Samuel Adams

Samuel Adams (September 27, 1722 – October 2, 1803) was born in Boston, Massachusetts and was raised in a politically active puritan family. Adams was an influential part of the movement opposed to the British King George III's efforts to tax colonists without consent-taxation without representation.

He was a leader in the formation of the Sons of Liberty and the Boston Tea Party. His 1768 Massachusetts Circular Letter calling for colonial resistance prompted the occupation of Boston by British soldiers, eventually resulting in the Boston Massacre of 1770. Adams and his colleagues devised the committee of correspondence system in 1772 which linked like-minded Patriots throughout the Colonies and helped secure American independence.

He war a signer of the Declaration of Independence and after the Revolutionary War went on to be elected Governor of Massachusetts.