The Adams Family: The History of Colonial Boston's Most Important Political Family

he American Revolution had no shortage of compelling characters with seemingly larger than life traits, including men like the multi-talented Benjamin Franklin, the wise Thomas Jefferson, the mercurial John Adams and the stoic George Washington. But no Revolutionary leader has been as controversial as Samuel Adams, who has been widely portrayed over the last two centuries as America’s most radical and fiery colonist.

Among his contemporaries, Samuel Adams was viewed as one of the most influential colonial leaders, a man Thomas Jefferson himself labeled “truly the Man of the Revolution” and the one who the Boston Gazette eulogized as the “Father of the American Revolution.” Samuel was an outspoken opponent of British taxes in the 1760s, one of Boston’s hardest working writers and orators, a leader of the Boston Caucus, active in the Sons of Liberty, and a political leader who organized large gatherings in settings like Faneuil Hall and the Old South Meeting House. When cousin John Adams was an Ambassador to France during the Revolution, he had to explain that he was not the “famous” Adams.

John Adams remained a celebrated figure in Boston for all the work he did in Massachusetts before and after the Revolution, but his national reputation has experienced quite a renaissance over the past decade, beginning with David Mccullough’s best selling biography in 2001, followed in 2008 by the popular HBO series based on it.

While her time as First Lady was important, Abigail Adams remains one of the most recognized and respected First Ladies in American history due to her voluminous correspondence with John when they were separated throughout the American Revolution.

n addition to being the first son of a president to become president himself, John Quincy Adams also managed to be a U.S. Senator, a U.S. House Representative, a Secretary of State, and an ambassador to several countries.