Edward Rutledge

Edward Rutledge was born in 1749 in South Carolina, studied law in England, and returned to practice in Charleston. At twenty-six he was the youngest man to sign the Declaration of Independence, the same age as Thomas Lynch Jr. In the July debates he at first sought delay, hoping the colonies might act together more slowly; he then joined the majority and signed. In 1780, when Charleston fell, he was captured with other South Carolina leaders and imprisoned at St. Augustine until exchanged. After the war he served in the state legislature and became governor of South Carolina in 1798. He was a planter and lawyer who held people in slavery, and he defended that system in state politics. He died in 1800, while governor. His youth at the signing, his imprisonment, and his later defense of slavery are all part of the same life, and none of them should be left out to make the story simpler.

See also: Signers of the Declaration · Thomas Heyward Jr. · Thomas Lynch Jr. · Arthur Middleton