadn't been worn down by the debates. His famous declaration that the country was "not only ripe for the measure, but in danger of rotting for the want of it" cut through months of equivocation. Source: Jeffry H. Morrison, John Witherspoon and the Founding of the American Republic (Notre Dame UP, 2005); Constitution Center biography.
Who is where, when — your map through the show
| Scene | Pages | Characters (Actors) | Song |
|---|---|---|---|
| Act I | |||
| 1A | 1–3 | Full Company | Sit Down, John |
| 1B | 4 | Adams (Stanley Seay) | Piddle, Twiddle and Resolve |
| 1C | 5–8 | Adams (Stanley Seay), Abigail (Valerie Humphrey) | Till Then |
| 2 | 9–16 | Adams (Stanley Seay), Franklin (Matthew Blue), Lee (Thomas Cochrane) | The Lees of Old Virginia |
| 3A | 17–27 | McNair (Mose Harris), Rutledge (Randy Burkhead), Hall (Valerie Humphrey), Hopkins (Doug Fox), McKean (Angela Westmoreland), Rodney (Marla Bullock), Wilson (Brandi Harrelson), Dickinson (Graeme M. Taylor), Franklin (Matthew Blue), Adams (Stanley Seay), Thomson (Herman Allison), Hancock (Jason Burkhead), Jefferson (Chase Frederick-Escabi), Read (Thomas Cochrane), Morris (Lyrica Harris), Livingston (Gabe Terry), Sherman (Kelsey Meek), Hewes (Rebecca Sears), Bartlett (Gabe Terry), Courier (Mose Harris) | |
| 3B | 27–40 | McKean (Angela Westmoreland), Hancock (Jason Burkhead), Franklin (Matthew Blue), Rodney (Marla Bullock), Jefferson (Chase Frederick-Escabi), Bartlett (Gabe Terry), Lee (Thomas Cochrane), Read (Thomas Cochrane), Sherman (Kelsey Meek), Wilson (Brandi Harrelson), Morris (Lyrica Harris), Chase (Stacey Couey), Adams (Stanley Seay), Thomson (Herman Allison), Hewes (Rebecca Sears), Rutledge (Randy Burkhead), Hall (Valerie Humphrey), Hopkins (Doug Fox) | |
| 3C | 40–47 | Hancock (Jason Burkhead), Rutledge (Randy Burkhead), Franklin (Matthew Blue), Thomson (Herman Allison), Witherspoon (Angela Westmoreland), Wilson (Brandi Harrelson), Read (Thomas Cochrane), Chase (Stacey Couey), Hewes (Rebecca Sears), Bartlett (Gabe Terry), Hopkins (Doug Fox), Sherman (Kelsey Meek), Lee (Thomas Cochrane), Morris (Lyrica Harris), Jefferson (Chase Frederick-Escabi), Hall (Valerie Humphrey), McNair (Mose Harris), Livingston (Gabe Terry) | |
| 3D | 47–53 | Adams (Stanley Seay), Franklin (Matthew Blue), Sherman (Kelsey Meek), Livingston (Gabe Terry), Jefferson (Chase Frederick-Escabi) | But, Mr. Adams |
| 4A | 54–57 | Adams (Stanley Seay), Jefferson (Chase Frederick-Escabi), Franklin (Matthew Blue), Martha (TBA) | |
| 4B | 58–60 | Adams (Stanley Seay), Abigail (Valerie Humphrey) | Yours, Yours, Yours |
| 4C | 60–67 | Adams (Stanley Seay), Franklin (Matthew Blue), Martha (TBA), Jefferson (Chase Frederick-Escabi) | He Plays the Violin |
| 5A | 68–75 | Thomson (Herman Allison), Hancock (Jason Burkhead), Franklin (Matthew Blue), Adams (Stanley Seay), Dickinson (Graeme M. Taylor), Hopkins (Doug Fox), McKean (Angela Westmoreland), Chase (Stacey Couey), Wilson (Brandi Harrelson), Witherspoon (Angela Westmoreland), Bartlett (Gabe Terry), Morris (Lyrica Harris), Hewes (Rebecca Sears), Sherman (Kelsey Meek), Rutledge (Randy Burkhead), McNair (Mose Harris), Hall (Valerie Humphrey), Courier (Mose Harris), Read (Thomas Cochrane) | |
| 5B | 75–79 | Dickinson (Graeme M. Taylor), Rutledge (Randy Burkhead), Wilson (Brandi Harrelson), Read (Thomas Cochrane), Morris (Lyrica Harris), Thomson (Herman Allison), Hewes (Rebecca Sears), Hall (Valerie Humphrey), McNair (Mose Harris), Hancock (Jason Burkhead), Courier (Mose Harris) | Cool, Cool, Considerate Men |
| 5C | 79–82 | McNair (Mose Harris), Courier (Mose Harris), Thomson (Herman Allison) | Momma Look Sharp |
| Act II | |||
| 6 | 83–87 | Adams (Stanley Seay), Franklin (Matthew Blue), Jefferson (Chase Frederick-Escabi), Hancock (Jason Burkhead), Thomson (Herman Allison) | The Egg |
| 7A | 88–96 | Thomson (Herman Allison), Hancock (Jason Burkhead), McNair (Mose Harris), McKean (Angela Westmoreland), Witherspoon (Angela Westmoreland), Read (Thomas Cochrane), Hopkins (Doug Fox), Bartlett (Gabe Terry), Sherman (Kelsey Meek), Jefferson (Chase Frederick-Escabi), Franklin (Matthew Blue), Dickinson (Graeme M. Taylor), Hewes (Rebecca Sears), Wilson (Brandi Harrelson), Rutledge (Randy Burkhead), Hall (Valerie Humphrey), Morris (Lyrica Harris), Livingston (Gabe Terry) | |
| 7B | 96–98 | Rutledge (Randy Burkhead) | Molasses to Rum |
| 7C | 98–100 | Witherspoon (Angela Westmoreland), McKean (Angela Westmoreland), Chase (Stacey Couey), Dickinson (Graeme M. Taylor), Hancock (Jason Burkhead), Hopkins (Doug Fox), Bartlett (Gabe Terry), Sherman (Kelsey Meek), Franklin (Matthew Blue) | |
| 7D | 100–103 | Adams (Stanley Seay), Abigail (Valerie Humphrey), McNair (Mose Harris) | Yours, Yours, Yours (Reprise) |
| 7E | 104–105 | Adams (Stanley Seay), Franklin (Matthew Blue), Jefferson (Chase Frederick-Escabi), Hancock (Jason Burkhead), Thomson (Herman Allison), Courier (Mose Harris) | |
| 7F | 106 | Adams (Stanley Seay) | Is Anybody There? |
| 7G | 107 | Hall (Valerie Humphrey), Adams (Stanley Seay), Hancock (Jason Burkhead), Rodney (Marla Bullock), Thomson (Herman Allison), Franklin (Matthew Blue), McKean (Angela Westmoreland), Dickinson (Graeme M. Taylor), Bartlett (Gabe Terry), Hopkins (Doug Fox), Sherman (Kelsey Meek), Morris (Lyrica Harris), Witherspoon (Angela Westmoreland), Chase (Stacey Couey), Jefferson (Chase Frederick-Escabi), Hewes (Rebecca Sears), Rutledge (Randy Burkhead), Wilson (Brandi Harrelson) | Signing |
YEAS: Adams (Stanley Seay), Bartlett (Gabe Terry), Hopkins (Doug Fox), Sherman (Kelsey Meek), Witherspoon (Angela Westmoreland), Lee (Thomas Cochrane)
NAYS: Dickinson (Graeme M. Taylor), Chase (Stacey Couey), Read (Thomas Cochrane), Rutledge (Randy Burkhead), Hewes (Rebecca Sears), Hall (Valerie Humphrey)
NOT PRESENT: Livingston (Gabe Terry), Read (Thomas Cochrane), Lee (Thomas Cochrane)
SIGNERS: Adams, Jefferson, Franklin, Bartlett, Hopkins, Sherman, Morris, Witherspoon, Rodney, Chase, Hewes, Hall, Hancock
Every song is a political act — advancing debate, defining character, or revealing the human cost of revolution
Key dates from the actual Second Continental Congress
Parliament imposes the first direct tax on the colonies. Resistance is fierce and widespread. Stephen Hopkins publishes "The Rights of the Colonies Examined." The act is repealed in 1766 but the damage is done.
British soldiers fire on a crowd in Boston, killing five colonists. John Adams defends the soldiers in court — successfully — believing in due process even for the enemy.
Colonists organized by Samuel Adams dump 342 chests of tea into Boston Harbor. Britain responds with the Coercive Acts ("Intolerable Acts"), closing Boston's port.
Delegates from twelve colonies meet in Philadelphia. They petition the king and organize economic boycotts. No talk of independence yet.
Patrick Henry's speech to the Virginia Convention helps push Virginia toward military preparation. One of the most famous speeches in American history.
The first battles of the Revolutionary War. "The shot heard round the world." The war has begun before Congress can declare independence.
Delegates gather at the Pennsylvania State House. This is the body depicted in the musical.
Congress appoints George Washington to lead the Continental Army. His dispatches form a recurring dramatic device in the musical.
The first major battle. A British tactical victory but a strategic disaster — over 1,000 British casualties prove the colonists can fight.
A final appeal for reconciliation. George III refuses to read it.
Thomas Paine's pamphlet sells 500,000 copies and transforms the debate from "should we protest?" to "should we separate?"
Richard Henry Lee proposes independence. The inciting event of the musical.
Adams, Franklin, Jefferson, Livingston, Sherman are tasked with drafting a declaration.
The Committee presents Jefferson's draft. Debate and revision begin.
Delaware is deadlocked. McKean sends an urgent message to Rodney, who rides ~80 miles overnight from Dover to break the tie.
Twelve colonies vote in favor; New York abstains. Adams believed this date would be the national holiday.
Congress approves the wording. Contrary to the musical, it was not signed on this date by most delegates.
Most delegates sign the engrossed copy. McKean was likely the last, possibly as late as 1781.
Washington's army is routed in its first major engagement after independence. The Continental Army barely escapes destruction.
Washington's surprise attack on Hessian forces at Trenton saves the Revolution from collapse. The most critical military moment of 1776.
France formally allies with the United States — negotiated by Franklin. French money, troops, and the navy would prove decisive.
Cornwallis surrenders to Washington and the French at Yorktown, Virginia. The war is effectively over.
Britain formally recognizes the independence of the United States. The war that began in that sweltering room seven years earlier is finally done.
What your character would have known, feared, and hoped walking into that room
By May 1776, the colonies had been at war with Britain for over a year. Blood had been shed at Lexington, Concord, and Bunker Hill. Boston had been under siege and then liberated. The King had declared the colonies in rebellion and hired German mercenaries (Hessians) to suppress them. Thomas Paine's Common Sense, published in January 1776, sold over 500,000 copies and transformed public opinion — before Paine, most colonists still hoped for reconciliation. The Olive Branch Petition had been sent and ignored. Every delegate walking into that room knew they were already at war; the question was whether they would put it in writing and make it irrevocable. For many, signing the Declaration was signing their own death warrant. Benjamin Franklin reportedly said: "We must, indeed, all hang together, or most assuredly we shall all hang separately."
The American Revolution was not happening in isolation. Spain and France were global empires watching Britain's colonial difficulties with keen interest — France would formally ally with the United States in 1778. The Enlightenment was reshaping European thought about natural rights, governance, and individual liberty. Adam Smith published The Wealth of Nations in 1776, the same year as the Declaration. Captain Cook was exploring the Pacific. Catherine the Great ruled Russia. The Ottoman Empire spanned three continents. In this context, thirteen small agricultural colonies declaring independence from the most powerful empire on earth was audacious to the point of absurdity. The delegates knew this.
Philadelphia was the largest city in the colonies with a population of about 30,000 — roughly the size of a modern small town. It was hot. Brutally, swampily, oppressively hot. The Assembly Room had no air conditioning, obviously, and the windows were frequently closed to prevent eavesdropping. Flies were a constant torment (McNair's battle with them is historically grounded). The delegates wore wool suits, wigs, and stockings. The physical misery of the setting is not incidental to the story — it shaped the debates, shortened tempers, and made every day in that room an endurance test.
Slavery was not a peripheral issue in 1776 — it was central to the colonial economy and to the moral contradictions of the founding. Roughly 500,000 enslaved people lived in the colonies. Jefferson himself enslaved over 600 people during his lifetime. His original draft of the Declaration included a passage condemning the slave trade, but it blamed King George rather than confronting colonial complicity. The passage was removed at the insistence of South Carolina and Georgia, with support from unnamed northern delegates whose economies also depended on the slave trade (the "triangle trade" of rum, enslaved people, and molasses enriched merchants in New England as much as planters in the South). The musical's treatment of this — particularly "Molasses to Rum" — is among its most historically honest moments.
While the delegates debated, the military situation was dire. Washington's army was desperately short of supplies, ammunition, trained officers, and men. His dispatches to Congress — adapted in the musical for the Courier's reports — were frequently grim. The troops were often barefoot and starving. The Continental Army was outnumbered, outgunned, and outmatched by the professional British military. Within months of the Declaration, Washington would lose New York and retreat across New Jersey. The victory at Trenton on Christmas night 1776 — Washington crossing the Delaware — saved the Revolution from collapse. Every delegate who voted for independence knew the military odds were against them.
Where the musical dramatizes, compresses, or reimagines — and where it stays faithful
The big ideas driving the show — carry these into rehearsal
The musical refuses to treat the Founding Fathers as marble statues. These men are irritable, sweaty, petty, vain, and deeply flawed. Adams is obnoxious. Franklin is cynical. Jefferson is homesick. Dickinson is not a villain but a patriot who fears what premature rebellion will bring. The power comes from watching ordinary, imperfect human beings do an extraordinary thing — not because they were destined to, but because they chose to.
The document declaring "all men are created equal" could only be ratified by compromising on slavery. Rutledge's "Molasses to Rum" exposes northern complicity — the triangle trade enriched northern merchants as much as southern planters. The show does not resolve this tension. It lets it stand, raw and unfinished, because the nation did the same.
The Courier's dispatches and "Momma Look Sharp" are the show's conscience. While delegates debate in comfort, young men are dying. Every signer commits what the British would call treason, punishable by death. The stakes are not abstract.
Any single colony can block independence. This transforms every delegate into a pivot point and every conversation into a negotiation. What are you willing to sacrifice for unity? At what point does compromise become complicity?
Scene Three holds the record for the longest stretch in a Broadway musical without a single note — over 30 minutes between "The Lees of Old Virginia" and "But, Mr. Adams." Playwright Peter Stone tried adding songs but nothing worked. During this scene, the pit musicians were allowed to leave — reportedly a Broadway first. Stone believed the songs create a playful tone that brings the characters to life, and their deliberate absence in this scene forces the audience to sit with the raw politics.
The American Repertory Theater and Roundabout Theatre Company revivals employed intentionally inclusive, multi-ethnic, and female-identifying casts — changing not the text but the lens. These productions ask: Whose freedom was actually being won? Who was included in "all men are created equal," and who was not?
The fates of the men in the room — some extraordinary, some tragic
Primary documents, scholarly sources, and further reading
Complete text as adopted, hosted by the National Archives.
Visit Archives →Original draft including the removed anti-slavery passage. Essential for the show's climax.
Visit LOC →The full letter of March 31, 1776, with John's reply. Founders Online / National Archives.
Read at Founders Online →Full correspondence including letters to and from Deborah Read Franklin. Library of Congress.
Visit LOC →Washington's dispatches from the field — the source material for the Courier's reports.
Visit LOC →Benjamin's chilly letter to his estranged Loyalist son. Founders Online / National Archives.
Read at Founders Online →How the Assembly Room was furnished — tables, chairs, the Rising Sun chair, green baize covers.
Visit NPS →Overview of Independence Hall's history across both the Congress and Convention.
Visit NPS →Detailed biography of Benjamin Franklin's Loyalist son, including imprisonment and exile.
Visit ABT →Academic resource from the University of Kentucky covering Dickinson's life, writings, and wife Mary Norris.
Visit →Scholarly resources on Jefferson, Martha, Sally Hemings, and the enslaved community at Monticello.
Visit Monticello →Library of Congress resources on America's first published African American poet.
Visit LOC →National Park Service resources on Patrick Henry's life and legacy.
Visit NPS →Historical context, character analysis, discussion questions.
Visit Roundabout →
Becker, Carl. The Declaration of Independence: A Study in the History of Political Ideas. Harcourt, 1922; reprinted Vintage, 1958.
Berkin, Carol. Revolutionary Mothers: Women in the Struggle for America's Independence. Knopf, 2005.
Boyd, Julian P., ed. The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Volume 1. Princeton University Press, 1950.
Carretta, Vincent. Phillis Wheatley: Biography of a Genius in Bondage. University of Georgia Press, 2011.
Chernow, Ron. Washington: A Life. Penguin, 2010.
Gelles, Edith. Abigail and John: Portrait of a Marriage. William Morrow, 2009.
Gordon-Reed, Annette. The Hemingses of Monticello. W.W. Norton, 2008. National Book Award winner.
Lopez, Claude-Anne, and Eugenia W. Herbert. The Private Franklin. W.W. Norton, 1975.
Maier, Pauline. American Scripture: Making the Declaration of Independence. Knopf, 1997.
Mayer, Henry. A Son of Thunder: Patrick Henry and the American Republic. University of Virginia Press, 1991.
Nash, Gary B. The Liberty Bell. Yale University Press, 2010.
Nelson, Craig. Thomas Paine: Enlightenment, Revolution, and the Birth of Modern Nations. Penguin, 2007.
Roberts, Andrew. George III: The Life and Reign of Britain's Most Misunderstood Monarch. Allen Lane, 2021.
Stoll, Ira. Samuel Adams: A Life. Free Press, 2008.
Stone, Peter, and Sherman Edwards. 1776: A Musical Play. Penguin Books, 1976. (Includes authors' historical notes.)
Stuart, Nancy Rubin. The Muse of the Revolution: The Secret Pen of Mercy Otis Warren. Beacon Press, 2008.
Quick reference for actors playing multiple roles — where you are and when you switch
| Scene | Pg | McKean | Witherspoon | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1A | 1–3 | — | — | Company — staging TBD |
| 3A | 17–27 | McKEAN | — | |
| 3B | 27–40 | McKEAN | — | |
| 3C | 40–47 | — | WITHS. | Switch between 3B→3C |
| 5A | 68–75 | McKEAN | WITHS. | Both listed — staging needed |
| 7A | 88–96 | McKEAN | WITHS. | Both listed — staging needed |
| 7C | 98–100 | McKEAN | WITHS. | Both listed — staging needed |
| 7G | 107 | McKEAN | WITHS. | Final vote/signing — both needed |
| Scene | Pg | Lee | Read | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | 9–16 | LEE | — | "Lees of Old Virginia" |
| 3A | 17–27 | — | READ | |
| 3B | 27–40 | LEE | READ | Both listed — staging needed |
| 3C | 40–47 | LEE | READ | Both listed — staging needed |
| 5A | 68–75 | — | READ | |
| 5B | 75–79 | — | READ | "Cool, Cool" — Read is conservative bloc |
| 7A | 88–96 | — | READ | |
| 7G | 107 | not present | not present | Neither present for final vote |
| Scene | Pg | Courier | McNair | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3A | 17–27 | COURIER | McNAIR | Both listed |
| 3C | 40–47 | — | McNAIR | |
| 5A | 68–75 | COURIER | — | |
| 5B | 75–79 | COURIER | McNAIR | Both listed |
| 5C | 79–82 | COURIER | McNAIR | "Momma Look Sharp" — both sing |
| 7A | 88–96 | — | McNAIR | |
| 7D | 100–103 | — | McNAIR | |
| 7E | 104–105 | COURIER | — |
| Scene | Pg | Bartlett | Livingston | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3A | 17–27 | BARTLETT | LIVNGTN | Both listed |
| 3B | 27–40 | BARTLETT | — | |
| 3C | 40–47 | BARTLETT | LIVNGTN | Both listed |
| 3D | 47–53 | — | LIVNGTN | "But, Mr. Adams" — Committee of Five |
| 5A | 68–75 | BARTLETT | — | |
| 7A | 88–96 | BARTLETT | LIVNGTN | Both listed |
| 7G | 107 | BARTLETT | — | Livingston not present for vote |
| Scene | Pg | Dr. Hall | Abigail | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1C | 5–8 | — | ABIGAIL | "Till Then" |
| 3A | 17–27 | HALL | — | |
| 3B | 27–40 | HALL | — | |
| 3C | 40–47 | HALL | — | |
| 4B | 58–60 | — | ABIGAIL | "Yours, Yours, Yours" |
| 5A | 68–75 | HALL | — | |
| 5B | 75–79 | HALL | — | |
| 7A | 88–96 | HALL | — | |
| 7D | 100–103 | — | ABIGAIL | "Yours" Reprise |
| 7G | 107 | HALL | — | Final vote — Hall votes yea |
Major figures of the Revolution who shaped what happened in Philadelphia — from outside it
George III was 38 in 1776 — young, deeply religious, devoted to his family, and stubbornly convinced that the colonies must be brought to heel. He was not the raving tyrant of propaganda. He was an engaged, literate monarch who read widely, collected art, and genuinely believed Parliament's authority over the colonies was constitutional and just. When the Olive Branch Petition arrived in 1775, he refused to read it and declared the colonies in rebellion. He personally pushed to hire Hessian mercenaries to suppress the revolt. The Declaration's 27 grievances are addressed directly to him — "He has…" repeated like an indictment. His mental illness (long attributed to porphyria, though recent scholarship suggests bipolar disorder) did not manifest until later episodes in 1788–89 and after 1810, when he became permanently incapacitated. He went blind and deaf before his death in 1820. His loss of the American colonies was the defining political failure of his 60-year reign. Source: The Royal Household official records; Andrew Roberts, George III: The Life and Reign of Britain's Most Misunderstood Monarch (2021).
Washington was not in Philadelphia. He was in New York, desperately trying to defend Manhattan against the largest expeditionary force Britain had ever assembled — over 30,000 troops and 400 ships arriving in New York harbor in the summer of 1776. His dispatches to Congress, adapted in the musical for the Courier's reports, were frequently grim: the army lacked ammunition, shoes, blankets, trained officers, and men. Within months of the Declaration, Washington would lose the Battle of Long Island (August 27, 1776), retreat across New Jersey, and face the possible collapse of the entire Revolution. His surprise crossing of the Delaware River on Christmas night 1776 and victory at Trenton saved the cause from extinction. Source: George Washington Papers, Library of Congress; Ron Chernow, Washington: A Life (Penguin, 2010).
Henry had delivered his legendary speech to the Virginia Convention in March 1775, helping push Virginia toward revolution. But by 1776, he was serving as Virginia's first post-colonial governor, not as a congressional delegate. He had served in the First Continental Congress (1774) but was governing his state during the critical summer of 1776. Henry was one of the most electrifying orators of his generation, and his words had done as much as anyone's to make independence thinkable. He later opposed the Constitution, fearing it gave too much power to the federal government, and was a leading Anti-Federalist. He enslaved approximately 67 people at the time of his death and acknowledged the moral contradiction, saying "I am drawn along by the general inconvenience of living without them." Source: National Park Service, Red Hill—Patrick Henry National Memorial; Henry Mayer, A Son of Thunder: Patrick Henry and the American Republic (University of Virginia Press, 1991).
Paine arrived in America from England in 1774 with a letter of introduction from Benjamin Franklin. In January 1776, he published Common Sense, which sold an estimated 500,000 copies in a population of 2.5 million — the equivalent of roughly 50 million copies today. Before Paine, most colonists still hoped for reconciliation with Britain. After Paine, independence became not just possible but necessary. He had no seat in Congress and no formal position, but his influence on the delegates in that room was immeasurable. He later served with Washington's army and wrote The Crisis papers ("These are the times that try men's souls"). He died in poverty and obscurity in 1809; only six people attended his funeral. Source: Library of Congress, Thomas Paine collection; Craig Nelson, Thomas Paine: Enlightenment, Revolution, and the Birth of Modern Nations (Penguin, 2007).
Samuel Adams was in the room — he was a Massachusetts delegate — but the musical essentially ignores him. In reality, he was one of the most important agitators for independence, having organized resistance to British policies since the 1760s. He was a driving force behind the Boston Tea Party, helped found the Sons of Liberty, and was one of the earliest advocates for complete separation from Britain. The musical gives his cousin John all the credit for Massachusetts's revolutionary energy, which is one of its largest historical simplifications. Source: Ira Stoll, Samuel Adams: A Life (Free Press, 2008); Constitution Center biography.
In 1776, France was watching but had not yet intervened. Lafayette, a 19-year-old French aristocrat, would not arrive in America until June 1777, when he volunteered for Washington's army at his own expense. Baron von Steuben, a Prussian military officer, arrived in early 1778 and transformed the Continental Army from a ragged militia into a professional fighting force at Valley Forge. France's formal alliance (1778) — negotiated by Franklin — would prove decisive. Without French money, troops, and the French navy at Yorktown, the Revolution would almost certainly have failed. In the summer of 1776, all of this was still in the future. The delegates voted for independence not knowing whether any foreign power would come to their aid. Source: National Park Service, Valley Forge; American Battlefield Trust biographies.
Present, absent, silenced, essential — the women the musical shows, the women it omits, and the ones who shaped the founding from outside the room
Abigail was not in Philadelphia. She was managing the family farm in Braintree, Massachusetts, raising four children, and running John's business affairs while he was away. Their extraordinary correspondence — over 1,100 letters survive — is one of the most remarkable records of the founding era. In her most famous letter (March 31, 1776), she wrote to John: "Remember the Ladies, and be more generous and favourable to them than your ancestors. Do not put such unlimited power into the hands of the Husbands." John replied affectionately but dismissively. The musical does not include this exchange but it informs Abigail's character throughout. She was her husband's most trusted political advisor. She later became the second First Lady and the mother of the sixth President. Source: Massachusetts Historical Society, Adams Family Papers; Edith Gelles, Abigail and John: Portrait of a Marriage (William Morrow, 2009).
Martha was not in Philadelphia — her visit in the musical is entirely fictional. She was at home in Virginia, likely at the family plantation. She was reportedly an accomplished musician (harpsichord and pianoforte), which makes the "He Plays the Violin" number thematically apt even if historically invented. She was a young widow when she married Jefferson in 1772; her first husband Bathurst Skelton had died in 1768. Martha and Thomas had six children; only two daughters survived to adulthood. She died on September 6, 1782, at age 33, likely from complications of her final childbirth. Jefferson was devastated. According to their daughter Martha ("Patsy"), Jefferson promised his dying wife he would never remarry — and he never did. He burned their entire correspondence after her death, so almost nothing in her own words survives. Martha was also the half-sister of Sally Hemings, an enslaved woman — they shared the same father, John Wayles. Jefferson's relationship with Hemings, which began after Martha's death, resulted in at least six children. DNA evidence confirmed in 1998 that Jefferson was the father of at least one of Hemings's children. Source: Thomas Jefferson Foundation, Monticello; Annette Gordon-Reed, The Hemingses of Monticello (W.W. Norton, 2008), National Book Award winner.
Mary Norris Dickinson is the most significant omission in the musical's treatment of the women. She was actually in Philadelphia during the Congress — unlike Abigail Adams and Martha Jefferson, who are depicted in the show but were hundreds of miles away. Mary was a wealthy, well-educated Quaker heiress who owned one of the largest private libraries in the colonies (approximately 1,500 volumes). She corresponded with Patrick Henry and Benjamin Franklin. She managed the family's substantial estates while her husband served in Congress. The British burned their home at Fair Hill during the Battle of Germantown in 1777, specifically because it belonged to "that Patriot Dickinson." Dickinson College was originally named "John and Mary's College" in honor of both of them. Source: Dickinson College Archives; John Dickinson Writings Project, University of Kentucky; Delaware Division of Historical and Cultural Affairs.
Deborah had died on December 19, 1774 — eighteen months before the Declaration. Franklin had been in London for over a decade and had not seen her in more than ten years. She suffered a series of strokes beginning in 1768, wrote to him pleading for his return, and he did not come home. He returned to Philadelphia in March 1775 — three months after her death — not because she had died, but because his diplomatic mission had ended in humiliation. He later wrote to a friend: "I have lately lost my old and faithful Companion; and I every day become more sensible of the greatness of that Loss; which cannot now be repair'd." Deborah had managed Franklin's printing business, his book shop, and his postal duties for decades. She raised his illegitimate son William alongside their own children. The musical's portrait of Franklin as a charming, witty elder statesman omits the human cost of his ambition: a wife who died alone. Source: Library of Congress, Benjamin Franklin Papers; Claude-Anne Lopez and Eugenia W. Herbert, The Private Franklin (W.W. Norton, 1975).
The Franklin family drama extended beyond Benjamin and William. Elizabeth, William's wife, was caught between the Revolution and her husband's imprisonment. After William was arrested in 1776 for his loyalty to the Crown, Elizabeth remained in New Jersey while he was held in Connecticut. She wrote to the Continental Congress begging to visit him as her health deteriorated. George Washington personally intervened on her behalf, but Congress refused. Benjamin Franklin did nothing to help. Elizabeth died in 1778 without seeing her husband again. Her death is one of the Revolution's quieter tragedies — a woman destroyed not by ideology but by the machinery of war. Source: American Battlefield Trust, William Franklin biography; National Geographic, "How the American Revolution Estranged Ben Franklin and His Loyalist Son" (2024).
Warren was one of the Revolution's sharpest pens. She wrote political satires and plays that mocked British authority and rallied support for independence. Her brother James Otis was an early resistance leader, and her husband James Warren served as president of the Massachusetts Provincial Congress. She corresponded with John and Abigail Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and other leaders. After the war, she wrote a three-volume History of the Rise, Progress, and Termination of the American Revolution (1805) — one of the first histories of the Revolution and the only one written by someone who knew the participants personally. She was also a prominent Anti-Federalist who opposed the Constitution. Source: Nancy Rubin Stuart, The Muse of the Revolution: The Secret Pen of Mercy Otis Warren (Beacon Press, 2008); Library of Congress, Mercy Otis Warren Papers.
Wheatley was kidnapped from West Africa as a child and enslaved by a Boston family who, unusually, educated her. She published her first book of poetry, Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral, in 1773 — the first book of poetry published by an African American. In 1775, she sent a poem to George Washington praising him as commander of the Continental Army. Washington invited her to visit him at his headquarters in Cambridge, and she did. Her very existence challenged the intellectual justification for slavery: how could the men in that room declare that "all men are created equal" while denying the humanity of a woman who could write poetry as fine as any in the English language? She was freed shortly after her book's publication. She died in poverty in 1784 at approximately 31. Source: Library of Congress, Phillis Wheatley collection; Vincent Carretta, Phillis Wheatley: Biography of a Genius in Bondage (University of Georgia Press, 2011).
No women could vote, hold office, or serve in Congress. The Declaration's promise of equality explicitly excluded them. But women ran the farms and businesses that kept the economy functioning while men served in Congress or the army. Women made saltpeter (a component of gunpowder) — a detail the musical includes when Abigail mentions the women of Braintree. Women served as camp followers with the Continental Army, cooking, laundering, and nursing. Some, like Deborah Sampson, disguised themselves as men to fight. Roughly 500,000 enslaved people lived in the colonies in 1776; roughly half were women and girls. Their labor built the wealth that made independence possible. Their freedom was bargained away in the room to secure it. Source: Carol Berkin, Revolutionary Mothers: Women in the Struggle for America's Independence (Knopf, 2005).
What the Declaration actually says, how it was built, what was cut, and what your character is signing
The Declaration's opening is not a list of complaints — it is a theory of government rooted in Enlightenment philosophy, particularly John Locke's Second Treatise of Government (1689). Jefferson drew on Locke's concept of natural rights: that human beings possess inherent rights that no government can legitimately take away, and that when a government violates those rights, the people have a right — even a duty — to alter or abolish it. The language is deliberately universal: "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." The word "unalienable" was radical — it meant these rights could not be given away, not even by the people themselves. Jefferson originally wrote "inalienable"; the change was made during Congressional editing. Source: National Archives, Declaration of Independence; Carl Becker, The Declaration of Independence: A Study in the History of Political Ideas (Harcourt, 1922; reprinted Vintage, 1958).
The longest section of the Declaration is a list of 27 specific charges against George III — each beginning with "He has…" They include dissolving legislatures, obstructing justice, imposing taxes without consent, quartering troops, cutting off trade, transporting colonists overseas for trial, and waging war against the colonies. This section was not abstract philosophy; it was a legal brief, designed to justify the colonies' actions to the world (particularly to potential allies like France). Many of the grievances directly reference events the delegates had personally experienced. When your character signs the Declaration, they are attesting that these charges are true and sufficient to justify the most radical political act of the eighteenth century. Source: National Archives, annotated text of the Declaration; Pauline Maier, American Scripture: Making the Declaration of Independence (Knopf, 1997).
Jefferson's original draft included a passage of approximately 168 words condemning the slave trade, calling it "a cruel war against human nature itself." But the passage blamed King George for the slave trade rather than confronting the colonies' own participation in it. Congress removed it. Jefferson later wrote that South Carolina and Georgia objected outright, and that "our northern brethren also, I believe, felt a little tender under those censures; for though their people had very few slaves themselves, yet they had been pretty considerable carriers of them to others." The musical treats this removal as its central moral crisis — and it was. The men in the room chose union over justice, and the consequences shaped the next two centuries of American history. The full original text is preserved in Jefferson's "original Rough draught" at the Library of Congress. Source: Library of Congress, Jefferson's "original Rough draught"; Julian P. Boyd, ed., The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Volume 1 (Princeton University Press, 1950).
This final sentence was not rhetoric. The delegates were committing an act that the British government considered high treason, punishable by hanging, drawing, and quartering. Many signers suffered for it: their homes were burned, their families were displaced, they were imprisoned, they lost their fortunes. At least five signers were captured and imprisoned by the British. Several saw their homes and property destroyed. The "sacred Honor" reference was a deliberate invocation of the gentlemen's code — once pledged, it could not be withdrawn without disgrace. When your character picks up that quill, they are betting everything. Source: Rush S. Welter, "The Declaration as an Act of Courage," in The Declaration of Independence: Origins and Impact, ed. Scott Douglas Gerber (CQ Press, 2002).
The Committee of Five (Adams, Franklin, Jefferson, Livingston, Sherman) was appointed June 11. Jefferson produced the initial draft over roughly 17 days. Adams and Franklin made edits before submission to Congress. Congress then debated and revised the document over three days (July 2–4), making approximately 86 changes, cutting roughly a quarter of Jefferson's original text. Jefferson was unhappy with many of the changes and kept a copy of his original for comparison. The Declaration was a collaborative product — written by one man, edited by two, and revised by a room full of politicians. The version that was signed is not Jefferson's Declaration; it is Congress's. Source: National Archives; Pauline Maier, American Scripture (1997); Library of Congress, Jefferson's notes on Congressional debates.
A history teacher's passion project that became a Tony Award-winning musical
Sherman Edwards (1919–1981) was a history major at NYU and Cornell who served in the Air Force during World War II and then became a high school history teacher. On the side, he wrote pop songs — including several top-ten hits and songs for five Elvis Presley films. The idea for a musical about the signing of the Declaration consumed him. He spent roughly a decade researching and writing the book, music, and lyrics. He left his teaching career at 40 to pursue the project full-time. His producer, Stuart Ostrow, shrewdly promoted Edwards's background, sending press releases reading "Ex-History Teacher Writes Musical About The Declaration of Independence" to give the project credibility. The fact that a history teacher wrote this show is worth carrying into rehearsal: every song is built on research, and the historical accuracy is far higher than most audiences expect. Source: Utah Shakespeare Festival Study Guide; BroadwayWorld, "The Making of America's Musical" (2016).
Peter Stone (1930–2003) had been approached years earlier and rejected the idea as undoable. Ostrow brought him back, and when Edwards played "Sit Down, John," Stone understood the show wasn't a history lesson — it was a story about real men fighting to build a country. Stone rewrote the book, adding two theatrical devices not present in the historical record: a calendar (showing how close they are to July 4) and a tally board (tracking votes). Sixteen major directors turned the show down before Peter Hunt was hired. The show opened on Broadway on March 16, 1969, ran for 1,217 performances, and won the Tony Award for Best Musical. The Penguin edition of the published script includes the authors' own notes on historical accuracy and the liberties they took. Source: Peter Stone, Foreword to 1776: A Musical Play (Penguin Books, 1976).
The bell that Andrew McNair (Mose Harris) tends was not called the "Liberty Bell" in 1776. It was simply the State House bell, used to summon legislators and mark public occasions. It wasn't given the name "Liberty Bell" until the 1830s, when abolitionists adopted it as a symbol of freedom. The bell's famous crack likely developed gradually over the decades after 1776 — the precise date and cause remain uncertain. The bell was cast in London in 1752, cracked during testing, and was recast twice by Philadelphia foundrymen John Pass and John Stow. It weighs approximately 2,080 pounds. It hung in the steeple of the Pennsylvania State House (now Independence Hall) and would have been rung on July 8, 1776, when the Declaration was first read publicly in Philadelphia. Source: National Park Service, Liberty Bell Center; Gary B. Nash, The Liberty Bell (Yale University Press, 2010).
The Assembly Room has been restored to its 1776 appearance. The Rising Sun chair — in which John Hancock sat — is the only original piece of furniture still in the room. Benjamin Franklin reportedly commented on the chair's carved sun motif at the end of the Constitutional Convention in 1787, saying he had often wondered during debates whether it was a rising or setting sun: "I have the happiness to know that it is a rising and not a setting Sun." The room measures approximately 40 by 40 feet. The green baize table covers, sack-back Windsor chairs, silver inkstand (used during the signing), and glass chandelier are period reproductions based on NPS research. A decorative cockleshell frieze is also original to the room. Source: National Park Service, "Assembly Room Furnishings" (fetched and verified); Independence Hall Association.
How to say the names and terms you'll encounter in the script
Words, phrases, and concepts from the script and the period that every cast member should know