Samuel+Adams+-+4th+Hour

=Samuel Adams 1772-1803= Samuel Adams’ date of birth is somewhat ambiguous; some sources state Sunday, September 16, 1772, while others believe it was Sunday, September 27, 1772. However, all sources state that he was born to Mary and Samuel Adams senior. The Adams family were residents of the Massachusetts Bay Colony and lived a community where standing up for liberty and resistance against the King were traditions. Samuel Adams was truly “//born a rebel//” as John Adams would later say. Samuel lived comfortably in a well-off home that was supported by his father's malt making business. He sold the malt to beer merchants, which was made in a small shack in their backyard. Samuel's father was also involved in the community; he helped found the New South Church in 1715, where he was a deacon. He was also a justice of the peace. Not much is known about Samuel’s mother except that only 3 of her 12 children survived to adulthood.
 * Early life:**

Samuel attended Boston Latin School along with many other future signers of the Declaration of Independence. In 1736, he attended Harvard at 14 years old, and returned in 1743 for his masters at the age of 21. Samuel's parents pushed him to become a minister, but he was more interested in politics. His father, noticing his interest in politics, encouraged him to study law because it would help him succeed in the political world. After finishing school, Samuel began to work as an apprentice in a counting house of a well-known Bostonian merchant, Thomas Cushing. Adams was eventually fired years later, so he opened his own store, but he was more interested in reading about politics than in book keeping, ledgers and invoices. This faint interest caused his store to be unsuccessful. He then moved into his parent’s house, surviving off of the money he inherited from his father's malt house. Soon after moving in, his father died on March 17, 1748, at the age of 57. Samuel was only 24.
 * Schooling and Teenage Life:**

During Samuel’s mourning, Elizabeth Checkly entered Samuel’s life. They had many things in common, including their Christianity (her father was the minister who baptized Samuel), and the fact that they were 1 of 3 out of 12 children who lived to adulthood. They were married on October 17, 1749, by Elizabeth’s father, and it was believed to be a happy marriage. During his marriage, Samuel decided to try writing articles for the local newspaper. His first debut was in the weekly, //Independent Advertiser.// In his articles he wrote about liberty and it’s importance to mankind. He published articles from 1748-1750. Shortly after getting married, Elizabeth got pregnant in 1751 and gave birth to her first son, who unfortunately only lived for 18 days. A year later she got pregnant again and had a son named Samuel Jr. who lived until adulthood. In 1756, Elizabeth gave birth to a third child, Hannah, who also lived to adulthood. In 1757, nineteen days after her sixth birth, which was a stillborn, Elizabeth died on July 25th. Samuel was then left alone as a single parent of three children.
 * The Married Life:**

During 1747, it seemed that colonial freedom was at risk when the in November a British Naval commodore sent over seamen that seized the town’s residents. During this time, property was also at risk because it could easily be taken by the British soldiers. The town Sheriff threatened to auction off Samuel Adams Senior's house and property, which was where Samuel was currently living. The house was said to be auctioned on March 9, 1752, (to settle the sheriff's dues to the closed Land Bank), but Samuel fought off the auction so it was held off. In October 1755, Samuel wrote to the //Boston Gazette// in protest of the auction, and his opposition to the scandal appealed to the townspeople and the court of popular opinion. In his protest, Samuel asked to be treated like British subject with the privileges that were protected by the British Constitution. Even though Samuel protested, the sheriff still tried to auction off the property, but Samuel ended up being able to keep the it.
 * Land Bank Scandal:**

Samuel Adams' political interests were sparked after the land and bank conflict during his teenage years. He became interested in politics because he believed that the governor, British Parliament, and the merchants from England and Massachusetts had no business being in his father's affairs. He also began to realize that Britain viewed the colonies as inferior to the mother country, and that American’s businesses were economic rivals to their markets. They wanted to keep America’s economic growth in check so that they wouldn’t be able to become a powerful, independent nation without their notice.
 * Political Life:**

In 1748, Sam and a few friends formed a political debate club that staged debates concerning current colonial issues, and they also established a publication called, //The Public Advertiser//. This would serve as a vehicle to shape the public opinion on what was going on regarding Anglo-American relations. Using //The Public// //Advertiser//, Adams could plant seeds of suspicion regarding Britain’s intrusions on the colonists’ rights. He wanted to convince his neighbors and townspeople to beware of invasions on their rights. Over time, Adams began to realize that he could prevent the British authority from disregarding the colonies' civil liberties, and he continued his writings on colonial rights. He soon became well known for his avid advocacy of civil rights and colonial privileges.

Samuel was elected as a tax collector in 1756, which allowed him to come in contact with many people. He could easily express his views to everyone in town, and he gained a sense of the public opinion that could not be rivaled by any other local leader. He knew what the townspeople were feeling and could sympathize with their hardships. By 1761, he became very involved in Bostonian civic affairs and took part in a variety of town committees. This involvement showed that he cared about his fellow townspeople and that he wanted to take part in how the colony was being run. Adams believed it was important that the influential men in Bostonian society take part in city politics so they could help stand up against harmful British laws regarding the colonies. He talked to his cousin, John Adams, along with Benjamin Church, James Otis, Josiah Quincy, John Hancock, and Thomas Cushing Jr. expressing the urgency that their freedoms were in danger and that they should keep the British out of their affairs.

When George Grenville passed the Sugar Act in 1764, none of the Bostonians complained or opposed the tax. Adams was the only one to speak out about it because he believed that it was a violation of self-government and that the colonies shouldn’t allow Parliament to impose taxes upon them. The taxes would ultimately lead to more taxes, along with more authoritative figures in America and dependence on England. He believed all of this would eventually leave the self-governing legislators without any power to govern their cities. Adams also knew that British merchants would complain to Parliament and they would repeal the act. In the spring of 1764, he began organizing the merchants boycott against British goods. He knew it would only be effective if all of the colonies agreed to carry it out. Their union seemed virtually impossible since he did not hold an office of any kind in Boston’s assembly, so he used delegates James Otis and Oxenbridge Thacher to handle certain issues in the assembly. He was an avid supporter and believer of ‘no tax without representation.’ Samuel wanted them to be repealed because they were being taxed without being properly represented in British Parliament. The taxes also slowed down economic growth in both the colonies and England.

His avid participation in Bostonian politics inspired many local leaders to become civil rights activists for the colonies. In late 1764, he met with many professional clubs and pled the case that a boycott of the British merchants and goods would lead to repeal of the Sugar Act. His advocacy led to the spread of non-importation policies in the New England colonies.

After the Stamp Act was passed in 1764, Benjamin Franklin believed protesting the act would be useless. When the colonies learned of the tax, unexpected uproar erupted. The campaign against British products started by Adams over the Sugar Act instilled power and vigor into the townspeople. After his protests and arguments were published across the United States, leaders in the other colonies began to feel the same way. Using delegate James Otis, Adams was able to launch a congress against the highly disliked Stamp Act in 1765. Otis used Adams’ instructions for the Massachusetts House, which called for sending invitations to the other colonies legislatures. At first, the status of the Stamp Act Congress was not encouraging. New Jersey, Maryland, Virginia, and New Hampshire had all declined in one way or another, but when South Carolina accepted, it caused a domino effect of accepted invitations. Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island then accepted. Protests and demonstrations, sparked from Adams opposition, erupted in Boston. Adams was not a part of the protests. The Sons of Liberty gained a crowd of 2,000 and marched through Boston and burned some of the believed offenders at the stake.

The Stamp Act and its Congress brought the colonies together, but Adams learned that he needed a more universal problem to unite the colonies closer to fighting for their civil rights. Then, in 1766, Parliament repealed the Stamp Act due to the complaints of the British merchants. When the colonies heard of the Stamp Act repeal, they also learned of the Declaratory Act, which was passed to oppress the colonies arguments against the abuse of their rights and to assert the Kings dominance over them.

By age 44, Adams had accomplished many firsts for the colonies. The first boycotts, an organized effort that united the colonies for the first time, started a campaign for individual rights for the colonists, provided reasons to fight for their liberties and also supplied them with the methods of obtaining them. Also, Adams ran for a seat in the Massachusetts House of Representatives (after Oxenbridge Thacher died during their three month period of inactivity) and won in 1765. Then, in 1766, he was elected clerk of the House of Representatives for Massachusetts. In the late 1760s, Adams again began to publish groundbreaking articles in the //Boston Gazette// on the issues affecting the colonies. This vehicle proved to be very useful in spreading his views throughout Boston and keeping the Bostonians loyal to his arguments.

When the Townshend Acts were passed in mid 1767, Josiah Quincy suggested that the colonies should retaliate with armed forces, but Adams saw this as unwise, and proposed that they respond with peaceful boycotts and other forms of economic warfare. After the implementation of the Townshend Acts, Adams went to work on a document that would unite the colonies once again and align them on one line of opposition. He wanted to accomplish this by composing a petition to King George III. The petition included issues that the colonies felt Parliament needed to address, and it turned into a letter that was sent to all the colonies. It was to serve as the overall policy for Americans after it was sent and approved by the other colonies and the letter was soon referred to as the circular letter. The petition was sent on January 12, 1768 to the King, and after revisions to the letter, the colonies gladly accepted the statement. However, Lord Hillsborough, the American Secretary for Britain, refused to forward the petition to the King because he viewed it as the colonies’ “most defiant act yet toward the British.” He then sent out a letter of his own to the colonies’ governors stating that they should suppress the circular letter, but the legislatures didn’t obey. In response to this defiant act, Britain sent a battleship to America to control the colonies. After more issues with Governor Bernard and Parliament over the circular letter, the King’s cabinet decided to send 1,000 soldiers to the Bay Colony.

Sent to protect the Board of Customs, the troops marched to Massachusetts. Tension between these troops and colonist built during the summer of 1769. For months, quarrels had broken out between colonists and troops, but when an 11-year-old boy was killed, tension erupted. Townspeople crowded a soldier named Hugh White, who then called to other soldiers for help. The street filled with angry redcoats and livid townspeople, so the encounter was bound to end badly. When a soldiers gun accidentally discharged, the Boston Massacre began and moments later four Bostonians lay dead.

After the Boston Massacre trials in 1770, Adams believed that the goal of an independent America was lost and couldn’t be attainable again, but he still dreamed of starting “committees of correspondence” in towns across the country. To reach this goal, he realized that he needed to convince citizens of their necessity and he did this by publishing essays describing England’s misuse of the colonies and how the colonies have succeeded in fighting back. These essays were reprinted across the colonies so they very effective in showing Americans how England has mistreated and violated their civil rights.

By late 1772, Adams was ready for his plan for the committees of correspondence to be set into motion. The committees would appoint men, usually local leaders, which would work to coordinate opposition against England. After some difficulties getting the plan passed, it was soon ratified and twenty-one men would be appointed to each colony’s committee. Within a few years, the committees were established in many of the colonies, and colonists believed that they started materializing the first thread of common thinking among the colonies.

For months he looked for a way to show his fellow colonists his concerns about British despotism. In the spring of 1773, he found his answer. He had been sent letters that Ben Franklin had intercepted from the governor of Massachusetts, Thomas Hutchinson. In these letters governor Hutchinson wrote offensive things about the American colonists. Adams read the letters to The House of Representatives and used them to blame Hutchinson for every public malady including the Boston Massacre. At the height of this scandal, word arrived that parliament had passed the Tea Act which allowed the East India Company to trade directly with colonists with the Townshend Acts’ duties still in place. This outraged Adams and other Whig leaders, but these factors worked out well for Adams because he was looking to resist. On December 16th, 1773, the Dartmouth sailed into Boston Harbor, loaded with tea. He was afraid that all the tea would be unloaded and sold, so he planned with the Sons of Liberty to act. Disguised as Narragansett Indians, they boarded the Dartmouth and dumped 342 chests of tea into Boston Harbor. This bold yet orderly act in the defense of the colonists’ rights was far more defiant than any of the Stamp Act protests. Then, in 1774, Adams was elected as a delegate for the First Continental Congress.

//Patriot Samuel Adams//. //Steady Habits//. Web. 25 Oct. 2010. . Puls, Mark. //Samuel Adams: Father of the American Revolution//. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006. Print. Stoll, Ira. //Samuel Adams: a Life//. New York: Free, 2008. Print. Thowing, Annie M. //The Town of Boston//. 1914. //Walking the Post Road//. Web. 25 Oct. 2010. .
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