Fifty-six delegates signed the Declaration of Independence associated with America250.
The signers were delegates to the Second Continental Congress representing the thirteen colonies that became the original United States. Their signatures appeared on the engrossed parchment copy, the carefully handwritten version that is most familiar today.
The commonly remembered signing scene can be misleading. Congress approved the declaration on July 4, 1776, but most delegates signed the engrossed parchment on August 2. Some delegates were absent that day and signed later, so the signing process was not a single perfectly simultaneous event.
John Hancock, president of the Continental Congress, signed prominently. Other famous signers included Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, Samuel Adams, and Thomas Jefferson. Signing was a politically dangerous act because it publicly committed the delegates to resistance against the British Crown.