John Adams's Declaration Of Scituate: Film Analysis

Stephen Hopkins was born Scituate March 7, 1707 and died in Providence, Rhode Island July 13, 1785 after retiring from serving the Continental Congress. He was born and orphaned to his uncle at an early age, and came from a family prominently involved in politics such as his grandfather who served a prominent role in the politics of Providence, and his cousin, Benedict Arnold, who became the first governor of Rhode Island (Austin, p. 324.). Stephen was apparently self educated and had had a long history of public speaking (Kindig). Hopkins started his ventures of public service at age 23, This occurred in 1730 when the town of Scituate came into being, having been where he was born, but not yet named such, and he kept the position of Justice …show more content…
While he was the deciding vote in whether or not to open up a discussion on Virginia’s resolution of independence in the movie, I can’t find any source as to whether this is true or not, though, if his importance is not overstated by John Adams in his journals, it is entirely possible. Further than this, and something that is confirmed, is that Hopkins brought a sense of humour, common sense, and lightness to the congress. This is shown in both the movie and then confirmed in the journals of Adams, though the drinking is slightly exaggerated. While in the film he’s constantly asking for rum he apparently never drank until past 8 when he drank enough to bring good spirit, but never in excess. I would say that in the case of this film he’s slightly exaggerated, however the film focuses solely on the signing of the Declaration of Independence and the events leading up to it, so the features are exaggerated to make him more memorable, though in other matter was truly useful from the documents I’ve read. The fact that he was constantly reading as a child and was raised in the family of both merchants and politicians, as mentioned before, lent him knowledge of both politics and sea trade as well as naval matters. While he didn’t strictly serve a large purpose in the film, as past the deciding vote he didn’t prominently feature, it did express that he was an important member of the congress. If anything my research of the character showed that they did a semi-accurate portrayal and made me admire him further as a person for his goals and accomplishments, despite originally picking him out mostly out of the humour of his character. The film could arguably be either giving him purpose further than a background character or maybe encouraging the train of thought that he was an important member to congress without being able to go into why, as, while he