John Adams
Born October 1735
Braintree, Massachusetts
Died July 4, 1826
Quincy, Massachusetts
President and vice president of the United States, diplomat, lawyer, writer
John Adams was an enemy of British oppression who worked tirelessly for American independence. A man with a great mind, he wrote vivid diaries, letters, and essays; gave patriotic speeches; and negotiated effectively on behalf of his country. Although he could be a vain and stubborn politician, this passionate patriot was one of America's most important founding fathers.
Adams, one of three brothers, was born on his family's farm in Quincy (then known as Braintree), Massachusetts. His father, also named John, was a farmer and a church deacon who directed the affairs of his hometown for more than twenty years. Adams's mother, Susanna Boyleston Adams, came from a respected Brookline, Massachusetts, family. John Adams was very close to his mother. His biographer Page Smith wrote that "she brought a touch of [city worldliness] to the family. She had… an [unending supply] of [sayings about the right way to behave] which her son took to heart."
As a child, Adams loved spending time in the woods and fields that surrounded his Braintree home. "I spent my time as idle children do in making and sailing boats and ships upon the ponds and brooks, in making and flying kites, in driving hoops, playing marbles, playing quoits, wrestling, swimming, skating and above all in shooting, to which diversion I was addicted to a degree of Ardor which I know not that I ever felt for any other Business, Study, or Amusement," he would later write in his autobiography.
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