Samuel Adams facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Samuel Adams
4th Governor of Massachusetts
In office October 8, 1793 – June 2, 1797
Lieutenant	Moses Gill
Preceded by	John Hancock
Succeeded by	Increase Sumner
Personal details
Born	September 27, 1722 Boston, Massachusetts
Died	October 2, 1803(1803-10-02) (aged 81) Boston, Massachusetts
Political party	None
Spouse(s)	Elizabeth Checkley, Elizabeth Wells

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 shaped the foundations of American politics.

Adams, born and raised in Boston, Massachusetts, was brought up in a religious family. Adams was one of twelve children born to Samuel Adams, Sr., and Mary (Fifield) Adams. Only three of these children lived past their third birthday.

He was educated at Boston Latin School and Harvard College. He started his life as a businessman, but did not like his occupation. He then turned his interest to politics, and became an influential political writer. Adams urged the colonists to withdraw from Great Britain and form a new government. He told the colonies to defend their rights and liberties at town meetings in Boston. He wrote protests against Parliament's taxes against the colonies, such as the Stamp Act of 1765. Adams also organized the Boston Tea Party in 1773 and he was a member of the Continental Congress. He argued for the Declaration of Independence at the Second Continental Congress in 1776.

Adams helped write the Massachusetts Constitution 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. He 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 of 1794. He served in that position until June 1797. He then retired from politics and settled in his home in Boston. He died six years later on October 2, 1803.

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 is attributed to these earlier works.

Images for kids

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  While at Harvard, Adams boarded at Massachusetts Hall.

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  The Old South Meeting House (1968 photo shown) was Adams's church. During the crisis with Great Britain, mass meetings were held here that were too large for Faneuil Hall.

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  Anne Whitney, Samuel Adams, bronze and granite statue, 1880, located in front of Faneuil Hall, which was the home of the Boston Town Meeting

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  Paul Revere's 1768 engraving of British troops arriving in Boston was reprinted throughout the colonies.

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  Samuel Adams as he looked in 1795 when he was Governor of Massachusetts. The original portrait was destroyed by fire; this is a mezzotint copy.

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  This iconic 1846 lithograph by Nathaniel Currier was entitled "The Destruction of Tea at Boston Harbor"; the phrase "Boston Tea Party" had not yet become standard.

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  Adams as portrayed by Paul Revere, 1774. Yale University Art Gallery.

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  In John Trumbull's Declaration of Independence, Adams is seated to the viewer's right of Richard Henry Lee, whose legs are crossed in the front row.

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  Samuel Adams grave marker in the Granary Burying Ground