The Founders: Benjamin Harrison V

Benjamin Harrison V

“I shall have a great advantage over you, Mr. Gerry, when we are all hung for what we are now doing. From the size and weight of my body I shall die in a few minutes, but from the lightness of your body you will dance in the air an hour or two before you are dead”. 

Benjamin Harrison the fifth, who was quite heavy, said the above to his friend Elbridge Gerry as they were waiting in line to sign the Declaration of Independence. Harrison the fifth is often mixed up with his great grandchild Benjamin Harrison who was US President in the late 1800s. He was a slaveholder, as were most of the founders, but he signed a petition in 1772 to King George favoring the abolishment of the slave trade.