Samuel Adams Dbq Essay

Samuel Adams held such an important part in gaining independence for America, but he was the most underappreciated. Many people seem to overlook Adams because he didn't leave many primary sources behind like a journal, notes, or letters etc.. Adams studied journalism at Harvard, and went on to pursue this by defending colonists against royal authorities who overstepped their boundaries. Then from 1764, when the Stamp act arose, he had one main focus- to fight for American Independence. In the 1760’s and 1770’s Adams fought against the British for the American colonists. Adams began organizing boycotts, and tried to create a congress to unify and organize their protests. This resulted in a repeal of the Stamp Act, and this was just the beginning

Around 1770, when the Boston Massacre took place, Adams demanded that troops be taken out of Boston at once, and the British withdrew those troops (Leddy 79). The small things that Adams did to support the colonists rights was what made the British Crown go off the edge. Adams accepted the ratification, but not at first. He had to work out a plan with the Federalists on things to add to the ratification to make himself feel more secure with the constitution. “Adams advocated the constitutional separation of powers and a Bill of Rights intended to protect individual liberties” (Leddy 12). The Bill of Rights now had twelve amendments and about two or three of them Adams had proposed.
Overall Adams played an important part in the ratification of the constitution. At first Adams’ began as an Antifederalist, on who was not in favor of the constitution for various opposing reasons. Adams felt as though the new constitution gave too much power to the central government. During this time Adams was soon won over by the federalists, and eventually voted for the ratification with the agreement of the Bill of Rights (Stoll