December 16, 1773. Samuel Adams sits in a crowded meeting of American colonists at Boston’s Old South Meeting House. He’s watching small groups of men slip quietly out the door. Once outside, the men don disguises and make their way toward three ships moored in the harbor – each weighted down with chests of valuable British East India tea. The men climb aboard, tear open the chests and dump the tea in the water. Cheers fill the winter night. Back at the meeting, Samuel Adams waits. There’s nothing directly tying him to this radical act of rebellion … but few doubt he’s behind it.

How did a chronic underachiever help light the fuse of the American Revolution? And why has this important Founding Father largely been forgotten? 

Special thanks to our guest, Stacy Schiff, author of The Revolutionary: Samuel Adams.

** This episode originally aired December 12, 2022.

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