Just after midnight on April 18, 1775, a rider galloped up to a parsonage to
deliver a message—“The regulars are coming”—and issue a warning. General Gage
of the British army had ordered troops to march on Lexington and Concord and
arrest two of the most incendiary patriots in the colony of Massachusetts:
Samuel Adams and John Hancock. The following morning saw the Battle of
Lexington and Concord fought, setting the American Revolution into motion.
Thanks to that midnight rider, Paul Revere, and his warning that April night,
Adams and Hancock were able to escape the British troops.
In The Revolutionary Samuel Adams, author Stacy Schiff takes readers back to this moment in time and beyond. Her subject is Samuel Adams, the second cousin of John Adams. Thomas Jefferson called Samuel 'the earliest, most active, and persevering man of the Revolution.' When John traveled to France to request funds for the war, the French greeted him with a hero's welcome until they found out that 'the famous Adams' was his cousin, Samuel.
Schiff does a thorough job of describing colonial life and the tensions that
built with increasing ferocity until war broke out in 1775. Samuel Adams was
in the thick of it, writing anonymous letters to various Boston newspapers,
taking part in committees, and seizing any opportunity to lambast the
British - all with the goal of liberty in mind. A signer of the Declaration
of Independence, he was one of the first to identify liberty from Great
Britain as an objective for the American colonies. He was truly the man of
the Revolution.
Two hundred and fifty years have passed since Samuel Adams signed the
Declaration of Independence. Though we cannot stand in the room with the
Continental Congress or take part in committees to establish the
American colonies as separate from Britain, we can celebrate America’s
milestone anniversary through the Georgia Reads for America 250
Challenge. Read about Samuel Adams, Paul Revere, and others who made
their mark on American history.
Melissa Gunter
Outreach Specialist
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