Revolutionary War Figures
Directions: Use your textbook and provided web links to research each of the following people. Jot down notes about each person’s
background and significance in the revolutionary era.
Name:
Background
Information
John Adams
-Born in Braintree, MA in
1735
-Married to wife Abigail
Adams
-Was a lawyer who believed
that all people should have a
fair trial
-Cousin of Samuel Adams
Revolutionary -Defended British soldiers
significance
who were accused of murder
at the Boston Massacre
-Delegate to the First and
Second Continental Congress
-Helped write the Declaration
of Independence
Samuel Adams
-Born in Boston (Braintree in
1722
-Father wanted him to be a
minister, he worked for a
while at a counting house
(kind of like a bank)
-Married Elizabeth Checkley
in 1749
-Was a leader in the
Revolutionary struggle
-Protested the Stamp Act of
1765
-Involved in Sons of Liberty
-Helped plan the Boston Tea
Party
-Signed the Declaration of
Independence
Benjamin Franklin
-Born in 1706 in Boston
-Started a print shop in
Philadelphia
-Founded the first public
library, volunteer fire c., postal
system, and first college in
Pennsylvania and proved that
lightening was actually
electricity
-Married Deborah Reed in
1730
-Protested British taxes such
as the Stamp Act
-Joined the Continental
Congress to help make
decisions about how the
colonies should handle the
situation with England
-Helped to write the
Declaration of Independence
Paul Revere
-Born in Boston in 1734
-Married Sarah Orne in
1757
-Fought the French in
1756 and became a second
lieutenant in the colonial
artillery
-His father taught him to
be a silver and a gold
smith
-In April 1775, he warned
many people in Lexington
that “the British were
coming”
- Became famous for his
midnight ride from Boston
to Lexington when the
poem, “The Midnight Ride
of Paul Revere” was
written by Henry
Wadsworth Longfellow
Thomas Paine
-Born in 1737 in Norfolk,
England
-Born into a Quaker family
-Did not finish grammar
school
-Worked as an apprentice for
his father, making corsets
-Also worked as a tax officer
-Moved to Philadelphia in
1774 and began to work as a
journalist
Patrick Henry
-Born in 1736 in Virginia
-Was educated by his father
and became a lawyer in
Virginia
-Spoke very well in public
and was respected by the
Virginia legislature
Mercy Otis Warren
-Born in Massachusetts in
1728
-Married James Warren
-Was a writer of plays and
poems
George Washington
-Born in 1732 in Virginia
-Born into a wealthy,
plantation owning family
-Well known commander
in the French and Indian
War
-Married Martha
Washington in 1759
-Was a politician in
Virginia
Revolutionary -Wrote a pamphlet called
significance
Common Sense, which came
out in 1776. This pamphlet
encouraged colonists to fight
for freedom and contained
ways to achieve freedom
-Wrote, "These are the times
that try men's souls," in his
second pamphlet, The Crisis,
written for the new colonies.
-His writings were
inspirational for colonists
trying to break free of
oppressive British rule
-Protested the Stamp Act in
1765
-His “Virginia Stamp Act
Resolutions” were some of
the very first arguments for
the American Revolution
-Represented Virginia at the
First Continental Congress
-Urged Virginians in 1775 to
protest British taxes and
regulations
-Wrote about independence
and womens’ rights
-Wrote two plays insulting
Loyalists
-Said that Britain was too far
away to understand the
colonists' rights and needs
-Argued that women should
have the right to vote
-Was a Virginian patriot
-Was chosen to be the
commander of the
Continental Army at the
Second Continental
Congress
Background
Information