People

Sherman Edwards wrote, "There is, after all, a limit to an audience's ability to assimilate (and keep separate) a large number of characters, as well as the physical limits of any given stage production. For this reason several of the lesser known (and least contributory) Congressmen were eliminated altogether, and in a few cases two or more were combined into a single character. James Wilson, for example, contains a few of the qualities of his fellow Pennsylvanian, John Morton. And John Adams is, at times, a composite of himself and his cousin Sam Adams."

In 1776, the only fully-represented delegation is Delaware; every other colony/state is represented by far fewer men than in reality.

The historical figures in the cast of 1776

1. Delegates of the Second Continental Congress

President: John Hancock
New Hampshire: Josiah Bartlett
Massachusetts: John Adams
Rhode Island: Stephen Hopkins
Connecticut: Roger Sherman
New York: Lewis Morris, Robert Livingston
New Jersey: Rev. John Witherspoon
Pennsylvania: Benjamin Franklin, John Dickinson, James Wilson
Delaware: Caesar Rodney, Thomas McKean, George Read
Maryland: Samuel Chase
Virginia: Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson
North Carolina: Joseph Hewes
South Carolina: Edward Rutledge
Georgia: Lyman Hall

(Compare this to the historical list of signers of the Declaration. Not all the signers were in attendance during the actual vote, but it is a good enough approximation of how many people were really there.)

2. Other key figures