Customer Reviews

Samuel Adams: Father Of The Revolution (Our People)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I have little doubt that to most American students the name Sam Adams is associated with a brand of beer and not with the man who was considered the Father of the American Revolution. In this juvenile biography for the Our People series Ann Heinrichs tries to set the record straight. Yes, Samuel Adams's father, also named Samuel, did own a brewery, but before presenting that fact Heinrichs sets up the book's thesis that while Samuel Adams was famous in his time as one of America's Founding Fathers, today he is one of the least famous members of that group, mainly because after the war was over he slipped back into the background while others sought political office and debated the Federal Constitution (such as Samuel Adams's second cousin John, who because the first vice president and second president of the United States).

The first chapter of this book introduces Samuel Adams as "The Man Who Started Fires," recalling the famous description of him by Lieutenant Governor Thomas Hutchinson as "the greatest incendiary in the Empire." Heinrichs develops the background of Adams and his distinguished Massachusetts family, including how the family brewery was lost after his father died in 1748. Chapter Two, "Stirring Up Trouble" covers the period up to the Boston Massacre, as Adams became a leader of the Sons of Liberty. Chapter Three, "Father of the Revolution," details his activities with the Committee of Correspondence and the first two Continental Congresses. The final chapter, "A New Nation Takes Shape," explains how Adams refused to attend the Constitutional Convention because he wanted the states to be stronger than the federal government. He even wanted to vote against his cousin in the 1796 election but was defeated in his effort to become a presidential elector.

Hopefully this book will convince a fair share of young readers that Samuel Adams was an important Founding Father along with Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and George Washington. Certainly Heinrichs makes the case for him being on that level, although for most people today he is considered the lesser of the two Adamses from Massachusetts. The volume is illustrated with paintings, etchings, and such from that period as well as a contemporary photograph of the statue of Samuel Adams in front of Boston's Faneuil Hall. There are sidebars on the Adams Family the Boston Massacre, and an Eyewitness Report on the Boston Tea Party, and you will find the usual Interesting Facts in the margins of the book. The Our People series, which excludes American presidents since they have their own series, also has volumes on Alexander Hamilton, Franklin, John Paul Jones, and Patrick Henry from this pivotal period of American history.