Politicians

American

  • John Adams – Signer of the Declaration of Independence, diplomat, second President
  • John Quincy Adams – Diplomat, senator, sixth President, congressman
  • Samuel Adams – Boston revolutionary leader, signer of the Declaration of Independence
  • Charles Carroll of Carrollton – Signer of the Declaration of Independence, senator
  • George Clinton – Soldier, politician, NY governor, vice president
  • John Dickinson – Lawyer, politician, writer, signer of the Declaration of Independence
  • William Ellery – Signer of the Declaration of Independence from RI
  • Benjamin Franklin – Philadelphia printer, writer, scientist, inventor, diplomat to France
  • William Franklin – Royal Governor of NJ, Loyalist, son of Benjamin Franklin
  • Elbridge Gerry – Signer of the Declaration of Independence, vice president under Madison
  • Alexander Hamilton – Washington’s aide-de-camp, lawyer, Secretary of the Treasury
  • John Hancock – Merchant, signer of the Declaration of Independence, MA governor
  • Patrick Henry – Lawyer, orator, VA governor
  • Thomas Hutchinson – Last Royal Governor of MA
  • Ralph Izard – Financier, Continental congressman, U.S. senator
  • John Jay – Lawyer, diplomat, Continental congressman, first Chief Justice
  • Thomas Jefferson – Lawyer, polymath, drafter of the Declaration of Independence, third President
  • Henry Laurens – Merchant, planter, slave trader, president of Continental Congress
  • Arthur Lee – Diplomat to France, Continental congressman
  • Francis Lightfoot Lee – VA politician, signer of the Declaration of Independence
  • Richard Henry Lee – VA revolutionary, signer of the Declaration of Independence, senator
  • Philip Livingston – NY merchant, signer of the Declaration of Independence
  • Robert R. Livingston – NY lawyer, politician, signer of the Declaration of Independence
  • James Madison – Constitutionalist, congressman, Secretary of State, fourth President
  • John Marshall – Soldier, lawyer, politician, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court
  • George Mason – Politician, author, political philosopher, Anti-Federalist
  • James Monroe – Soldier, lawyer, VA governor, diplomat, fifth President
  • Gouverneur Morris – Merchant, financier; helped draft then stylized the Constitution
  • Robert Morris – Signer of the Declaration of Independence, “Financier of the Revolution”
  • James Otis, Jr. – Lawyer, politician, Boston revolutionary
  • Charles Pinckney – Soldier, Constitutional Convention delegate, South Carolina governor
  • Charles Cotesworth Pinckney – Lawyer, soldier, delegate to the Constitutional Convention
  • Edmund Randolph – Lawyer, VA governor, Constitutional Convention delegate
  • Peyton Randolph – Lawyer, VA politician, first president of Continental Congress
  • George Read – Lawyer, signer of the Declaration of Independence, senator for DE
  • John Rutledge – SC governor, second Chief Justice of the Supreme Court
  • Roger Sherman – Lawyer and politician from CT; signer of the Declaration of Independence
  • Richard Stockton – Lawyer, signer of the Declaration of Independence
  • James Wilson – Lawyer, signer of the Declaration of Independence, Supreme Court justice
  • George Wythe – Lawyer, teacher, scholar, signer of the Declaration of Independence

British

French

In 1789 the South and especially Virginia had been the impelling force in creating the nation. By 1815 the South and slaveholders still seemed to be in control of the national government. President Madison was a slaveholder. So too were Speaker of the House, Henry Clay, James Monroe, the secretary of state, and George W. Campbell, the secretary of the treasury. All Republican leaders of the House were slaveholders. In 1815 the United States had four missions in Europe: two of them were held by slaveholders. The chief justice of the United States was a slaveholder, as were a majority of the other members of the Court. Since 1789 three of the four presidents, two of the five vice-presidents, fourteen of the twenty-six presidents pro tempore the Senate, and five of the ten Speakers of the House had been slaveholders.

— Gordon S. Wood
Empire of Liberty: A History of the Early Republic, 1789–1815 (2009)