John Adams

John Adams

John Adams
Reading Level

	edHelper's suggested reading level:	grades 6 to 8
	Flesch-Kincaid grade level:	7.27

Vocabulary

	challenging words:		completion, persuasive, poorly, establishment, merely, manslaughter, reading, armed, resentment, better, guilty, youth, instrumental, classic, murder, schooling
	content words:		Samuel Adams, John Adams, Boston Massacre, Then John Adams, Revolutionary War, Second Constitutional Congress, Vice President, United States, George Washington, Navy Department

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John Adams
By Jane Runyon

¹     Samuel Adams and John Adams were cousins. John was younger than Samuel, but he became better known than his cousin. You wouldn't have thought so if you could have seen him growing up. He was not much interested in schooling and would rather have been outdoors hunting or fishing. His parents didn't hold out much hope for him to amount to much as an adult. One of the biggest lessons he learned in his youth was one which would stick with him throughout his life. He learned that everyone deserved to have fair treatment in the eyes of the law.

²     At some moment in his early life, reading became more important to John Adams than his love of nature. He read everything he could get his hands on. He studied all the classic literature that he could. He studied law. He studied science. He loved to learn. In his later life there were some who said that John Adams was the most intelligent man in the colonies. He was a respected scholar who was called upon to help decide important questions that other men debated.

³     John Adams' beliefs were not always popular with all the other colonists. Perhaps one of the first times his beliefs caused him discomfort was after the famous Boston Massacre. The British soldiers stationed in Boston were not very popular with the colonists. The colonists did not appreciate the king sending soldiers to their cities to make sure that they paid their taxes. Many felt that the taxes were unfair in the first place. The British soldiers were paid very poorly by the king, so they tried to find any kind of extra job they could. The colonists resented the soldiers because they were taking money for jobs the colonists felt they deserved to be getting. One day the colonists' resentment boiled over into a riot between unarmed citizens of Boston and eight armed soldiers. Five citizens were killed, and the colonists demanded that the soldiers be punished for their deaths.

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