Samuel Adams
Samuel Adams is by far one of the most important historical figures in American History. He was a massive influence on colonial America to push for independence from Great Britain. Adams helped orchestrate the sons of liberty as well as held multiple political office positions in his home state of Massachusetts, as well as served as governor of the state from the years of 1793 to 1797.
On the day of September 27th, 1722, Samuel Adams was born in Boston, Massachusetts. He was born into a very wealthy family in which his parents were heavily involved with christianity. His mother supported the Calvanist movement and his father was a deacon of the Congressional church. Because of this, they pushed Samuel to become a minister of the church as his future career, but alas, it simply did not capture his interest. Instead, he wanted to pursue a more political career, which was much more of a passion for him.
Samuel’s privileged upbringing granted him access to a fantastic education. He attended the Boston Latin school, which, lo and behold, was famous for educating the most privileged kids in Boston. In 1736 at only age 14, he attended Harvard University. In 1743, he achieved his masters degree in Arts and was ranked fifth in his class of twenty-two. During his time in college, however, his family was impacted by the Massachusetts Land Bank Controversy, which greatly deteriorated his family’s monetary holdings. Because of this, Samuel had to work while studying, and most importantly, influenced him to publish a thesis questioning England’s eligibility to tax the colonies in the same way they tax their subjects in England. Clearly, this was a spark for his impending impacts in American History.
Within the same year, Samuel Adams began a career in law that his mother did not approve of and pushed him to work in a counting house with a family friend, Thomas Cushing, who would attempt to give him experience in the business industry, but to no avail. Samuel’s father then granted him one thousand pounds to start his own business of his choice, but upon putting it to use, Samuel quickly lost all of his money. Samuel now had no choice but to work at the family brewery, but no matter how desperately his parents attempted to pry him off of the path of politics, Samuel still had a passion, as well as a drive to succeed in that career. Because of this, Samuel gathered a few of his colleagues and decided to create a newspaper titled the Independent Advisor, in which he wrote about liberty, politics, and continued to question Great Britain’s power of the colonies, all while writing anonymously. At the time, the Independent Advisor was highly controversial and unapproved by the colonists. Because of this, its publication had only lasted about a year. Later, in 1747, Samuel successfully snagged a job in politics, but only as a clerk in the Boston Market, but still a foothold nonetheless.
In the year 1748, both of Samuel’s parents had passed, Samuel inherited their estate and was now in charge of the family brewing business. Although this sounds like a leap forward in his life, it only began to cause more problems. Lawsuit after lawsuit rolled in against Samuel because of his father’s involvement with the Massachusetts Land Bank Controversy. Either way, he couldn’t pay off many things as he was barely compensated for his current government job. Not only that, but his estate was under pressure from being taken as well. This, he could also not afford to pay off, so instead, he wrote multiple, powerful broadsides and other pieces, threatening those who might come to take his property. He had successfully warded off anyone who might come to buy, and thus, no government seizure took place. The whole endeavor only fueled Samuels thoughts on England’s seemingly unfair power over the colonies. Eventually, he was invested in politics full-time.
In the year 1749, Samuel had married Elizebeth Checkly, his pastor’s daughter. Together they had two surviving children, Hannah and Samuel Adams. Years later in 1757, Elizabeth Checkly passed, and Samuel remarried to Elizabeth Wells.
Only a year before Checkley’s passing, Samuel was elected as a tax collector in Boston and did not meet the tax criteria he was tasked with collecting. Because of this, many of the Boston citizens began to uphold him, as he did not take as much money from them as he was asked to.
After the French and Indian war, Great Britain was in debt and needed to pay off most of the damages, as well as use of soldiers. In order to help with the debt, Great Britain launched both the Sugar and Stamp Act in 1764. These controversial acts began to stir some political unrest within the colonies as many citizens recognized some unfairness within the taxations. Samuel Adams, who this controversy rested most uncomfortably with, would use this as his political debut. Befriending a popular lawyer, James Otis, Samuel would use him as a pedestal to get his message across about the unfairness of these taxations. Shortly thereafter, Samuel proposes to launch a protest against the British Parliament which actually wins popular vote among the people of the Massachusetts Assembly. Samuel Adams began to ramp up his campaign against the sugar act which granted him a massive amount of recognition, in which he used to spark the flames of revolution.
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1765 is arguably the turning point in Samuel Adams’ life as this was the year that would chronicle his legacy into the history books. This is because it is the same year in which Great Britain imposed the Stamp Act among the American colonies right after they had issued the controversial Sugar Act. Because of this, Samuel Adams was able to unite most of Boston into what would be famously named the Sons of Liberty. In this group they organized political demonstrations such as riots. They had mostly targeted tax collectors and are mostly responsible for most of the stalling of Great Britain's taxing. The Sons of Liberty were also responsible for the creation of the Stamp Act Congress in which representatives of the colonies would kongregate in order to attempt to get the message to Great Britain to repeal the Stamp Act. A year later, Great Britain would repeal the tax and Samuel Adams’ popularity would grow because of it.
Shortly thereafter, a man by the name of Charles Townshend was appointed by Great Britain to formulate a better plan of taxation to impose upon the American colonies. Here, he came up with the idea to shift tax duties into the trade itself rather than taxing the colonists directly. This would allow the taxation to be more difficult for the colonists to avoid. Soon enough, Great Britain began to issue these new duties. This would be known as the Townshend Acts
Samuel Adams would eventually pick up on these actions and quickly began to organize riots and other protests. The Sons of Liberty themselves also started to take action by encouraging others to sabotage the collection of taxes by Great Britain in order to minimize any monetary gain they may acquire. This became a problem to Great Britain who then responded by beginning to send troops to the American Colonies. The colonists saw this as a threat and the Sons of Liberty under Samuel Adams began to attempt to organize more riots in order to stir away the impending arrival of the troops, although the majority of the colonists did not take action. As a consequence, the British soldiers arrived and began to take hold of Boston.
Samuel Adams and the Sons of Liberty began to issue propaganda against the British soldiers, slandering their intentions and making them out to be nothing more than a threat to Boston. They continued to organize riots with the intention to force the troops out of Boston. Unfortunately this led to a controversial event that would send a ripple throughout history.
On March of 1770, a historical confrontation would occur, known as the Boston Massacre. The story goes that a group of a few people began to throw snowballs at the British soldiers who then got after the kids, but the mob grew with more protesters who then began to throw more objects, such as rocks and snowballs containing shards of glass. Without warning, the British soldiers began to fire back at the mob, killing three and wounding eight. Samuel Adams was prominent once again as the voice of the people when he sent a message demanding the removal of the British troops from Boston, which ended up being successful.
As one can imagine, this counted as another victory for Samuel Adams which only resulted in more popularity and praise on his end. Unfortunately, this is not the last problem he would solve.
In 1773 Britaish Parliament then imposed the Tea Act, which taxed the tea in India, rather than at the colonies themselves. Still, the colonists boycotted the tea by purchasing smuggled tea rather than the British Tea. Samuel Adams, again, would protest these taxes. He began to encourage the other colonists to boycott the British Tea as well, otherwise, they would be known as “an enemy to America.” In 1773, a British Ship named the Dartmouth was about to dock in Boston Harbor, but Samuel Adams heavily protested its arrival, taking the argument to Faneuil Hall. Here, he organized a petition to Governor Hutchinson, who forcefully turned it down. Again, another of Samuel Adams’ acts (although it is unknown whether he directed it or not) would be documented in the history books, famously referred to as the Boston Tea Party, in which the Sons of Liberty boarded British ships in Boston Harbor and dumped three hundred and forty-two chests worth of tea into the harbor.
In 1774 the British parliament would issue what the colonists would call the Intolerable Acts, which Parliament used to punish the colonies for their adamant refusal to conform to the tax laws. At this point, Samuel Adams, as well as his Sons of Liberty, would outwardly protest against these acts, claiming that they were nothing more that an infringement to the rights of the colonists.
Soon after, Samuel Adams would help set up the beginnings of the American Revolution, as well as having future involvement within it. He was massively instrumental for the movement of a free America and has rightfully become a staple in American history because of it. His massive amounts of contributions and endless support of America’s independence is what granted him the title of a founding father of the United States of America. It is probably a safe bet to assume that America’s history, as well as its future would not have been nearly the same if Samuel Adams had not existed or simply did not go down the path he ended up taking. From a mere passion in politics to being one of the most important people in American History, Samuel Adams will not only be important to America, but to the whole world as well.
Works Cited
- “Early Life and Education.” Samuel Adams Heritage Society, http://www.samuel-adams-heritage.com/biography/early-life.html.
- History.com Editors. “Samuel Adams.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 4 Nov. 2019, https://www.history.com/topics/american-revolution/samuel-adams.
- “Samuel Adams Biography.” Encyclopedia of World Biography, https://www.notablebiographies.com/A-An/Adams-Samuel.html.
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