Known for

• The only person to sign all four great state papers of the United States: the Continental Association, the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, and the Constitution

• Fathered the Connecticut Compromise (1787), which solved the dispute of how states would be represented in the new federal government

• United States Senator from Connecticut (1791-1793)

• 1st Mayor of New Haven, Connecticut (1784-1793)
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During 1776

• Delegate for Connecticut

• Age: 55

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Background

• Born: 1721 in Newton, Massachusetts

  • His family moved to Connecticut after his father's death in 1743​

• Education: Did not extend beyond his father's library and grammar school, but a Harvard-educated minister also took Sherman under his wing

• Spouse: Elizabeth Hartwell (m. 1749, d. 1760); Rebecca Prescott (m. 1763)

• ​Children: 15 total (13 reached adulthood); 7 with Elizabeth Hartwell, 8 with Rebecca Prescott

• Slaveowning

  • Did not own slaves

  • ​Personally opposed slavery and the slave trade

  • Believed (incorrectly) that slavery was already gradually being abolished and the trend was moving southward

  • However, when debating the Constitution, he would turn out to be the South's greatest northern ally in trying to preserve slavery, because he wanted the South's support on issues important to Connecticut

    • ​Sherman asserted that "the public good did not require" an end to the trade

    • Noting that the states already had the right to import slaves, Sherman said that there would be no point in taking a right away from the states unnecessarily because "it was expedient to have as few objections as possible" to the new Constitution

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Personal beliefs

• Politics: Patriot/Whig

  • John Adams called him "an old Puritan, as honest as an angel and as firm in the cause of American Independence as Mount Atlas."

• Religion: Puritan (Calvinist)​