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Samuel Adams biography

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American Revolutionary Samuel Adams organized the Boston Tea Party and signed the U.S. Declaration of Independence.

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Synopsis

Samuel Adams was born on September 27, 1722 in Boston, Massachusetts. A strong opponent of British taxation, he helped organize resistance to the Stamp Act (1765) and played a vital role in organizing the Boston Tea Party. Samuel was a second cousin to U.S. President John Adams, with whom he urged a final break from Britain and signed the U.S. Declaration of Independence. He died on October 2, 1803 in his hometown, Boston.

Quotes

"It does not require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority keen to set brush fires in people's minds."
– Samuel Adams

Early Life

Samuel Adams was born on September 27, 1722 in Boston, Massachusetts. Adams graduated from Harvard College in 1740, and would soon be known as an American revolutionary and one of the nation's 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 nationwide—proved to be a powerful tool for America's communication and coordination during the Revolutionary War.

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

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

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