Below: The original copy of the 1780 Massachusetts Constitution is kept in storage at the Massachusetts Archives building in Boston. One of the most significant Adams documents at the archives is the state’s Declaration of Rights, the model for the U.S. Bill of Rights.
Right: In 1776, Benjamin Franklin, American politician, writer and inventor, met with the committee drafting the Declaration of Independence, which included future U.S. presidents John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, as well as Roger Sherman and Robert R. Livingstone.
Below: The infamous March 5, 1770, Boston Massacre, in which a mob of angry colonists surrounded a group of British soldiers in front of the Massachusetts state house. The soldiers, who opened fire and killed five colonists, were later defended at their criminal trial by John Adams.
