Adams was born in Boston , brought up in a religious and politically active family . A graduate of Harvard College , he was an unsuccessful businessman and tax collector before concentrating on politics . He was an influential official of the Massachusetts House of Representatives and the Boston Town Meeting in the 1760s , and he became a part of a movement opposed to the British Parliament 's efforts to tax the British American colonies without their consent . His 1768 Massachusetts Circular Letter calling for colonial non-cooperation prompted the occupation of Boston by British soldiers , eventually resulting in the Boston Massacre of 1770 . Adams and his colleagues devised a committee of correspondence system in 1772 to help coordinate resistance to what he saw as the British government 's attempts to violate the British Constitution at the expense of the colonies , which linked like-minded Patriots throughout the Thirteen Colonies . Continued resistance to British policy resulted in the 1773 Boston Tea Party and the coming of the American Revolution
Boston Massacre
Boston Massacre
Samuel Adams