Newburyport's Road to Independence, Part IV - American Rebels: Hancock, Quincy, Adams

Newburyport's Offin Boardman carried secret letters for John Adams, who argued court cases in Newburyport. The USS Hancock was built in Newburyport in 1776, and all three families were linked by ties of blood and friendship to this community. Join Nina Sankovitch, author of American Rebels: How the Hancock, Adams, and Quincy Families Fanned the Flames of Revolution to explore the efforts of these leading New England families to foment support for the American Revolution in the decade leading up to the 1776 signing of the Declaration of Independence.

The fight for independence never would have succeeded if New Englanders, across class lines and from all backgrounds, had not joined the fight. John Hancock, John Adams, Abigail Adams, and Josiah Quincy were instrumental in bringing together disparate groups and igniting a shared ambition for liberty from English oppression. Using words (in speeches and letters) and actions (court cases, acts of civil disobedience, espionage, community outreach), they rallied colonists to betray their King and Parliament as a necessary and God-ordained duty to themselves, their neighbors, and their country. With the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the shared fight became a covenant, and the rights of life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness, the promise of independence. On the 250th anniversary of our nation, we celebrate that covenant, that promise, and the men and women who made it all possible.

Nina Sankovitch is an avid historian and voracious reader. She has written five books of non-fiction, including American Rebels: How the Hancock, Adams, And Quincy Fanned the Flames of Revolution, and most recently, Not Your Founding Father; How a Nonbinary Minster Became America’s Most Radical Revolutionary. Sankovitch attended Tufts University and Harvard Law School and now lives in New York City.