Arthur Middleton
Arthur Middleton used the South Carolina Provincial Congress and the Continental Congress in 1776 to push independence, sign the Declaration, and help frame wartime state government.
Born June 26, 1742 / Died January 1, 1787
On June 26, 1742, at Middleton Place in the Province of South Carolina, Arthur Middleton was born into one of the colony's most prominent planting families. He studied in England at Westminster School, St John's College, Cambridge, and the Middle Temple before returning to Charleston. That education prepared him for leadership in the South Carolina Commons House and the revolutionary committees that displaced royal authority in 1775 and 1776.
Middleton served on the South Carolina Council of Safety, helped shape the state's 1776 constitution, and took a seat in the Continental Congress in time to sign the Declaration of Independence. He also backed military resistance in South Carolina during the war and was captured after the fall of Charleston in 1780. Imprisonment at St. Augustine did not end his public role, and he returned to political life after exchange.
Middleton's service linked South Carolina's revolutionary constitution-making to the larger national movement for independence. His capture after Charleston also made him part of the enduring memory of elite sacrifice and military defeat that shaped southern Revolutionary commemoration.
Key Contributions
- She was named for Founding Father Arthur Middleton and was scrapped in 1973.
- Arthur Middleton was born on June 26, 1742.
- Arthur Middleton was a Founding Father of the United States, signer of the United States Declaration of Independence, and a representative from South Carolina in the Second Continental Congress.
Related Events
Declaration of Independence adopted
On July 4, 1776, the Second Continental Congress approved Thomas Jefferson's Declaration of Independence and ordered the document printed as the public case for separation.
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