About Sam Adams

    "Oh, what a glorious morning is this!" - Sam Adams after Lexington & Concord

Sam Adams:
     Sam Adams was born in Boston, Massachusetts on Sunday, September 22, 1722, the son of Samuel Adams, a deacon and well established Boston brewer.  In 1736, at the age of 14, Samuel Adams entered Harvard, ranking sixth in his class. Adams was elected Tax Collector in 1764, a position for which he was not well suited as he allowed some L8,000 of taxes go uncollected.  In 1765, the same year the Stamp Act was passed, and one year after the passing of the Sugar Act, Adams was elected to Massachusetts Legislature. In protest of the 1765 passing of the Stamp Act, the Sons Of Liberty were organized in Boston under the leadership of Samuel Adams and heavily influenced by James Otis, a fiery hot-tempered attorney who worked with Samuel Adams' cousin, John Adams-the second President of the United States.
     In 1766, after much protest, especially from Boston, the Stamp Act was repealed, only to be followed by the Townshend Acts one year later. As a result of Britain's newly passed Acts, Adams under approval of the State House of Representatives, wrote the Massachusetts Circular Letter attacking taxation without representation and calling for unified resistance on the part of all the colonies. Prior to the 1768 arrival of British troops, Boston's Governor Bernard responds by dissolving the State Legislature.
On March 5, 1770, around 9:00 P.M., the American cause for Liberty realized it's first martyrs, with Crispus Attucks, an escaped slave, being the first one killed in the Boston Massacre, an event that gave Samuel Adams the fuel he needed to burn the idea of Independence into the hearts of the Colonists.
     The next big event that aided Adams' idea of Liberty came in 1773 when British Parliament passed the Tea Tax, giving the East India Tea Company the exclusive right to sell tea in America. In a Boston Town Meeting on the evening of December 16, 1773, Samuel Adams was the speaker when he received the word that Boston's Governor would land the tea on Boston's shores, therefore requiring the citizens of Boston to pay the excise of 3 pence per pound, at which point Adams declared, "This meeting can do no more to save this country", words that apparently signaled the Sons of Liberty, waiting in a crowd outside of the meeting, headed by Paul Revere and dressed like Mohawk Indians, to board three British ships and dump around L10,000 of tea; Darjeeling and Ceylon Blends, into Boston Harbor in what has became known as the Boston Tea Party.
     In 1775, an occurrence took place in what must have been the highlight of Samuel Adams' long political career. Adams and John Hancock were en route to Philadelphia as delegates to the Continental Congress and were staying in Lexington at Hancock's aunts home when Paul Revere, a Boston Son of Liberty, rode up to the house sometime after midnight alerting the two Patriots that British troops were on the way to arrest them and send them to London to be tried for treason. Some men standing guard outside of the home, undoubtedly more of Boston's Sons of Liberty, warned Revere that he was making "too much noise", and that the two delegates were sleeping. Revere replied, "There'll be noise soon enough! The Regulars are coming!" Hours later, as John Hancock and Samuel Adams watched from a distance hiding in a marsh and protected by a few armed Sons of Liberty, the "shot heard 'round the world" rang out on Lexington Green as Massachusetts Minute Men and British troops exchanged fire in the start of the Revolution. Adams turned to John Hancock, his fellow Patriot and long time friend, and said, "Oh, what a glorious morning is this!"
     Another highlight and accomplishment of Adams' career was the signing of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. In 1793, Samuel Adams went on to be elected to serve as Governor of Massachusetts and served until 1797. To this day, Adams is the oldest Governor the state has ever seen, serving at age 75.  Samuel Adams retired in Boston and, valuing his family more than anything, lived with his daughter Hannah and died peacefully in 1803.