1. Words, images, meanings

The phrase “founding fathers” is central to how Americans talk about politics, and “Words, images, meanings” describes when the phrase was first coined, what it really means, and how artists have depicted the “founding fathers”—those who helped to found the United States as a nation and a political experiment. This group has two subsets. First are the Signers, delegates to the Second Continental Congress, who in July 1776 declared American independence and signed the Declaration of Independence. Second are the Framers, the delegates to the Federal Convention who in 1787 framed the United States Constitution. They include Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, John Jay, James Madison, and Alexander Hamilton.

2. Contexts

The founding fathers were born into a remarkable variety of families, occupations, religious loyalties, and geographic settings: from landed gentry destined to join the ruling elite, to middling or common sorts who chose the law or medicine as a professional path to distinction, or immigrants from other parts of the British Empire. They lived within and were shaped by three interlocking contexts—the intellectual world of the transatlantic Enlightenment; the political context within which Americans sought to preserve and improve the best of the Anglo-American constitutional heritage; and the social, economic, and cultural context formed as a result of their living on the Atlantic world’s periphery.

Epilogue

The “Epilogue” concludes that Americans’ contentious relationship with the founding fathers has unfolded within and been shaped by two linked questions: how much do the founding fathers resemble us and how much do they differ from us? To what extent must we keep faith with them, and to what extent must we challenge them or set them aside in the face of changing conditions and problems? The Preamble’s statement that the Constitution’s primary purpose is “to form a more perfect Union” offers a way to answer these questions. The idea of perfecting the Union has been a vital feature of American constitutional culture and, in particular, a key theme of African American constitutional thought.

4. Legacies

“Legacies: What history has made of the founding fathers” shows that the founding fathers’ history has unfolded in two ways—one being their developing role in the American people’s historical memory, the other being their evolving place in history as interpreted by generations of historians. It also highlights how posterity has chosen individuals to revere or to chastise. The reputations of some founding fathers (George Washington and Benjamin Franklin) have remained consistently high; the reputations of others (Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton) have risen and fallen in historical cycles; others (John Adams, James Madison, and John Jay) have languished in neglect, only to be rediscovered and restored to the national pantheon.

3. Achievements and challenges

For seven decades, the founding fathers played pivotal roles in creating an American nation and its constitutional system. “Achievements and challenges: The history the founding fathers made” looks at the steps taken to achieve independence, nationhood, and constitutional government. It considers the creation of state and national constitutions; the drafting of the Bill of Rights; federalism and state sovereignty; the setting up of both federal and state courts and judicial power; the evolution of political parties; church-state relations; and issues of slavery and women’s rights. The founding fathers were human beings who dared greatly and achieved greatly, but they were also beset by flaws and failings common to humanity.