We all know John Hancock as a signature, but the man behind the name was one of the richest merchants in the 13 colonies who risked his fortune and his neck to back a revolution against the system that made him rich. This episode separates the myths from the man.

We follow Hancock from a modest childhood to inheriting the House of Hancock, his unlikely partnership with Samuel Adams, the Lydia and Liberty affairs, and his escape from Lexington. We also examine the truth behind his famous signature, his petty feud with Harvard, his political maneuvering as governor of Massachusetts, and why history largely forgot him.

• How Hancock inherited his uncle’s import-export empire and why the Sugar Act and Stamp Act threatened colonial merchants
• The partnership between the wealthy Hancock and the radical Samuel Adams
• The Liberty affair, the vice admiralty court case, and the debate over whether Hancock was a smuggler
• Why his name was the only one on the first printed Declaration of Independence, and the myth of his oversized signature
• His Harvard ledger feud, his convenient gout during Shays’ Rebellion, and his support for ratifying the Constitution