Samuel Adams (September 27 [O.S. September 16] 1722 – October 2, 1803) was an American statesman, politician, writer and political philosopher, brewer, and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. Adams was instrumental in garnering the support of the colonies for rebellion against Great Britain, eventually resulting in the American Revolution, and was also one of the key architects of the principles of American republicanism that shaped American political culture. He was the second cousin of John Adams.
Born in Boston, Massachusetts, Adams was brought up in a religious and politically active family. After being educated at Boston Latin School and Harvard College, Samuel Adams became a mercantile businessman, but this proved not to be his vocation and he soon turned to politics, and became an influential political writer and theorist. Adams established himself as one of the voices of opposition to British control in the colonies; he argued that the colonies should withdraw from Great Britain and form a new government. Samuel Adams called for the colonists to defend their rights and liberties, and led town meetings in which he drafted written protests against Parliament's colonial tax measures such as the Stamp Act of 1765. Adams played a prominent role during protests against the Stamp Act, and in the events of the Boston Tea Party in 1773. He participated in the Continental Congress.He also advocated the adoption of the Declaration of Independence at the Second Continental Congress.
Samuel Adams has been regarded as a controversial figure in American history. In his 2006 biography Samuel Adams: Father of the American Revolution, Mark Puls describes Adams as a pre-Revolutionary political visionary and leader, who was described as the "Patriarch of Liberty" by Thomas Jefferson and as the "Father of the American Revolution" by others of his time.