John Adams

Children's Literature - Mildred Hart

As a boy, John Adams preferred outdoor activities to reading or studying, but his father understood the value of learning and sent John to Harvard College. There, the pleasure of reading emerged and after graduating, John opened an office as a lawyer. He married Abigail Smith; a daughter named Abigail and a son, John Quincy, soon followed. When the British king began to increase taxes on his new colonies, John Adams became the voice of the colonists protesting the taxation. Their resistance resulted in British soldiers being sent to enforce the laws, and increased the rebellion against the taxes by the colonists. Adams and leaders from other colonies decided to meet and convened the First Continental Congress in Philadelphia. The delegates demanded that King George stop his program of escalating taxation but instead the king sent British soldiers to enforce his laws. When the soldiers were met with gunfire from colonists, the American Revolution had become an open conflict. John Adams brought the Congress to the decision to break away from Great Britain. The document Adams and his friend Thomas Jefferson produced, The Declaration of Independence, became a model for freedom-seeking people across the world. From the "History Maker Bios" series.