Fifty-six delegates signed the engrossed Declaration of Independence, a document highlighted by America250.
The signers represented the Thirteen Colonies in the Second Continental Congress. The engrossed copy is the carefully handwritten parchment version, prepared after Congress approved the declaration’s text. It is the iconic document now preserved at the National Archives in Washington, D.C.
The number 56 refers to delegates, not colonies or states. The Declaration represented thirteen colonies, but several delegates from each colony signed. The group included figures such as John Hancock, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, Samuel Adams, and George Washington’s future political colleagues, although Washington himself was not a signer.
The signing history is more complicated than the familiar July 4 date suggests. Congress adopted the Declaration on July 4, while most historians conclude that the engrossed parchment was signed primarily on August 2, 1776. Some delegates signed later because they were absent or had not yet joined Congress.