In September 1777, the heel of Great Britain was squashing its pesky American colonists. Its military had just outflanked the Continental Army at Brandywine. 200 were killed. 500 wounded. 400 captured. The Continental Congress hastily fled from Philadelphia to York before the British assumed control of the de facto colonial capital. This was the second major town under British control. New York City had fallen a little over a year earlier. Reality painted a grim picture.

As the delegates in York were considering the plausibility of achieving independence from England, Samuel Adams addressed his compatriots, “We have appealed to Heaven for the justice of our cause, and in Heaven we have placed our trust. Numerous have been the manifestations of God’s Providence in sustaining us. … We shall never be abandoned by Heaven while we act worthy of its aid and protection.”

Samuel Adams stands apart from many of his fellow-signers of the Declaration of Independence. He was not a successful lawyer. He did not make any contribution to the world of education. The businesses he founded or operated did not flourish. Mr. Adams even failed at being a tax collector. He was quite effective, however, protesting the injustices of Great Britain and inviting others to join what looked like an impossible cause that became the pursuit of independence. “Without the character of Samuel Adams,” declared his cousin John, “the true history of the American Revolution can never be written.”

Born on September 22, 1722, in Quincy, Massachusetts, to a devout Puritan family, Samuel was poised for success. His father was a successful and wealthy businessman who willed his son both the family home and malting business when he died in 1749. However, both the home and the business carried more debt than relief. Britain had put an end to the land bank, a decision that brought financial ruin to the elder Adams and the family alike. They weren’t alone in seeing this as another overreach by England into the colonies, and it fueled a young Sam Adams to question the Crown's intentions. This reality is certainly combined with Samuel's dismissiveness to desire financial gain for himself, both out of principle and likely due to ill-planning. Nevertheless, personal financial crisis would follow him until his own death, often relying on the goodwill of relatives and friends.

Through and through, Samuel Adams was a Christian. His father was one of the founders of New South Church in 1715 because he said that Old South had become too crowded. In 1740, when the famed George Whitefield came through Boston he preached at the Brattle Street Church with the 18-year-old Sam Adams in the congregation. Brattle Street looms very important in the life of Adams going forward, and in the revolutionary fervor of the day. It was home to pastor Samuel Cooper who John Adams says was the most patriotic of all patriots for the cause, working behind the scenes and fighting alongside his parishioners in early battles including Bunker Hill. The church membership included Joseph Warren, John Hancock, and John Adams, when he was in town. This became an important part of Samuel Adams life and a place to spur on both revolution and devotion, hand-in-hand.

In 1763, the British were victorious over the French and various Indian nations in a war–arguably the first world war. As a result, they secured protection of its colonial interest and gained the Quebec and other northern provinces. This security and annexation of its empire came at a tremendous cost, one they sought to redeem by taxing her Colonies. This, along with other aggressive steps to control trade and local government created an increasingly toxic environment. The newspaper of note, the Boston Gazette, became the vehicle for Samuel Adams to write vociferously, often under various pseudonyms, about the injustices of the Stamp and Sugar Acts as well as the unbecoming behavior of royal governors, judges, and customs men. His persuasive rhetoric was the key spark which lit the powder of the push for independence. His political activism led to the formation of the Sons of Liberty, a small group of revolutionaries that swelled to number men from every colony by the time of the War of Independence.

In 1765, he was elected to the Massachusetts Assembly and was its clerk one year later. As clerk, he was a formidable, political chess player: he maneuvered the election of men favorable to his causes; he persuaded committees to act according to his wishes; and he pushed through the general court measures he desired. He also was vital to the formation of Boston’s Committee of Correspondence which facilitated communication with other patriots in other towns. Their purpose was to “provide colonial leadership and aid intercolonial cooperation.”

Mr. Adams served in both the First and Second Continental Congresses. Due to his poverty, friends supplied him new clothes when he began his service on behalf of Massachusetts. He served from 1774 to 1781 advocating strongly for American independence. On July 2, 1776 he voted in favor of independence and signed the Declaration on August 2nd alongside 50 other delegates. After Congress, he continued his life of public service serving as a Massachusetts’ senator, its lieutenant governor (1789-93), and governor (1794-97).

On October 2, 1803, the spark of the American Revolution went out. Samuel Adams lived to be 81 years of age.

Brattle Street Church

“The edict of the British parliament, commonly called the Boston Port Act, came safely to my hand. For flagrant injustice and barbarity , one might search in vain among the archives of Constantinople to find a match for it. But what else could have been expected from a parliament, too long under the dictates and control of an administra tion, which seems to be totally lost to all sense and feeling of morality, and governed by passion, cruelty , and revenge.”

Samuel Adams to Arthur Lee,
May 18, 1774