Sacred Honor

In 1768, Philadelphia physician Benjamin Rush stood before the empty throne of King George III, overcome with emotion as he gazed at the symbol of America's connection with England. Eight years later, he became one of the fifty-six men to sign the Declaration of Independence, severing America forever from its mother country. Rush was not alone in his radical decision -- many of those casting their votes in favor of independence did so with a combination of fear, reluctance, and even sadness. In Our Lives, Our Fortunes and Our Sacred Honor, acclaimed historian Richard R. Beeman examines the grueling twenty-two-month period between the meeting of the Continental Congress on September 5, 1774 and the audacious decision for independence in July of 1776. As late as 1774, American independence was hardly inevitable -- indeed, most Americans found it neither desirable nor likely. When delegates from the thirteen colonies gathered in September, they were, in the words of John Adams, "a gathering of strangers." Yet over the next two years, military, political, and diplomatic events catalyzed a change of unprecedented magnitude: the colonists' rejection of their British identities in favor of American ones. In arresting detail, Beeman brings to life a cast of characters, including the relentless and passionate John Adams, Adams' much-misunderstood foil John Dickinson, the fiery political activist Samuel Adams, and the relative political neophyte Thomas Jefferson, and with profound insight reveals their path from subjects of England to citizens of a new nation. A vibrant narrative, Our Lives, Our Fortunes and Our Sacred Honor tells the remarkable story of how the delegates to the Continental Congress, through courage and compromise, came to dedicate themselves to the forging of American independence.

A biography of General Powell, one of the most respected and popular military leaders of his time, and a peerless role model for African-Americans. Covers his life from the early days in Harlem to his rise as the first Black chairman of the Joint Chiefs of staff.

The stories, songs, letters, and speeches collected in Our Sacred Honor are an inspiring celebration of American exceptionalism, produced by a collection of exceptional Americans.

In 1776, Benjamin Thompson, a Loyalist spy, makes a deal with Lord Germain that he will time travel to the future, steal the original Declaration of Independence, go back to 1774 and sell the Declaration to him. In 2276, Huey T. Stone wants to destroy the Declaration and replace it with his own brand of history. Neither Benjamin Thompson nor Huey Stone are aware that there are three people determined to stop them. Mbakondja, an underground militant, disagrees with Hueyas grand vision of a new America. Don Honeyman, a double spy and descendant of John Honeyman, switches alliances when he learns the truth about Lizzie Freeman. Lizzie Freeman, British double agent in 1776 and 2276, wants to eliminate Huey Stone from office and take over his job as Royal Governor of the Commonwealth of the United City States.

In July of 1776, the members of the Second Continental Congress were meeting in Philadelphia. After approving the resolution for independence, they adopted the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. In the Declaration, each of the men pledged his life, fortune and sacred honor to the cause of American independence. These are the stories of those men.

Most histories of the American South describe the conflict between evangelical religion and honor culture as one of the defining features of southern life before the Civil War. The story is usually told as a battle of clashing worldviews, but in this book, Robert Elder challenges this interpretation by illuminating just how deeply evangelicalism in Methodist, Baptist, and Presbyterian churches was interwoven with traditional southern culture, arguing that evangelicals owed much of their success to their ability to appeal to people steeped in southern honor culture. Previous accounts of the rise of evangelicalism in the South have told this tale as a tragedy in which evangelicals eventually adopted many of the central tenets of southern society in order to win souls and garner influence. But through an examination of evangelical language and practices, Elder shows that evangelicals always shared honor's most basic assumptions. Making use of original sources such as diaries, correspondence, periodicals, and church records, Elder recasts the relationship between evangelicalism and secular honor in the South, proving the two concepts are connected in much deeper ways than have ever been previously understood.