More Founding Patriots
Founding Fathers of the United States - Wikipedia
Other patriots
The following men and women are also recognized for the notable contributions they made during the founding era:
- Ethan Allen, military leader and founder of Vermont.[82][48]
- Richard Allen, African-American bishop, founder of the Free African Society and the African Methodist Episcopal Church[83]
- Crispus Attucks, believed to be of Native American and African descent, was the first of five persons killed in the Boston Massacre of 1770, and thus the first to die in the American Revolution.[84] Of the deaths at Boston John Adams would later write, "On that night the foundations of American independence was laid."[85]
- John Barry, an officer in the Continental Navy during the American Revolutionary War, has been credited as "The Father of the American Navy" (sharing the descriptor with John Paul Jones and John Adams)[86] and was the first captain of a U.S. warship commissioned for service under the Continental flag.[87]
- Israel Bissell, a patriot post rider in Massachusetts who rode the news to Philadelphia of the British attack on Lexington and Concord.
- Hugh Henry Brackenridge, lawyer, judge, author, chaplin in the Continental army,[88] ally of Madison,[89] collaborator with Freneau,[90] and central figure in early western Pennsylvania[91][92][93]
- Aaron Burr, vice president under Jefferson[94]
- Cato, a Black Patriot and slave who served as a spy alongside his owner, Hercules Mulligan. Cato carried intelligence gathered by Mulligan to officers in the Continental Army and other revolutionaries, including through British-held territory, which was credited for likely saving George Washington's life on at least two occasions. He was granted his freedom in 1778 for his service.[95]
- Angelica Schuyler Church, sister-in-law of Alexander Hamilton, corresponded with many of the leading Founding Fathers, including Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, and the Marquis de Lafayette.[96]
- Tench Coxe, economist in the Continental Congress[97]
- Silas Deane, a delegate to the Continental Congress who signed the Continental Association, became the first foreign diplomat from the U.S. to France where he helped negotiate and then signed the 1778 Treaty of Alliance that allied France with the United States during the Revolutionary War.
- Philip Freneau, called the "Poet of the Revolution"[98][99]
- Albert Gallatin, politician and treasury secretary[100]
- Nathanael Greene, Revolutionary War general; commanded the southern theater[71]
- Nathan Hale, captured U.S. soldier, executed in 1776 for spying on British in New York[101]
- Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton, wife of Alexander Hamilton[102][103]
- James Iredell, essayist for independence and advocate for the constitution, early Supreme Court Justice[56]
- John Paul Jones, U.S. Navy captain; when the British requested his surrender, he replied, "I have not yet begun to fight"[71][104]
- Benjamin Kent, lawyer, Massachusetts Attorney General, senior member of the Sons of Liberty and the North End Caucus. In April, 1776, Kent encouraged John Adams to declare American independence.[105][106][107]
- Tadeusz Kościuszko, American general, former Polish army general[100]
- Bernardo de Galvez, Spanish military, governor of Spanish Louisiana. Captured Baton Rouge, Natchez, and Mobile, all in British West Florida.[108]
- John Laurance, New York politician and judge who served as Judge advocate general during the Revolution[109]
- Arthur Lee, diplomat who helped negotiate and signed the 1778 Treaty of Alliance with France, along with Benjamin Franklin and Silas Deane.
- Henry Lee III, army officer and Virginia governor[71]
- William Maclay, Pennsylvania politician and U.S. senator[56]
- Philip Mazzei, Italian physician, merchant, and author[110]
- Daniel Morgan, military leader and Virginia congressman[71]
- Hercules Mulligan, Irish-American tailor and spy, member of the Sons of Liberty.[111] Introduced Alexander Hamilton into New York society and helped him recruit men for his artillery units.[112]
- Samuel Nicholas, commander-in-chief of the Continental Marines[113]
- James Otis Jr., one of the earliest proponents of patriotic causes, an opponent of slavery, and leader of Massachusetts' Committee of Correspondence, all in the 1760s.[114][115]
- Andrew Pickens, army general and South Carolina congressman[71]
- Timothy Pickering, Secretary of War, U.S. secretary of state, from Massachusetts. Fired by President John Adams; replaced by John Marshall.[116]
- Oliver Pollock, a merchant, diplomat, and financier of the American Revolutionary War
- Israel Putnam, army general[117]
- Paul Revere, silversmith, member of the Sons of Liberty which staged the Boston Tea Party, and one of two horsemen in the midnight ride.[79]
- Jean-Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur, comte de Rochambeau, French army general[100]
- Haym Salomon, along with Robert Morris, was the prime financier of the American Revolution. He also spied for the Continental Army.[118]
- Philip Schuyler, Revolutionary War general, U.S. senator from New York, father of the Schuyler sisters.
- John Sevier, cofounder of the Watauga Association, Revolutionary War soldier, called the Founding Father of Tennessee[119]
- Arthur St. Clair, major general, president of the Confederation Congress, and later first governor of the Northwest Territory
- Thomas Sumter, South Carolina military leader, and member of both houses of Congress[71]
- John Trumbull, artist, whose paintings inform the collective memory of the early American Republic[120][121]
- Richard Varick, private secretary to George Washington, recorder of New York City (1786); Speaker of the New York Assembly (1787); second attorney general of New York state (1788–1789); Mayor of New York City (1789–1801); founder of the American Bible Society (1828)[122]
- Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben, Prussian officer;[100] Inspector General of Continental Army; present at Valley forge with Washington, training militia[123]
- Noah Webster, political writer, lexicographer, educator[124]