Sam Adams

Samuel Adams

Describing the context in which Samuel Adams lived is not an easy thing to do, mainly because he had such a huge and profound effect on the era and location that he lived in. He lived through, and had a large impression on all the events that led up to the separation from Britain, along with surviving the war or independence, and ultimately served as the governor of a very important state in the young nation in which he lived. As his second cousin John Adams once said "Without him, in my opinion, American Independence could not have been declared in 1776"

One of the key trading ports back then was Boston, and that is where Sam Adams grew up. Founded barely a century before my the puritans, under the watchful eye on John Winthrop, the area still resonated with many of its puritan roots. However, the city was also growing fast, full of merchants, artisans and traders, and much of the early life of Massachusetts was faced with constant attacks from the French and Indians, which resulted in the French and Indian War from 1754-1763.

Then from 1765 and the Stamp Act until the Declaration of Independence in 1776, Sam Adams became at the forefront of political moves against Great Britain whenever the colonies were feeling threatened. The rebellion that Sam Adams and other Bostonians imposed upon Great Britain was a turning point in American History, and if not for this founding father, God knows where our country, culture, or government would be to this day.

The next decade marked a series of battles and confrontations against England and the colonies, led by Sam Adams and the Son of Liberty. At first, the writs of assistance, which basically meant that custom agents could be given bigger and better searching powers, then turned into the Sugar Act, which raised taxes for all the colonies. As Fowler states "Driven by a sense of covenant, he believed that the people of his community were bound to one another through a common history and reverence for virtue and simplicity. It was, he believed, his duty, and that of the men and women who shared his vision, to preserve this society. When the forces of king and Parliament threatened to destroy the world, Samuel Adams rebelled" (Fowler xi).

I think another crucial reason why Adams acted the way he did, was because he was going through many tough personal family problems. The death of Deacon Samuel Adams, and the death of three of his children, two sons and one daughter, with his wife Elizabeth I'm sure made him a bit more edgy and violent. "For Samuel Adams, private grief had shattered any comfort in tranquility" (Fowler pg. 36)

Adams was against the Stamp Act from the beginning, unlike many of his comrades. His puritan belief had a lot to do with his rebellion against this because puritans believe that God has supreme authority over human affairs, particularly in the church, and especially as expressed in the bible.

Because Adams was a puritan, I'm sure he felt that he must pursue moral purity to the smallest detail, and Acts like the Stamp Act, and the Boston Massacre, which were looked at as tyrannical towards the colonies, he looked at as quite unmoral. Adams puritan beliefs also included the ideas that education and enlightenment towards the masses were very necessary, and Acts like the Stamp Act that undermine what the society your in is trying to accomplish is why Samuel Adams needed to take action.

The Stamp Act of 1765 and the Townshend Act of 1767 angered colonists regarding British decisions on taxing the colonies with no representation in the Westminster Parliament, and as the famous quote goes "no taxation without representation" this provoked people like John Hancock, John Adams, and Samuel Adams to rebel.

Hancock organized a boycott of tea from China sold by the British East India Company, whose sales in the colonies then fell from 320,000lb to 520lb. Because the company that sold the Tea was in debt above their eyeballs, and because people like Hancock were smuggling the tea without paying taxes, the British government passed the Tea Act which allowed the East India Company to sell tea to the colonies directly, thereby allowing them to sell for lower prices than those offered by the colonial merchants and smugglers.

"The situation in which Boston found itself was immensely distressing to Adams (Sam). Under heavy pressure from the Sons and the public in general, the consignees finally agreed to resign but only if the tea was landed and put under the care of the governor" (Fowler pg. 123)

So when boats like the Dartmouth, the Eleanor, and the Beaver arrived to Boston harbor to ship the Tea, problems arose. Bostonians met and unanimously agreed that the Tea be sent back to England, and Samuel Adams took charge. "Adams saw it that Boston would not stand alone. He called on the Committee of Correspondence from Charlestown, Cambridge, Brookline, Roxbury, and Dorchester for advice and they asked that they "be in readiness to exert themselves in the most resolute manner to assist this town in their efforts for saving this oppressed country" (Fowler pg. 124).

After more efforts to get the tea sent back to England without paying them, the requests were denied, then denied again. Then at a meeting with the townspeople Adams stated "this meeting can do nothing further to save the country". With this said, some "mohawk" indians appeared in the gathering and asked how well the tea mixed with the salt water. The townspeople marched down and boarded the vessels, dumping more then 10,000 pounds of tea into Boston Harbor. If not for Adams's fierce remarks at the meetings, these events may have never taken place.

About a year later Adams retired from the legislature and was sent to Philadelphia as a representative from the Massachusetts colony, but as Fowler points out, he may have not been as influential as he used to be " Samuel Adams lived two political worlds - Philadelphia and Boston. By late 1778 his influence in both was in decline" (Fowler pg. 154).

It seemed that things in Philly were just not the same as they were when he was a young influential congressman in Boston. He was surrounded by people that were not as devoted to power and virtue, but more for money for themselves. He talks about these men as "a Combination of political & Commercial Men, who may be aiming to get the trade, the wealth, the Power and the Government