Samuel Adams

**Samuel Adams** (September 27  (OS), 1722 — October 2, 1803) was an American leader, politician, writer, and political philosopher, and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. Adams helped gather support in the American colonies to rebel against Great Britain. This led to the American Revolution. Adams also shaped the foundations of American politics.

Born and raised in Boston, Massachusetts, Adams was brought up in a religious family. He was educated at Boston Latin School and Harvard College.

He first became a businessman, but did not like it. He turned his interest instead to politics and became an influential political writer. In his writings, and at town meetings in Boston, Adams urged people to defend their rights and liberties, withdraw from Great Britain, and form a new government.

Adams wrote protests against the taxes that Parliament imposed on the colonies, like the Stamp Act of 1765. He helped to organize the Boston Tea Party in 1773 and was a member of the Continental Congress. At the Second Continental Congress in 1776, he argued for the Declaration of Independence.

Adams helped write the Massachusetts Constitution, along with James Bowdoin and his cousin John Adams. Later, Adams helped draft the Articles of Confederation. After the Revolutionary War ended, he ran for the House of Representatives in the 1st United States Congressional election. He lost the election to Fisher Ames, but was elected Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts in 1789. After John Hancock's death in 1793, Adams served as the acting governor. He was then elected governor in January 1794. He served in that position until he retired in June 1797 and settled down in his home in Boston. He died six years later on October 2, 1803.

## Further reading

Many of the foremost works on Adams' life are from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Much of the information in more recent biographies comes from these earlier works.
- Alexander, John K. _Samuel Adams: America's Revolutionary Politician_. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield, 2002. .
- Beach, Stewart. _Samuel Adams, the Fateful Years, 1764–1776_. New York: Dodd, Mead, 1965.
- Cushing, Harry A., ed. _The Writings of Samuel Adams_. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1908.
- Fischer, David H. _Paul Revere's Ride_. New York: Oxford University Press, 1994. .
- Fradin, Dennis B. _Samuel Adams: the Father of American Independence_. New York: Clarion Books, 1998. .
- Hosmer, James K. _Samuel Adams_. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1885.
- Irvin, Benjamin H. _Sam Adams: Son of Liberty, Father of Revolution_. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002. .
- Maier, Pauline. _From Resistance to Revolution: Colonial Radicals and the Development of American Opposition to Britain, 1765–1776_. New York: W. W. Norton, 1992. .
- Maier, Pauline. _The Old Revolutionaries: Political Lives in the Age of Samuel Adams_. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1980. .
- Miller, John C. _Sam Adams, Pioneer in Propaganda_. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1936.
- Puls, Mark. _Samuel Adams: Father of the American Revolution_. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006. .
- Wells, William V. _The Life and Public Services of Samuel Adams: Being a Narrative of His Acts and Opinions, and of His Agency in Producing and Forwarding the American Revolution, with Extracts From His Correspondence, State Papers, and Political Essays_. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1865.

## Other websites

- Samuel Adams quotes at Liberty-Tree.ca
- Official Commonwealth of Massachusetts Governor Biography&sid=massgov2&b=terminalcontent&f=interactive_statehouse_govs_adams&csid=massgov2)
- Biography by Rev. Charles A. Goodrich, 1856
- Encyclopedia Britannica: Adams, Samuel

## Infobox (governor)

- **name**: Samuel Adams
- **image**: SamuelAdamsLarge.jpeg
- **order**: 4th Governor of Massachusetts
- **term start**: October 8, 1793
- **term end**: June 2, 1797
- **lieutenant**: Moses Gill
- **predecessor**: John Hancock
- **successor**: Increase Sumner
- **birth date**: September 27, 1722
- **birth place**: Boston, Massachusetts
- **death place**: Boston, Massachusetts
- **spouse**: Elizabeth Checkley, Elizabeth Wells
- **party**: None