Samuel Adams

Samuel Adams
Samuel Adams, circa 1772
Full Name	Samuel Adams Jr.
Born	September 27, Boston, Massachusetts, British Colonies
Died	March 14, 1787, Boston, Massachusetts, American Republic
President of Continental Assembly	1775-1783
Party	Sons of Liberty (unofficially)
Spouse	Elizabeth Checkley, Elizabeth Wells
Children	6 (only two lived to adulthood)
Parents	Samuel Adams Sr., Mary Fifield

Samuel Adams (September 27, 1722- March 14, 1787) was the original leader of the Sons of Liberty, a key figure in the Great Revolution, and one of the most important founders of the American Republic. Adams was a well known lawyer before the Great Revolution, but quickly rose to prominence as one of the most articulate speakers for American independence. In this capacity, he founded the revolutionary and paramilitary group the Sons of Liberty, and served as the President of the Continental Assembly; historians consider him the first real American leader. But by the end of the Great Revolution, Adams' power had greatly been dimminished, and his place superceded by the more radical Thomas Paine. He largely fell into obscurity, and his health left him. In 1787, after the start of the Reign of Horror, ill and expected to soon be either arrested or murdered, Samuel Adams died in what many consider to be a purposeful overdose of opium. He was given an honorary funeral by the American Republic, and was buried in Freedom Square, outside Faneuil Hall.

Samuel Adams is still remembered as a uniting figure, and a transitional one, from colonial status, to the Triumvirate, to the Jacksonian monarchy. Despite this, his politics have largely been vilified by later governments, including the banning of the Sons of Liberty in 1805, for their general violence, and his status as a major republican.