Key Figures
The founders, soldiers, writers, and British leaders who shaped the events of 1776.
Every Key Figures article in the 1776 knowledge base. Use the topic filters to narrow by sub-topic.
George Washington in 1776
For George Washington, commander-in-chief of the Continental Army since his appointment by the Se...
Lord George Germain: Britain's War Minister and the Ameri...
George Germain, 1st Viscount Sackville (1716–1785), served as Secretary of State for the Colonies...
Benjamin Franklin & 1776 Diplomacy
Benjamin Franklin, then 70 years old, served in 1776 as the American Revolution's most consequent...
Nathan Hale: The Continental Army's Martyr Spy
Nathan Hale (June 6, 1755 – September 22, 1776) was a Continental Army officer executed by the Br...
Nathanael Greene in 1776 — From Brigadier to Major General
Promoted major general on August 9, 1776, the self-taught Rhode Island Quaker commanded on Long I...
Marquis de Lafayette's 1776 Preparations and Early Revolu...
French aristocrat Lafayette spent 1776 making covert preparations to join the American cause, pur...
Thomas Jefferson in 1776
Thomas Jefferson entered 1776 as a 33-year-old Virginia lawyer and planter, known in Philadelphia...
Samuel Adams: The Organizer of the Revolution
Samuel Adams (1722–1803), a Massachusetts delegate to the Continental Congress, was the revolutio...
Roger Sherman
Roger Sherman was a Connecticut delegate to the Continental Congress, a member of the Committee o...
John Hancock in 1776
John Hancock, a wealthy Boston merchant who had inherited a lucrative import-export firm from his...
John Adams & the 1776 Continental Congress
John Adams served as a Massachusetts delegate to the Second Continental Congress in 1776, emergin...
Button Gwinnett in 1776 — Georgia's Declaration Signer an...
Gwinnett, a merchant and planter from Georgia, signed the Declaration of Independence and assumed...
Joseph Brant (Thayendanegea) in 1776
Brant was born around 1742 in the Ohio Valley during a Mohawk hunting expedition, the son of Nick...
Cornplanter (Conoplyesto) and Seneca Nation Diplomacy in ...
Cornplanter emerged as a Seneca diplomat in 1776, advocating for Seneca autonomy amid the fractur...
General William Howe: British Commander-in-Chief in America
General Sir William Howe (1729–1814) served as the commander-in-chief of British military forces ...
Abigail Adams and the "Remember the Ladies" Letter
Abigail Adams (1744–1818) was the wife of John Adams and, from Braintree, Massachusetts, his most...
Patrick Henry in 1776 — Orator of Liberty
Virginia's fiery orator and delegate, Henry's rhetorical power shaped the Revolution's ideologica...
Lord North (Frederick North, Earl of Guilford) in 1776
Frederick North, Britain's reluctant Prime Minister, steered the Crown's war policy in 1776 while...
Henry Knox in 1776 — The Artillerist of the Revolution
Knox's 1776 expedition to Ticonderoga and the fortification of Dorchester Heights established him...
King George III in 1776
Britain's monarch oversaw the critical military and political decisions defining 1776, from the P...
Thomas Paine
Thomas Paine was born on January 29, 1737, in Thetford, Norfolk, England, the son of a Quaker sta...
Benjamin Rush
Benjamin Rush (1746–1813) was a physician, educator, and political leader who became one of the 5...