Roger Sherman, Connecticut

Roger Sherman, one of the signers representing Connecticut, on The Declaration of Independence, was born on April 19th 1721 in Newton Massachusetts. His father was a respectable farmer, but the family income was modest so he was unable to further Rogers' education beyond the local school. Although Sherman attended the local school for a period of time, most of his education came from his Parish Minister, Reverend Danbar. When Sherman reached the age of twenty-two, he moved to Connecticut "motivated by cheaper land prices" in order to try and make himself a fortune, which he successfully did. (Collier, Sherman,29) Throughout Sherman's life, he went through a series of jobs ranging from author of a local almanac, Lawyer, Justice of the Peace, Justice of the Superior Court of Connecticut, and eventually he went as far as being the US Senator from Connecticut. "Roger Sherman's rise to prominence, mercantile and political, coincided with an economic revolution in Connecticut"(Collier, Sherman, 29), a state that he helped shape. During the time of the Revolution in America, Sherman had been appointed the Commissary of the Connecticut regiment. In 1744 Sherman was elected to sit on the Continental Congress in which he found useful for his efforts to build a new nation. While sitting on Congress, Sherman played an active role in a number of committees, which eventually led to his role in the drafting of The Declaration of American Independence. Although Sherman's credentials were ones to be proud of, his main contribution to US history was being one of the signers on the Declaration. Sherman was married twice within his life and had a total of fifteen children between the two women. On July 23rd 1793, Roger Sherman died of Typhoid fever at the age of 72, he left behind him a new nation of which he had spent a great deal of time trying to achieve.

Whitney Girouard