Over the next few weeks, we'll be posting about events at the time of our country's founding. Each of the individuals featured in these articles took a personal risk in support of our country not knowing what lay before them. There are lessons in these articles we can apply to today's events.
Sam Adams – Provocateur of the Revolution
By Karen Bentley
With special thanks to Joseph Holyoak and his 1776 Moments commentary
Sam Adams was born in Boston in 1722. He was the second cousin of our second president, John Adams. John Adams is considered the Engine of the Revolution; Sam Adams, the Provocateur of the Revolution. He was tenacious, focused, and highly committed to the cause.
Gleaning a passion for politics from his father, a successful malt-maker, Adams was so involved in politics he had no interest in the business, causing it to fail. He was, however, successful at writing articles opposing British rule. He was loud, vocal, and in his writings, stopped just short of calling the King a tyrant. Sam Adams was so consistently vocal the Commanding Officer of the British Army noted that, in order to ease rebellion, he had to pardon all of those in the colony except for Sam Adams and John Hancock.
Adams earned the moniker of “Provocateur of the Revolution” through his many leading roles organizing groups focused on rebellion. He was chief organizer of the Sons of Liberty and was one of two organizers of the Boston Tea Party. Additionally, Adams organized the Committees of Correspondence, riders who would go from one Colony to the next passing information so the colonists would have knowledge of events surrounding the Revolution. Finally, and most notably, Adams signed the Declaration of Independence as a representative of Boston.
Persistent, tenacious, and committed are fitting descriptors of this revolutionary hero. Sam Adams spent years promoting Sons of Liberty and Committees of Correspondence. Following the Boston Massacre and for five years after, Adams organized parades on the anniversary day to remind Bostonians the British shot five of their citizens.
Sam Adam demonstrated his tenacity through his multiple articles, his organizing of the Sons of Liberty, the Boston Massacre parades, and the Committees of Correspondence. He never gave up and risked conviction by the King with every act.
The life of Sam Adams moves us to ask ourselves, “Are we committing the time and energy it will take to get the word out to our fellow citizens that there is a solution which does not require conflict?” That is our Convention of States.
