American Rebels How the Hancock Adams & Quincy Families Fanned the Flames of Revolution

A chronicle of the Adams, Quincy and Hancock families and how they helped spark the American Revolution.

Braintree, Massachusetts is not a town people think of when they think of the American Revolution, but Nina Sankovitch's American Rebels takes a look at this small village and shows how important it was by looking at three influential families who originated there: the Quincys, the Adams, and the Hancocks. Sankovitch focuses on the rising stars of these families, Josiah Quincy, John Adams, John Hancock and their wives, Dorothy Quincy and Abigail Adams. American Rebels begins in 1768 as tensions rise in Boston with the installation of British troops and boil over at the Boston Massacre in 1770. With this, Adams, Quincy and Hancock begin to collaborate on combating British mistreatment of the colonists. Many of the meetings of these three men are held in Braintree at the Quincy homestead with people like Samuel Adams and Ben Franklin in attendance. American Rebels follows the stories of the three families as they intertwine through the siege of Boston, the formation of the Committee of Correspondence, the Boston Tea Party, the First and Second Continental Congresses, the Battles of Lexington and Concord, and, finally, the writing and signing of the Declaration of Independence. Nina Sankovitch's American Rebels is a fresh history of our revolution that gives readers a new Massachusetts crucible of revolution to think about when they consider the story of America's early years.

Nina Sankovitch's American Rebels explores, for the first time, the intertwined lives of the Hancock, Quincy, and Adams families, and the role each person played in sparking the American Revolution.

Before they were central figures in American history, John Hancock, John Adams, Josiah Quincy Junior, Abigail Smith Adams, and Dorothy Quincy Hancock had forged intimate connections during their childhood in Braintree, Massachusetts. Raised as loyal British subjects who quickly saw the need to rebel, their collaborations against the Crown and Parliament were formed years before the revolution and became stronger during the period of rising taxes and increasing British troop presence in Boston. Together, the families witnessed the horrors of the Boston Massacre, the Battles of Lexington and Concord, and Bunker Hill; the trials and tribulations of the Siege of Boston; meetings of the Continental Congress; transatlantic missions for peace and their abysmal failures; and the final steps that led to the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

American Rebels explores how the desire for independence cut across class lines, binding people together as well as dividing them--rebels versus loyalists--as they pursued commonly-held goals of opportunity, liberty, and stability. Nina Sankovitch's new book is a fresh history of our revolution that makes readers look more closely at Massachusetts and the small town of Braintree when they think about the story of America's early years.