Samuel Adams

From Massachusetts

Anyone heard of him?



Well, let's learn more about him.

First, lets talk about the beer. There is no actual connection between the malting company that the Samuel Adams family ran and the Samuel Adams brand beer of today. Samuel Adams father worked and owned in the malt house. They were maltsters, not brewers. Malt is need to brew beer. The Adamses did only part of the beer making. The company who now uses his name used it because of his reputation as a brewer (that was wrong) and because he was a politically influential man who also signed the Declaration of Independence.

His education was to prepare him for the ministry, like his father, in the Old South Congregation Church. He and his family were Congregationalists, a Puritan denomination. He remained failthful to his Puritan roots, but leaned towards politics as a career. He tried his hand at business but failed. During his lifetime he was never very good at the business side of things.

His political career began in Boston by simply making himself known. In 1748 he and his friends launched the Independent Advertiser, a newspaper that contained Adams' political writings. Adams worked as a Tax Collector for the colony. In the 1760s when the British deciced to tax the colonies directly, for the coffers of the King that had been depleted during the 7 Years War, Adams had a problem with this. He was a proponent of resisting any laws that encroached on constitutional rights. As things progressed Adams was more and more for independence from England. He was elected to various positions around Boston. He was the first to suggest a Continental Congress in the 1760s. He attended the Continental Congress as a delegate from Massachusetts, and convinced his cousin (John Adams) to come as well.

He was forefront in the colonies cries for independence. He was pleased with the various conolies actions of removing Royal local governments and replacing them with republican ones. He then sigend the Declaration of Independence when it was put forth.

After Independence he served in the Continental Congress until 1781, then as President of the Massachusetts Senate from 1782-1785 and 1787-1788. Following which he served as Lieutenant Governor and Governor of Massachusetts.

He was married and had 6 children, only 2 of whom survived to adulthood. His first wife shortly after the still-born birth of their sixth child. He married again but had no more children. He died in 1803 at the age of 81.

Next time: John Adams, signer and 2nd President of the United States of America.