Stephen Hopkins (politician)
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- This article is about the 18th century American politician; see Stephen Hopkins for other men who bore that name.
Stephen Hopkins (March 7, 1707–July 13, 1785) was an American political leader from Rhode Island who signed the Declaration of Independence. He served as the Governor of colonial Rhode Island and was a Delegate to the Colonial Congress in Albany in 1754 and to the Continental Congress from 1774 to 1776.
Hopkins was born in Providence, Rhode Island, the son of William and Ruth (Wilkinson) Hopkins. Hopkins' younger brother, Esek Hopkins, later became the first leader of the United States Navy. He grew up on a farm in Scituate, Rhode Island and attended a public school. He moved back to Providence in 1742 and worked as a foundryman, merchant, ship owner, and surveyor.
Hopkins helped to found a subscription library in 1754, and was a member of the Philosophical Society of Newport. Although largely self educated, Hopkins served as chancellor of Rhode Island College (now Brown University) from 1764 to 1785. In 1764 he published a pamphlet "The Rights of the Colonies Examined" whose broad distribution and criticism of taxation and Parliament built his reputation as a revolutionary leader. Hopkins had Cerebral Palsy, and was noted to have said, as he signed the Declaration of Independence, "My hand trembles, my heart does not."
[edit] Political career
Hopkins served in Rhode Island's colonial assembly (1732-1752, 1770-1775) and was its Speaker in 1738 to 1744 and in 1749. He represented Rhode Island at the Albany Congress in 1754. He was elected Governor of Rhode Island nine times (1755-1756, 1758-1761, 1763-1764, and 1767).
He led the state's delegation to the Continental Congress until September of 1776, when his health forced him to resign the post.
While serving in the Rhode Island Assembly in 1774 he introduced the bill that outlawed the import of slaves to the colony. This became one of the first anti-slavery laws in the United States.
Stephen died at his home in Providence on July 13, 1785, and is interred in the North Burial Ground there. The town of Hopkinton, Rhode Island was later named after him. The SS Stephen Hopkins, a liberty ship named in his honor, was the first U.S. ship to sink a German surface warship in World War II.
[edit] In fiction
In the musical 1776, which tells the story of the drafting and signing of the Declaration of Independence, Stephen Hopkins is a main character played by veteran character actor Roy Poole. He is depicted as a well meaning, but cantankerous, drunkard whose force of personality helps keep the Continental Congress together.
[edit] External links
