The Father of the American Revolution -- Part Two
of the business community, and he was no friend of the royal government. Nevertheless, Adams continued his relations with the Caucus Club and his endless socializing with common laborers throughout Boston. He would be seen frequently at the shipyards, chatting up politics with the workers. And he was a permanent fixture at town hall meetings. Finally, in 1753, he was again elected to political office. He was made the town scavenger or garbage collector. Three years later, he became one of five city tax collectors.
Samuel and Elizabeth Adams needed the income desperately. They had five children in just under eight years, but only two survived through infancy. And they lived on Purchase Street, in the same prominent house the elder Adams had once occupied. Sadly, a greater tragedy than mere financial troubles would rock Adams’s world. In 1756, Elizabeth Adams contracted a fever just a few weeks after giving birth to their fifth child. She died three weeks later.
In just eight years time, Samuel Adams had lost his father, watched the better part of the family brewery business fall apart, suffered under the heavy burden of his father’s Land Bank debt, and had now seen his wife slip away into death at the young age of 32. He was now fatherless, a three-time business failure, and a widower. And the only thing he had to show for his political exploits was a job as a tax collector. The future of Samuel Adams looked bleak.
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The following sources were consulted for this article:
Langguth, A.J., Patriots: The Men Who Started The American Revolution
Lewis, Paul, The Grand Incendiary: A Biography of Samuel Adams, 1973
Farley, Karen, Samuel Adams: Grandfather of His Country (This book is part of "The American Troublemakers" series), 1995
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