The Declaration of Independence, adopted on July 4, 1776, was signed by 56 delegates of the Continental Congress. Here is a list of the original signers, organized by their respective colonies:
Delaware
- George Read
- Caesar Rodney
- Thomas McKean
Pennsylvania
- George Clymer
- Benjamin Rush
- Edward Rutledge
- John Morton
- George Ross
- Benjamin Franklin
- John Dickenson
- James Smith
- Robert Morris
- Charles Carroll
Massachusetts
- John Hancock
- Samuel Adams
- John Adams
- Robert Treat Paine
- Elbridge Gerry
New Hampshire
- Josiah Bartlett
- William Whipple
- Matthew Thornton
Virginia
- George Wythe
- Richard Henry Lee
- Thomas Jefferson
- Benjamin Harrison
- Thomas Nelson Jr.
- Francis Lightfoot Lee
- Carter Braxton
New York
- William Floyd
- Philip Livingston
- Francis Lewis
- Lewis Morris
Georgia
- Button Gwinnett
- Lyman Hall
- George Walton
North Carolina
- William Hooper
- Joseph Hughes
- John Penn
New Jersey
- Richard Stockton
- John Witherspoon
- Francis Hopkinson
- John Hart
- Abraham Clark
Connecticut
- Roger Sherman
- Samuel Huntington
- William Williams
- Oliver Wolcott
Rhode Island
- Stephen Hopkins
- William Ellery
Maryland
- Samuel Chase
- William Paca
- Thomas Stone
- Charles Carroll of Carrollton
South Carolina
- Edward Rutledge
- Thomas Heyward Jr.
- Thomas Lynch Jr.
These men represented the 13 American colonies and collectively declared independence from British rule.