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The Father of the American Revolution - Part Three

© Brian Tubbs

In 1764, Francis Wells, an English merchant, gave the hand of his 24-year old daughter, Elizabeth, in marriage to the now 42-year old Samuel Adams. It is difficult to understand why Adams had the blessing of Elizabeth’s father. His daughter was becoming the second wife (and the second “Elizabeth”) to a man who had been a disappointment in every area of his life, save one. And that area was about to consume her, as well as her new husband, for the next two decades of their lives.

Until now, Adams had been merely a strong voice of protest. While he embraced the concept of self-government and had strongly criticized British authority, both at home and in England, he was not a revolutionary. According to Lewis, Adams was a “God-fearing, law-abiding man” who, in spite of his occasional blistering pen, was still recognized by most of Boston as merely as a “dreamer who enjoyed writing abstract articles and essays about an ideal state.” He had never traveled outside of Massachusetts, and was therefore completely unknown in the other colonies. All this would change in 1765 with the Stamp Act.

Our next article will examine the colonial reaction to the Stamp Act.

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Source for the above article:

Lewis, Paul, The Grand Incendiary, 1973