Political Career

Name: ______Date: ______Samuel Adams

Early Life Samuel Adams was born on September 27, 1722, in Boston, Massachusetts. Adams graduated from Harvard College in 1740, failed as a brewer, and would soon be known as a Patriot and one of the United States' Founding Fathers.

Political Career A strong opponent of British taxation, Adams helped organize resistance in Boston to Britain's Stamp Act of 1765. He also played a vital role in organizing the Boston Tea Party—an act of opposition to the Tea Act of 1773—among various other political efforts.

Adams served as a legislator of Massachusetts from 1765 to 1774. Among his accomplishments, he founded Boston's Committee of Correspondence, which—like similar entities in other towns across the Colonies—proved a powerful tool for communication and coordination during the American Revolutionary War.

Following his run with the state legislature, Adams served as a Massachusetts delegate to the Continental Congress until 1781. In that role, he urged a final break from Great Britain and signed America's Declaration of Independence alongside his second cousin, future U.S. President John Adams.

Adams became a Democratic-Republican (following Thomas Jefferson) when formal American political parties were created in the 1790s. His final political post was as Massachusetts governor from 1794 through 1797. Adams died on October 2, 1803, in his hometown of Boston.

Completely describe Samuel Adams.

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Do you think he would be successful in leading the Sons of Liberty to oppose British taxation? Why or why not?

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