AGES OF REVOLUTION: HOW OLD WERE THEY ON JULY 4, 1776?

[LiberalArkie]

http://allthingsliberty.com/2013/08/ages-of-revolution-how-old-1776/



It’s a simple question — perhaps so basic that it’s been overlooked. How old were the key participants of the American Revolution?

Authors often reveal the age of a particular soldier, politician or other main character in books about the Revolution, but I routinely find myself wondering about their peers at the same time. As it turns out, many Founding Fathers were less than 40 years old in 1776 with several qualifying as Founding Teenagers and Twentysomethings. And though the average age of the signers of the Declaration of Independence was 44, more than a dozen of them were 35 or younger!

Andrew Jackson, 9
(Major) Thomas Young, 12
Deborah Sampson, 15
James Armistead, 15
Sybil Ludington, 15
Joseph Plumb Martin, 15
Peter Salem, 16*
Peggy Shippen, 16
Marquis de Lafayette, 18
James Monroe, 18
Charles Pinckney, 18
Henry Lee III, 20
Gilbert Stuart, 20
John Trumbull, 20
Aaron Burr, 20
John Marshall, 20
Nathan Hale, 21
Banastre Tarleton, 21
Alexander Hamilton, 21*
John Laurens, 21
Benjamin Tallmadge, 22
Robert Townsend, 22
George Rogers Clark, 23
David Humphreys, 23
Gouveneur Morris, 24
Betsy Ross, 24
William Washington, 24
James Madison, 25
Henry Knox, 25
John Andre, 26
Thomas Lynch, Jr., 26^
Edward Rutledge, 26^
Abraham Woodhull, 26
Isaiah Thomas, 27
George Walton, 27*^
John Paul Jones, 28
Bernardo de Galvez, 29
Thomas Heyward, Jr., 29^
Robert R. Livingston, 29
John Jay, 30
Tadeusz Kosciuszko, 30
Benjamin Rush, 30^
Abigail Adams, 31
John Barry, 31
Elbridge Gerry, 31^
Casimir Pulaski, 31

Snip

http://allthingsliberty.com/2013/08/ages-of-revolution-how-old-1776/

[MADem]

1. Of course, life was harder then, life expectancy was shorter, and 35 was most definitely middle aged

Nowadays, 25 year olds are regarded as barely adults...and it turns out, that's not wrong. The brain is still maturing up until then...!

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=141164708

COX: Is this idea that the brains of 18 year olds aren't fully developed a matter of settled science?

AAMODT: Yes. The car rental companies got to it first, but neuroscientists have caught up and brain scans show clearly that the brain is not fully finished developing until about age 25.

COX: To not be too clinical in the spin that we put on this, what parts of the brain are we talking about and what changes happen between the ages of 18 and, let's say, 25?

AAMODT: So the changes that happen between 18 and 25 are a continuation of the process that starts around puberty, and 18 year olds are about halfway through that process. Their prefrontal cortex is not yet fully developed. That's the part of the brain that helps you to inhibit impulses and to plan and organize your behavior to reach a goal.....

[LiberalArkie]

2. George Washington was in his 40's and Franklin was over 70

Here is the end of the list

Thomas Gage, 56
James Smith, 56^
Israel Putnam, 58
Comte de Vergennes, 58
Lewis Nicola, 59*
George Germain, 60
Philip Livingston, 60^
George Taylor, 60*^
Matthew Thornton, 62^
Francis Lewis, 63^
John Hart, 65*^
Stephen Hopkins, 69^
Benjamin Franklin, 70^
Samuel Whittemore, 81

[MADem]

4. Benjamin Franklin was a horny old Forever Young kind of guy.

His poor wife. She literally hardly knew him!

His misbehaviors probably kept him hale and hearty....

[Wilms]

3. That's a confusing OP.

Andrew Jackson, for instance, was neither a signer nor a Founding Father.

At best, "For the generation of national leaders coming of age in the 1820s and 1830s – men like Andrew Jackson, Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, and John C. Calhoun – "the founders" represented a heroic but anonymous abstraction whose long shadow fell across all followers and whose legendary accomplishments defied comparison." - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Founding_Fathers_of_the_United_States

Here's the list of the signers.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Signers_of_the_United_States_Declaration_of_Independence

[Warren DeMontague]

6. You're telling me. I thought it was asking "how old were YOU on July 4, 1776"

I'm all, fuck, I know DU skews older, but this is ridiculous.

[Glassunion]

8. He stays young in several ways.

The salty ocean air, and playing bands with younger folks, like R.E.M., Kravitz, Foo Fighters, and lately Them Crooked Vultures.

[Glassunion]

7. Well... Revolution is a young person's game...

I was first amazed at how young some of these folks were on a visit to the Constitution Center in Philly a few years ago.

In Signer's Hall, there are life sized bronze statues of those who "added their name to the Constitution—as well as those who dissented—on September 17, 1787." http://constitutioncenter.org/experience/exhibitions/main-exhibition/signers-hall/

On the floor in front of each of the status is a plaque with their name and age at the time of the signing. I was amazed that a sizable portion were so young. The stature of them is also surprising. We all know George Washington was a tall man, but I've always imagined most of them to be larger than life, but I found myself having to look down at quite a few of them.

[PADemD]

10. Ages of Revolution

According to William Strauss and Neil Howe in their book, Generations The History of America's Future 1584 to 2069, the men who fought the Revolutionary War were known as the Liberty Generation, a reactive type.

Today, the reactive type generation was born between 1961 and 1981 and are known as The Thirteenth Generation.

I highly recommend reading this book as it is a unique analysis of our history and shows how the repeating four generational types have distinct personalities.

http://www.amazon.com/Generations-History-Americas-Future-1584/dp/0688119123

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strauss%E2%80%93Howe_generational_theory