If asked to come up with a fact or two about the founders of the United States, we tend to rely on the well-worn tales that have lodged in the collective memory. Many schoolchildren will repeat the (almost certainly bogus) story about Washington's cherry tree, while adults may wink at the reputation of Benjamin "Good Time" Franklin and his inveterate womanizing.
But there are a lot more interesting — and factually accurate — stories out there about the better-known early patriots. And there's also a sizable population of Founding Fathers who we don't even know. In the following article, we'll discover why Thomas Jefferson was running an estate poorer than Downton Abbey and why your "John Hancock" is so much less valuable than your "Button Gwinnett." Let's start by solving the biggest mystery: who the Founding Fathers were.
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