The Signers of the Declaration pledged one another their "lives, fortunes and ______."?

Question

A)Free will
B)sacred honor
C)heritage
D)Immortal Souls

Answer 1

B)sacred honor

Here's an account from the US Senate Republican Policy Committee that discusses the price paid by the signers of the Declaration of Independence:
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What Price Was Paid? And, when the war had ended and their pledge had been redeemed, what price had the Signers paid?

They pledged their lives, and nine Signers died of wounds or hardships during the war. Another five were captured or imprisoned, and some of them were treated brutally.

The wives and children of others were killed, jailed, mistreated, persecuted, or left penniless. The British drove one Signer from his wife's deathbed, and he lost all of his children.

Two of Abraham Clark's sons (Clark was from New Jersey) were captured by the British and imprisoned in a floating hell hole. So many American prisoners died on that ship and in the warehouses of New York City that the shores of Long Island Sound were reported to be "white with human bones" of the dead who had been pitched into the river. Because their father was a Signer, the Clarks were selected for especially brutal treatment. Thomas Clark, a captain of artillery, was put in solitary confinement and starved. He managed to stay alive only because other prisoners pushed bread to him through his key hole.

The British told Abraham Clark of his boys' fate, and they offered to release his boys if Clark deserted the patriots' cause. He refused. Further, he did not bring the matter to the attention of the Congress where he sat, and he asked for no special consideration from the military.

When news of Captain Clark's treatment eventually reached Congress, Congress ordered General Washington to take a British captain from an aristocratic family, throw him in a hole, and starve him to death. When Washington informed the British of the order that he had received from Congress, General Sir William Howe ordered that the persecution of the Clark brothers promptly cease. Thereafter, both sides improved conditions for their prisoners.

Abraham Clark refused to revoke his solemn pledge in order to save his own sons. When he died in 1794 no monument was raised, but the following epitaph appears on his gravestone:

He loved his Country
And Adhered to her Cause
In the Darkest Hours of her Struggles
Against Oppression.

The Signers pledged their fortunes, and the houses of twelve Signers were burned to the ground. At Yorktown, American artillery men purposely spared Thomas Nelson's house until he gave a direct order that the house be fired upon. The first round sent a ball completely through the house killing British officers. Eventually, the house was destroyed by cannon fire.

Seventeen Signers lost everything they owned.

They pledged their sacred honor, and every Signer was condemned as a traitor and hunted. Most were driven into flight and often barred from their families or homes. They were offered immunity, freedom, rewards, their property, or their lives and the release of their loved ones if they would break their pledge or take the King's protection.

But, not one Signer defected or changed his stand, even in the darkest hours of the war.

Answer 2

B
Many of the signers lost their lives and/or their fortunes, but not their honor.
They put their lives on the line by signing that document.
If things had gone the other way, they would have all been hanged by the neck until dead and they knew it.

Answer 3

B