I was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on September 27th, 1722. I was a leader of the fight against British Colonial rule, and a signer of the Declaration of Independence. I am the cousin of John Adams, who became the second President of the United States of America. I graduated from Harvard College with a Master of Arts degree in the year of 1743. After college, I entered private business an unsuccessful businessman. I became interested in politics and was a member and clerk of the Lower House of the State of Massachusetts legislature. I was also an outspoken participant in Boston town meetings. Being involved in politics, I entered politics full-time, and was elected to a promotion in the Massachusetts legislature. I led the effort to establish a committee of correspondence that published the Declaration of Colonial Rights, which I wrote. I was a vocal opponent of several laws passed by the British Parliament to raise money in the American Colonies, including the Tea Act, which gave a British trading company a monopoly on the import of tea into the colonies. .

             The opposition reached its peak on December 16, 1773, when a group Boston"s dumped a British cargo of tea into the Boston Harbor. This act that happened that night is known as the Boston Tea Party. The British parliament responded to the Boston Tea Party by passing a set of laws referred to as the "Intolerable Acts". These laws included the closing of Boston Harbor, and the restriction of all Boston town meetings. I then urged a general boycott of the British trade by the American Colonies. In 1774, the Massachusetts legislature sent four others and I as its representatives to the first Continental Congress. I served Massachusetts again at the Second Continental Congress, where I was in advocate for independence and confederation for the American Colonies. I served the Continental Congress until I returned to Boston in 1781.