Chapter 1 Quincy (1838 - 1848) Summary

Adams's education begins in Quincy, Massachusetts, a small Massachusetts town two hours walk from Boston. It is the home of his great-grandfather, President John Adams, and his grandfather, John Quincy Adams. He sets out the main formative influences on his early character: his elite birth, a serious case of Scarlet Fever, the start of his formal education, and the changing seasons. Regarding the first, he was a direct descendant of the Adams line, which included the patriot Samuel Adams and would later include his father Charles Francis Adams. He took his circumstances as natural and assumed that other boys had backgrounds as special as his, and did not realize the doors that such a background would open. The second major impact was a serious case of Scarlet Fever, which almost killed him when he was 8. He survives, but is...