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             To know Samuel Adams the person, one must look far back to the earliest days of his life and move forward from there. To know Adams the American Patriot, one must be aware of this politician's tremendous efforts from within the early United States government. The following biography will examine both sides of this American founding father.

             Samuel Adams was born in Boston, Massachusetts on September 27, 1722. One could have guessed that this infant would grow to be a leader of the fight against British colonial rule, and a signer of the Declaration of Independence. Success was in his blood. His father was Samuel Adams and his mother was Mary Fifield. Adams was a cousin of John Adams who became President of the United States.

             As a young child, Samuel spent his elementary school days at Boston Latin. Academics quickly became his forte and at age fourteen he enrolled in Harvard College. Four years later, a member of the Class of 1743, Samuel Adams graduated from Harvard College with a Master of Arts degree. After college he entered private business, and throughout this period was an outspoken participant in Boston town meetings. When his business failed in 1764 Adams entered politics full-time, and was elected to the Massachusetts State legislature.

             Adams led the effort to establish a committee of correspondence that published a Declaration of Colonial Rights that he had written. He was a vocal opponent of several laws passed by the British Parliament to raise revenue in the American Colonies, including the Tea Act which gave a British trading company a monopoly on the import of tea into the colonies. This opposition reached its peak on December 16, 1773 when a group of Bostonians dumped a British cargo of tea into Boston Harbor. This act of resistance is referred to, and will be forever remembered as the "Boston Tea Party".

             The British Parliament responded to the "Boston Tea Party" by passing a set of laws referred to as the "Intolerable Acts.