Samuel Adams
Samuel Adams organised the resistance in Massachusetts and was, by common consent, the most effective agitator of the American Revolution. Born in Boston in 1722 to a prosperous merchant and deacon, he took degrees at Harvard, wrote a thesis on whether it is lawful to resist a supreme magistrate, and failed at everything he tried — a brewery inherited and lost, a business loan lost, and a term as tax collector that left him thousands of pounds in arrears. He was, however, unmatched at politics. He was elected to the Massachusetts assembly in 1765 and became its clerk, wrote resolutions, petitions and endless newspaper essays under many pseudonyms, and built organisation where none existed. Two devices were his. The Sons of Liberty gave the resistance a street presence that could be summoned and, mostly, restrained. The Committees of Correspondence, which he proposed in 1772, linked towns across Massachusetts and then the colonies into a functioning political network, so that news and argument travelled independently of royal officials. He publicised the shooting of five civilians in 1770 as the Boston Massacre, while his cousin John defended the soldiers in court. He organised the meeting at Old South on 16 December 1773 whose adjournment was the signal for the destruction of the tea in the harbour. Gage's orders in April 1775 included his arrest, and he and John Hancock left Lexington ahead of the troops. He signed the Declaration, served in Congress, opposed the constitution until the Bill of Rights was promised, and was governor of Massachusetts. He died in 1803.
- Lived: 1722 CE – 1803 CE
- Nationality: American
- Roles: organizer, statesman, founding_father
