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July 4th History

Have you ever wondered what happened to the 56 men  who signed the Declaration of Independence?  Five signers were captured by the British as traitors,  and tortured before they died.  Twelve had their homes ransacked and burned.  Two lost their sons serving in the Revolutionary Army;  another had two sons captured.  Nine of the 56 fought and died from wounds or  hardships of the Revolutionary War.  They signed and they pledged their lives, their fortunes,  and their sacred honor.  What kind of men were they?  Twenty-four were lawyers and jurists.  Eleven were merchants,  nine were farmers and large plantation owners;  men of means, well educated,  but they signed the Declaration of Independence  knowing full well that the penalty would be death if  they were captured.  Carter Braxton of Virginia, a wealthy planter and  trader, saw his ships swept from the seas by the  Bri...

Queen Philippa: England's First Black Queen

England's First Black Queen, Mother of the Black Prince Philippa was the daughter of William of Hainault, a lord in part of what is now Belgium. When she was nine the King of England, Edward II, decided that he would marry his son, the future Edward III, to her, and sent one of his bishops, a Bishop Stapeldon, to look at her. He described her thus: "The lady whom we saw has not uncomely hair, betwixt blue-black and brown. Her head is cleaned shaped; her forehead high and broad, and standing somewhat forward. Her face narrows between the eyes, and the lower part of her face is still more narrow and slender than the forehead. Her eyes are blackish brown and deep. Her nose is fairly smooth and even, save that is somewhat broad at the tip and flattened, yet it is no snub nose. Her nostrils are also broad, her mouth fairly wide. Her lips somewhat full and especially the lower lip…a...