John Adams was one of the founders of the American Revolution. He drafted the constitution for Massachusetts, which was later used in drafting the U.S. Constitution. He was a writer and lawyer, and believed passionately in the importance of having an honest and fair justice system.

Fun Facts

• John Adams was born in Braintree, Massachusetts in 1735. His mother belonged to a prominent medical family and his father was a deacon, a farmer, and a councilman. His father supervised school and road construction.
• Adams’ family were members of the Puritan faith. Adams thought that he had a responsibility to contribute to society. He said his greatest blessing was having a mother who believed in developing his character. Honesty and integrity were very important to him.
• He began attending school when he was six. He studied Latin, rhetoric, logic, and math. He didn’t always like school and sometimes played hooky.
• He graduated from Harvard and became a lawyer. He believed that all people deserved a fair trial and should be presumed innocent until proven guilty. He defended British soldiers after the Boston Massacre, a move that made him unpopular with his friends. He often found himself in this situation, but believed it was more important to do what he felt was right than to please others.
• He married Abigail Smith, a woman who was his match in intellect and temperament. She was a very good companion and they had a happy marriage. She was outspoken, intelligent, and passionate. She often counseled him.
• Adams was very involved in the events of the Revolutionary War. He served on the Continental Congress and recommended George Washington as military leader.
• John Adams was vice president to George Washington twice. He hated this role. He felt underutilized and bored.
• He was happy when he was elected as the second president of the United States. His presidency, however, did not go well. First, George Washington was beloved and idolized. Anything John Adams did that was different would be unpopular.
• John Adams faced conflict with France during his presidency. He managed to avoid war, but the conflict stirred up disagreement in the United States.
• He passed the Alien and Sedition Act, which said that people who were making rebellious comments against the country could be deported or punished. This act was seen by many as a restriction on free speech. John Adams lost favor and could not win reelection against Thomas Jefferson.
• John Adams and Thomas Jefferson were very good friends, until they became enemies when they ran against each other for president. They later resumed their friendship, writing many letters to each other. They died a few hours apart, on July 4, 1826.

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Born in 1706, the youngest son of a candle maker, Benjamin Franklin was an inventor, a statesman, a writer, a printer, and a beloved husband and father. Over 20,000 people attended his funeral.

Fun Facts

• As a child, Benjamin Franklin lived in a little house on Milk Street in Boston. He had sixteen brothers and sisters! His parents taught him to work hard, learn a trade, and be honest and good.
• Benjamin was the youngest son. He was bright, funny, and energetic. One time, he got some pennies as a gift. He ran to the toy shop and bought a whistle. He ran through the house blowing it loudly until his sisters made fun of him for spending money on a worthless toy. After that, Benjamin was very careful with his money.
• Benjamin liked to swim in the sea and watch the boats. Once he tied his kite around his waist and went swimming. The kite pulled him along through the water.
• He was always inventing things and creating games for his friends.
• Benjamin went to school when he was eight. He was very good at reading and writing, but he didn’t like math. He left school to become a candle maker when he was ten, but he hated it.
• Instead, he became an apprentice in his brother’s printing shop. James was very strict. Benjamin worked hard and learned quickly. He spent most of the money he earned on books and read them whenever he had a free moment.
• Benjamin wanted to be a writer. He started writing letters to a local newspaper, pretending to be a widow woman. The newspaper readers enjoyed the letters, but when James found out, he gave Benjamin a beating.
• At seventeen, Benjamin ran away to New York, but could find no work. He went to Philadelphia and found a job with a printer. In Philadelphia, he was no longer the younger brother. People liked and respected him, including the governor of Philadelphia.
• Eventually he got his own printing shop. He married Deborah Read, and they had a comfortable, if humble, house. He began printing pamphlets, a newspaper, and a calendar called Poor Richard’s Almanac, which was full of useful advice, wise sayings, and funny puns.
• Benjamin started a library and a school, which later became the University of Pennsylvania. He organized a hospital for the poor and a fire department. He became postmaster of Philadelphia, and then of all the American colonies.
• Benjamin was constantly thinking about how to make things simpler and more efficient. He invented an iron stove, the Franklin Stove, which was famous in America and Europe. He spent six years studying electricity and invented the first lightning rods.
• He was sent to England to talk to the king about taxes. For ten long years, he tried to encourage both sides to find peace. Finally, he returned home, unsuccessful. His wife had died in America and he was old and tired. Fighting had started in America. He, along with several others, worked with Thomas Jefferson to draft the Declaration of Independence.
• Then he was sent to France to persuade the French government to help the colonists. The French people loved Benjamin Franklin, and finally agreed to send soldiers, money, and weapons. After nine years, Benjamin Franklin sailed home.

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John Hanco-ck is best known for his signature on the Declaration of Independence. Find out what else he did.

Fun Facts

• John Hanco-ck was born in Braintree, Massachusetts in 1737. His father was a colonel in the British military. His family lived comfortably and had one slave.
• John’s father died in 1744 and he was sent to live with his uncle, Thomas Hanco-ck, one of the wealthiest men in the colonies. Thomas and his wife Lydia had no children of their own and were happy to welcome John into their home. John learned his uncle’s trade, later becoming a partner. He graduated from Harvard University in 1754, when he was seventeen years old.
• He spent several years in England working for his uncle’s company. When John’s uncle died in 1764, John inherited his fortune, including his business, is mansion on Beacon Hill, and several thousand acres of land. Now John was one of the wealthiest and most influential men in the colonies.
• The British government was deeply in debt and looking for ways to make money. One of their ideas was to tax the colonies, which angered many people. At first, John, who was loyal to the crown, took a moderate view. But he soon resented the taxes and became involved in politics.
• He became good friends with John Adams even though the two were very different. John Adams was older and more serious. He lived a fairly simple life and practiced Puritan ways. John Hanco-ck enjoyed an extravagant lifestyle. He wore fancy clothes and went to parties. Still, the two could help each other. John Adams had wisdom and vision; John Hanco-ck had money and influence.
• John Hanco-ck served as the president of the Second Continental Congress. He influenced the other men to sign the Declaration of Independence. He signed first and he intentionally signed his name in a large, decorative script. He knew that he would be hanged if the British were victorious, but he didn’t care. His bold signature was a message of defiance to the English.
• Hanco-ck was the governor of Massachusetts two times.

Questions and Answers

Question: Did John Hanco-ck fight in the Revolutionary War?

Answer: He didn’t fight, but he was directly involved in many of the events. He used his wealth and influence as a leader. He was disappointed when John Adams proposed George Washington as the leader of the army, although his vanity and lack of experience probably would have made him ill-equipped for the job.

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Thomas Jefferson’s gravestone contains words he wrote himself. On it, he listed only three accomplishments: writing the Declaration of Independence, writing the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom, and founding the University of Virginia.

These are just the beginning of his accomplishments, but they were the ones he thought most worth remembering. Find out what else he did.

Fun Facts

• Thomas Jefferson spent almost 50 years in public office. He believed deeply that America could be a light to the world. He was passionate about political and religious freedom, and educational opportunity.
• He was born in 1743 on a plantation in Virginia. His father was a prosperous farmer and surveyor; his mother belonged to one of the most important families in Virginia.
• Jefferson’s father died when he was fourteen and he inherited the estate, more than 5,000 acres.
• But Jefferson wanted to live on the mountain above his father’s plantation. When he was just 25, he purchased the property and began clearing trees to build his beloved home, Monticello. He started with a simple one-room building and slowly expanded.
• He married Martha Wayles Skelton and they had six children, only two of whom survived to adulthood. Jefferson was devastated when she died ten years after their marriage. He referred to her as “the cherished companion of my life.”
• Thomas Jefferson was uncomfortable with slavery, and yet, he owned slaves, typically around 200 at any time. He also had a romantic relationship with one of his slaves, Sally Hemings, which lasted for 25 years until his death. They had at least six children.
• Thomas Jefferson enjoyed being in the woods and was a fine outdoorsman. As a child, he learned Latin, Greek, and French. He played the violin. He loved books and learning and had a library with over 2,000 books.
• He was the principle creator of the Declaration of Independence. He was somewhat reserved in public, but he was a wonderful writer.
• He later became the third president of the United States. During his presidency, he negotiated the Louisiana Purchase and planned the Lewis and Clark Expedition.

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Paul Revere is known for his midnight ride, but what about the rest of his life? He was no stranger to hard work and challenge, and he had a strong love of family and country.

Fun Facts

• Paul Revere’s father grew up in Midi, France, a beautiful farming area. His family were Huguenots, a specific religion, which the king of France did not like.
• The king made a law that if the Huguenots in France would change their religion, they could stay. Otherwise, they had to leave or face persecution, imprisonment, loss of property, or even death.
• Paul Revere’s grandparents were too old to leave, but they wanted their son to have a better life. When he was thirteen, they put him on a boat, knowing they would never see him again.
• Paul’s father sailed to Guernsey, off the coast of England, and then to America. An uncle paid for his passage on the ship and sent money for the boy to be apprenticed to a silversmith in Boston.
• The boy was homesick. He couldn’t speak English and the other boys in Boston teased him. He worked hard, learning to speak English and to mold silver. He changed his French name, Apollos Rivoire, to Paul Revere, which was easier for the English to pronounce.
• But he never forgot his French name, which means He taught his son, Paul Revere, “Take the oak as your pattern of life, for it is a strong and useful tree. There are many trees more showy than the oak, but none is so staunch, so honorable, and so good.” (America’s Paul Revere by Esther Forbes, 1974).
• Paul Revere went to school until he was thirteen, learning how to read, write, and do sums. After that, he began to learn the silversmith trade with his father. He worked hard and became one of the best silversmiths in Boston, if not all of New England.
• When Paul was eighteen, his father died, leaving the shop to him. He had to work hard to provide for the family and take care of his mother, who lived with him all her life.
• When Paul was twenty one, he went to fight in the French and Indian War, leaving his mother to manage the home and care for her five younger children. He was a good soldier, but he was glad to come back to Boston a year later.
• He married Sarah Orne and they lived in his father’s house. Paul was becoming a famous silversmith.
• The British tax laws soon made it difficult for people to trade in Boston. Everyone, including Paul, was poor. Paul learned to make copper plates and he also learned dentistry since silver was expensive and few people could afford it anymore.
• Paul Revere belonged to a political group that met at a tavern, The Green Dragon, to discuss what to do about the British. He was there during the Boston Massacre and the Boston Tea Party.
• And on the night of April 18, 1775, Dr. Joseph Warren asked Paul Revere to ride to Lexington to warn John Hanco-ck and Samuel Adams of a conspiracy to capture them, and then to ride to Concord to warn the colonists that the British were coming to take a stockpile of weapons and arms. Paul Revere rode through the night, with his lesser known partner, William Dawes, alerting towns along the way. Revere was captured by the British, but eventually released.
• When the war was over, Paul Revere went back to being a silversmith. He made beautiful church bells, one of which is in King’s Chapel in Boston. You can also still see his house if you visit Boston.

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Watch a video about Paul Revere’s ride.