Founding Father Samuel Adams was a thorn in the side of the British in the years leading up to the American Revolution. As a political activist and state legislator, he spoke out against British efforts to tax settlers and pressured traders to boycott British goods. He was also an important leader of the Sons of Liberty, a radical group which engaged in violent civil disobedience and retaliation against those who cooperated with the British. Additionally, as a writer, Adams was a skillful propagandist, producing dozens of newspaper articles, pamphlets and letters to promote resistance to British rule.
In fact, while George Washington led the American colonists to victory in the Revolutionary War, there might not have been a revolution at all without provocateurs such as Samuel Adams.
Adams and other firefighters helped push moderate colonial rulers to join the resistance against the British, which ultimately led to war. But Adams was not just a rioter. He was also a serious political theorist who championed the notion of individual rights, which became a core American value. During the Revolutionary War, Adams served in the Continental Congress and helped draft the Articles of Confederation, the document that was the predecessor of the US Constitution.
Samuel Adams background and beginnings
Adams was born in Boston on September 27, 1722 to a well-to-do Puritan family. His father, Samuel Adams, Sr., was an important local merchant and religious deacon who was also active in local politics. His mother, Mary Adams, was the daughter of a local businessman.
Adams attended Boston Latin School and then went to Harvard College. It was there that Adams was introduced to the writings of John Locke, an Enlightenment philosopher, who argued that all people are born with certain rights that cannot be taken away and that governments exist with the consent of the people. This idea made a strong impression on Adams, who wrote his master’s thesis in 1743 at Harvard on the legality of resistance to British rule.
When Adams’ father died in 1748, he inherited the family business of making malted barley and supplying it to brewers. He may also have tried brewing, judging from a newspaper ad from 1751 in which he offered “strong beer or malt to those who tend to brew it themselves; for sale by Samuel Adams, at a reasonable price. ”
But Adams was not very good at running the business and eventually went bankrupt. He also failed as a tourist tax collector, performing his duties so poorly that his records ended up in the thousands of pounds.
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Son of freedom
Although Adams was not very good at money, he was a good writer. He and a few friends have created their own ephemeral diary, The public announcer, who published Adams’s opinion pieces. He took the opportunity to urge other Bostonians to cherish and protect their personal freedom.
Adams ‘voice became more prominent in the mid-1760s, when the British government attempted to repay the Seven Years’ War debt by imposing new taxes on American settlers. While others were content to grumble about the economic damage, Adams argued in print media that the British were violating the rights of settlers, because they were taxed without representation in Parliament. He denounced the Stamp Act, a tax law of 1765, as an attempt “to destroy America’s freedoms in one fell swoop.”
That same year, Adams was elected to the Massachusetts House of Representatives, a position he would hold for nine years. Around this time, he also joined a secret activist group called the Loyal Nine, which eventually evolved into a more radical organization called the Sons of Liberty.
When British troops arrived in Boston in 1768, Adams became more involved in organizing resistance against the Crown. He wrote dozens of newspaper articles under pen names, attacking the British. He also pressured Boston merchants to boycott British goods.
Role in the Boston Tea Party
The political demonstration known as the Boston Tea Party was held on December 16, 1773 in Boston, Massachusetts.
Ed Vebell / Getty Images
After the British Parliament passed the Tea Act in 1773, which sought to force settlers to buy their tea from the British East India Company, Adams helped organize Bostonians to prevent tea shipments. A group of resistance fighters took matters even further, disguising themselves as Indian warriors and boarding several British ships to throw their tea, in what has come to be known as the Boston Tea Party. Adams, who may have played a role in planning the event, then praised him publicly, writing that the protesters “acted on pure and honest principle.”
Finally, the British authorities have had enough of Adams and his commotion. In 1775, British General Thomas Gage led a force of soldiers from Boston to Lexington on a mission to arrest Adams and his radical colonial compatriot John Hancock. But American spies got wind of the plan and the American militiamen clashed with the British on Lexington Common. The battles of Lexington and Concord that followed were the first armed confrontations that sparked the Revolutionary War.
As a delegate to the Continental Congress, Adams signed the Declaration of Independence and continued his inflammatory rhetoric. In a 1776 speech in Philadelphia, he lambasted Americans who sided with the Crown. “If you love wealth better than freedom, the tranquility of bondage than the heated struggle for freedom, leave us in peace,” Adams said. “We are not asking for your advice or your weapons. Squat down and lick the hands that feed you. “
As a member of the Continental Congress, Adams also helped draft the Articles of Confederation, the predecessor of the US Constitution.
Samuel Adams’ last years
After leaving the Continental Congress in 1781, Adams returned to Boston and eventually returned to state politics. He served for a time as chairman of the Massachusetts Senate and as lieutenant governor under Governor John Hancock, his former radical colleague. When Hancock passed away in office, Adams succeeded him, and was then elected to three one-year terms before retiring.
Adams died at the age of 81 on October 2, 1803.
Samuel Adams Quotes
“Among the natural rights of settlers are these: First, the right to life; Second, to freedom; Third, to property; as well as the right to support and defend them in the best possible way. These are obvious branches, rather than deductions, of the duty of self-preservation, commonly referred to as the first law of nature. “
“Some of our politicians would like to make the people believe that the administration is willing or determined that all the grievances we complain about will be rectified, if we remain silent. But to apprehend it would be a fatal illusion.
“There can be no property in what another may rightfully take from us without our consent.”
“If the British administration and government do not return to the principles of moderation and equity, the evil which they claim to seek to prevent by their own rigorous measures will be as soon as possible: the complete separation and independence of the colonies. “
“We cannot do events. Our job is to improve them judiciously. ”
“Shame on the men who can court exemption from the present troubles and costs at the cost of the freedom of their own posterity!”
“How strangely a tyrant’s tools will pervert the ordinary meaning of words!”
s
Settler rights, by Samuel Adams.
The Writings of Samuel Adams, vol. III (1773-1777) by Samuel Adams.
Biographical sketch of Samuel Adams, American Battlefield Trust.
Desperate Sons: Samuel Adams, Patrick Henry, John Hancock and the Secret Radical Groups that Led the Colonies to War, by Lee Standiford
Biographical sketch of Samuel Adams, National Park Service.
Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
Samuel Adams: The Life of an American Revolutionary, by John K. Alexander.
