This is an I-Heart podcast.

Guaranteed Human.

This is Lee Habib, and this is our American Stories, the show where America is the star and the

American people. And this next story is how the signing of the Declaration of Independence

divided the country and families, including one founder's family. You know, it's been said that

there's never been more partisan division than right now in the country.

Well, we're going to take you through a story that questions that narrative.

Historians who studied the matter differ as to the number of Americans who sided with the Patriots and the British Crown, but one thing

is certain, Americans were deeply divided. One third were for the war, one third were against it,

and one third were hiding under their tables, hoping it would pass. But the consequences for

choosing one side or another was not an ugly Facebook post or a tweet storm.

Here's one of the signers describing what it was like, putting name and pen to paper,

signing the Declaration of Independence in Independence Hall.

This is what Benjamin Rush said.

A pensive and awful silence pervaded the House,

as we were called up one after another,

to the table of the President of Congress,

to sign what was believed by many at the time

to be our own death warrant.

Rush, who was there at our founding and signed our birth certificate, was right.

You see, the British government considered the Declaration of Independence,

a treasonist document, and treason was a capital crime.

...