The Sons of Liberty was a loosely organized, clandestine, sometimes violent,

political organization A political organization is any organization that involves itself in the political process, including political parties, non-governmental organizations, and special interest advocacy groups. Political organizations are those engaged in polit ...

active in the Thirteen American Colonies founded to advance the rights of the colonists and to fight taxation by the British government. It played a major role in most colonies in battling the Stamp Act in 1765 and throughout the entire period of the

American Revolution The American Revolution (1765–1783) was a colonial rebellion and war of independence in which the Thirteen Colonies broke from British America, British rule to form the United States of America. The revolution culminated in the American ...

. Historian David C. Rapoport called the activities of the Sons of Liberty "mob terror." In popular thought, the Sons of Liberty was a formal underground organization with recognized members and leaders. More likely, the name was an underground term for any men resisting new Crown taxes and laws.Gregory Fremont-Barnes, ''Encyclopedia of the Age of Political Revolutions and New Ideologies'' (2007) 1:688 The well-known label allowed organizers to make or create anonymous summons to a

Liberty Tree The Liberty Tree (1646–1775) was a famous Elm, elm tree that stood in Boston, Massachusetts near Boston Common in the years before the American Revolution. In 1765, Patriot (American Revolution), Patriots in Boston staged the first act of def ...

, " Liberty Pole", or other public meeting-place. Furthermore, a unifying name helped to promote inter-colonial efforts against Parliament and the Crown's actions. Their motto became " No taxation without representation."

History

In 1765, the British government needed money to afford the 10,000 officers and soldiers living in the colonies, and intended that the colonists living there should contribute. The British passed a series of taxes aimed at the colonists, but many refused to pay, arguing that they should not be held accountable for taxes which were decided upon without any form of their consent through a representative. This became commonly known as " No Taxation without Representation." Parliament insisted on its right to rule the colonies despite the fact that the colonists had no representative in Parliament. The most incendiary tax was the Stamp Act of 1765, which caused a firestorm of opposition through legislative resolutions (starting in the colony of

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the East Coast of the United States ...

), public demonstrations, threats, and occasional hurtful losses. The name is presumed to have been inspired by the phrase's use in a pro-American, anti-taxation speech in the House of Commons on February 6, 1765, by Irish MP Isaac Barré. A precursor of the Sons of Liberty in Boston was the Loyal Nine, which burned effigies of Stamp Act commissioner Andrew Oliver in Boston on August 14, 1765. When he did not resign, the group escalated to burning down his office building. Even after he resigned, they almost destroyed the whole house of his close associate Lieutenant Governor Thomas Hutchinson. It is believed that the Sons of Liberty did this to excite the lower classes and get them actively involved in rebelling against the authorities. Their actions made many of the stamp distributors resign in fear. The organization spread after independent starts in several different colonies under various names. The name Sons of Liberty was used beginning in November in New York and Connecticut. By November 6, a committee was set up in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

to correspond with other colonies, and by November 11 a meeting in

Windham, Connecticut Windham ( ) is a town in Windham County, Connecticut, United States. It contains the former city of Willimantic, Connecticut, Willimantic as well as the communities of Windham Center, Connecticut, Windham Center, North Windham, and South Windha ...

laid out organizational plans. In December an alliance was formed between groups in New York and Connecticut, and the name of Sons of Liberty was first used in Boston. January bore witness to a correspondence link between Boston and New York City, and by March,

Providence, Rhode Island Providence () is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Rhode Island, most populous city of the U.S. state of Rhode Island. The county seat of Providence County, Rhode Island, Providence County, it is o ...

had initiated connections with New York,

New Hampshire New Hampshire ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Gulf of Maine to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec t ...

, and

Newport, Rhode Island Newport is a seaside city on Aquidneck Island in Rhode Island, United States. It is located in Narragansett Bay, approximately southeast of Providence, Rhode Island, Providence, south of Fall River, Massachusetts, south of Boston, and nort ...

. March also marked the emergence of Sons of Liberty organizations in New Jersey, Maryland, and Virginia. To celebrate the repeal of the Stamp Act in 1766, the Sons of Liberty in Dedham, Massachusetts, erected the Pillar of Liberty. The Sons of Liberty popularized the use of tar and feathering to punish and humiliate offending government officials starting in 1767. This method was also used against British Loyalists during the American Revolution. This punishment had long been used by sailors to punish their mates. On August 14, 1769, the Boston Sons of Liberty held a public rally in celebration of the 4th Anniversary of their founding. At 11 in the morning they gathered at the Liberty Tree in Boston where they gave speeches and made toasts; they then paraded to the Liberty Tree Tavern in nearby Dorchester, where they held a celebratory dinner of 300 members of the organization in a tent set up next to the tavern, where "Music played, and at proper Intervals Cannon were fired. ..About Five o'Clock the Company left he tavernin a Procession that extended near a Mile and a half, and before Dark entered the City, went round the State House and retired each to his own House." At this time in the history of their organization, they still considered themselves to be loyal subjects of the monarchy of Great Britain; when it came time at both events to give a round of toasts, the first toasts were to "The King, the Queen and the Royal Family"; only much later during the course of the Revolution did they begin to stridently oppose giving any support to the monarchy. The Bostonian branch of the Sons of Liberty were responsible for organizing and executing the famous

Boston Tea Party The Boston Tea Party was a seminal American protest, political and Mercantilism, mercantile protest on December 16, 1773, during the American Revolution. Initiated by Sons of Liberty activists in Boston in Province of Massachusetts Bay, colo ...

of 1773 in response to the Tea Act. Early in the American Revolution, the former Sons of Liberty generally joined more formal groups, such as the Committee of Safety.

New York

"The association of the Sons of Liberty was organized in 1765, soon after the passage of the Stamp Act, and extended throughout the colonies, from Massachusetts to South Carolina. It appears that New York was the central post from which communications were dispatched, to and from the east and to the south as far as Maryland..." While the exact name "Sons of Liberty" may not have been taken up as their official moniker by the leaders of the New York opposition to the Stamp Act in 1765 - they were popularly known there around that time as " The Liberty Boys" - it appears that they were known to other "Sons of Liberty" organizations in other states by that name not long after that time. There is a letter written by the "Sons of Liberty" in Baltimore, Maryland, "to the Sons of Liberty in New York", dated 6 March 1766 in which the Baltimore "Sons" thanked their New York brethren for having forced Zachariah Hood, who had been appointed stamp-master for Maryland, into resigning his commission. Hood had arrived in New York on a ship from London, and as soon as his mission became known to The Liberty Boys of New York, they arranged for a meeting with him at which they reasoned with him in their own inimitable way and thus secured his "resignation." A list of New York members of the Sons of Liberty compiled by the Sons in Maryland, written on 1 March 1766, lists the following correspondents in the colony of New York: "New York ity— John Lamb, Isaac Sears, William Wiley, Edward Laight, Thomas Robinson, Flores Bancker, Charles Nicoll, Joseph Allicoke, and Gershom Mott. Jer. Van Rensselaer, Maynard Roseboom, Rob. Henry, and Thos. Young, Albany. John S. Hobart, Gilbert Potter, Thomas Brush, Cornelius Conklin, and Nathaniel Williams, Huntington, Long Island. George Townsend, Barack Sneething, Benjamin Townsend, George Weeks, Michael Weeks, and Rowland Chambers, Oyster Bay, Long Island." In December 1773, a new group calling itself the Sons of Liberty issued and distributed a declaration in New York City called the ''Association of the Sons of Liberty in New York'', which formally stated that they were opposed to the Tea Act and that anyone who assisted in the execution of the act was ''"an enemy to the liberties of America"'' and that ''"whoever shall transgress any of these resolutions, we will not deal with, or employ, or have any connection with him."'' After the end of the

American Revolutionary War The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was the armed conflict that comprised the final eight years of the broader American Revolution, in which Am ...

, Isaac Sears, Marinus Willet, and John Lamb revived in New York City the Sons of Liberty. In March 1784, they rallied an enormous crowd that called for the expulsion of any remaining Loyalists from the state starting May 1. The Sons of Liberty were able to gain enough seats in the New York assembly elections of December 1784 to have passed a set of punitive laws against Loyalists. In violation of the

Treaty of Paris (1783) The Treaty of Paris, signed in Paris by representatives of King George III of Kingdom of Great Britain, Great Britain and representatives of the United States on September 3, 1783, officially ended the American Revolutionary War and recognized ...

, they called for the confiscation of the property of Loyalists.

Alexander Hamilton Alexander Hamilton (January 11, 1755 or 1757July 12, 1804) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father who served as the first U.S. secretary of the treasury from 1789 to 1795 dur ...

defended the Loyalists, citing the supremacy of the treaty.

Flags

An original flag flown from the Liberty Tree is in the collection of Revolutionary Spaces in Boston at the Old State House. The flag is wool with nine vertical stripes, four white and five red. The owner of the flag post-Revolution, Samuel "Rat-Trap" Adams, claimed that the flag was used by the Sons of Liberty, although there is no contemporary documentation of a non-British striped flag used by the Sons of Liberty. A flag having 13 horizontal red and white stripes was used by the Continental Navy and by American merchant ships during the war, although the two styles of flag do not appear to be related.

Famous Sons of Liberty

Boston

* Samuel Adams – political writer,

tax collector A tax collector (also called a taxman) is a person who collects unpaid taxes from other people or corporations on behalf of a government. The term could also be applied to those who audit tax returns or work for a revenue agency. Tax collec ...

, cousin of

John Adams John Adams (October 30, 1735 – July 4, 1826) was a Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father and the second president of the United States from 1797 to 1801. Before Presidency of John Adams, his presidency, he was a leader of ...

, fire warden. Founded the Sons of Liberty * Benjamin Church – first Surgeon-General of the United States Army and known traitor. Banished from Massachusetts in 1778 * Benjamin Edes –

journalist A journalist is a person who gathers information in the form of text, audio or pictures, processes it into a newsworthy form and disseminates it to the public. This is called journalism. Roles Journalists can work in broadcast, print, advertis ...

/publisher '' Boston Gazette'' * Benjamin Kent – Attorney General *

John Hancock John Hancock ( – October 8, 1793) was an American Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father, merchant, statesman, and prominent Patriot (American Revolution), Patriot of the American Revolution. He was the longest-serving Presi ...

– merchant,

smuggler Smuggling is the illegal transportation of objects, substances, information or people, such as out of a house or buildings, into a prison, or across an international border, in violation of applicable laws or other regulations. More broadly, soc ...

, fire warden * James Otis – lawyer, Massachusetts * Paul Revere – silversmith, fire warden * James Swan – financier * Isaiah Thomas – printer, Boston then Worcester, first to read Declaration of Independence in Massachusetts *

Joseph Warren Joseph Warren (June 11, 1741 – June 17, 1775), a Founding Father of the United States, was an American physician who was one of the most important figures in the Patriot (American Revolution), Patriot movement in Boston, Massachusetts, Bos ...

– doctor, soldier * Thomas Young – doctor

New York

* Joseph Allicocke – One of the leaders of the Sons, and possibly of

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

n ancestry. * John Lamb – trader * Alexander McDougall – captain of privateers * Hercules Mulligan –

haberdasher __NOTOC__ In British English, a haberdasher is a business or person who sells small articles for sewing, dressmaking and knitting, such as buttons, ribbons, and zippers; in the United States, the term refers instead to a men's clothing st ...

, spy under

George Washington George Washington (, 1799) was a Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father and the first president of the United States, serving from 1789 to 1797. As commander of the Continental Army, Washington led Patriot (American Revoluti ...

for the

Continental Army The Continental Army was the army of the United Colonies representing the Thirteen Colonies and later the United States during the American Revolutionary War. It was formed on June 14, 1775, by a resolution passed by the Second Continental Co ...

, friend of

* Isaac Sears – captain of privateers * Haym Salomon – financial broker, New York and Philadelphia * Marinus Willett – militia officer, cabinet maker, student

Other

Benedict Arnold Benedict Arnold (#Brandt, Brandt (1994), p. 4June 14, 1801) was an American-born British military officer who served during the American Revolutionary War. He fought with distinction for the American Continental Army and rose to the rank of ...

– businessman, later General in the Continental Army; known traitor, and after, General in the British Army * Timothy Bigelow –

blacksmith A blacksmith is a metalsmith who creates objects primarily from wrought iron or steel, but sometimes from #Other metals, other metals, by forging the metal, using tools to hammer, bend, and cut (cf. tinsmith). Blacksmiths produce objects such ...

Worcester, Massachusetts Worcester ( , ) is the List of municipalities in Massachusetts, second-most populous city in the U.S. state of Massachusetts and the list of United States cities by population, 113th most populous city in the United States. Named after Worcester ...

* John Brown – business leader of

Samuel Chase Samuel Chase (April 17, 1741 – June 19, 1811) was a Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father of the United States, signer of the Continental Association and United States Declaration of Independence as a representative of Maryla ...

– signer of the

Declaration of Independence A declaration of independence is an assertion by a polity in a defined territory that it is independent and constitutes a state. Such places are usually declared from part or all of the territory of another state or failed state, or are breaka ...

* John Crane –

carpenter Carpentry is a skilled trade and a craft in which the primary work performed is the cutting, shaping and installation of building materials during the construction of buildings, ships, timber bridges, concrete formwork, etc. Carpenter ...

, colonel in command of the 3rd Continental Artillery Regiment, Braintree, Massachusetts *

William Ellery William Ellery (December 22, 1727 – February 15, 1820) was a Founding Father of the United States, one of the 56 signers of the United States Declaration of Independence, and a signer of the Articles of Confederation as a representative of Rho ...

– signer of the Declaration of Independence * Christopher Gadsden – merchant,

Charleston, South Carolina Charleston is the List of municipalities in South Carolina, most populous city in the U.S. state of South Carolina. The city lies just south of the geographical midpoint of South Carolina's coastline on Charleston Harbor, an inlet of the Atla ...

* William Goddard (1740-1817) – publisher, co-founder of the US Post Office with Benjamin Franklin *

Patrick Henry Patrick Henry (May 29, 1736 ld Style and New Style dates, O.S. May 18, 1736une 6, 1799) was an American politician, planter and orator who declared to the Virginia Conventions, Second Virginia Convention (1775): "Give me liberty or give m ...

– lawyer, Virginia * Jedediah Huntington – General in the

* Samuel Huntington – signer of the

* William Paca – signer of the Declaration of Independence *

Charles Willson Peale Charles Willson Peale (April 15, 1741 – February 22, 1827) was an American painter, military officer, scientist, and naturalist. In 1775, inspired by the American Revolution, Peale moved from his native Maryland to Philadelphia, where he set ...

– portrait painter and saddle maker,

Annapolis, Maryland Annapolis ( ) is the capital of the U.S. state of Maryland. It is the county seat of Anne Arundel County and its only incorporated city. Situated on the Chesapeake Bay at the mouth of the Severn River, south of Baltimore and about east ...

* Matthew Phripp – merchant, chairman of the Norfolk committee of safety, prominent Freemason, and colonel of the militia.

Norfolk, Virginia Norfolk ( ) is an independent city (United States), independent city in the U.S. state of Virginia. It had a population of 238,005 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the List of cities in Virginia, third-most populous city ...

* Benjamin Rush – physician,

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

Charles Thomson Charles Thomson (November 29, 1729 – August 16, 1824) was an Irish-born Founding Father of the United States and secretary of the Continental Congress (1774–1789) throughout its existence. As secretary, Thomson prepared the Journals of the ...

– tutor, secretary, Philadelphia * William Williams – signer of the

Later societies

At various times, small secret organizations took the name "Sons of Liberty". They generally left very few records. In the early 19th century, there was an organization in Bennington, Vermont named the Sons of Liberty; this organisation included local notables such as military officer Martin Scott and Hiram Harwood. The Improved Order of Red Men, established in 1834, claimed to be descended from the original Sons of Liberty, noting that the Sons participated in the

dressed as their idea of "Indians". The name was also used during the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...

. The Copperhead group, the

Knights of the Golden Circle The Knights of the Golden Circle (KGC) was a secret society founded in 1854 by American George W. L. Bickley, the objective of which was to create a new country known as the Golden Circle (), where slavery would be legal. The country would have ...

, reorganized in 1863 as the "Order of American Knights". In 1864, it became the Order of the Sons of Liberty, with the Ohio politician Clement L. Vallandigham, most prominent of the Copperheads, as its supreme commander. In most areas, only a minority of its membership was radical enough to discourage enlistments, resist the draft, and shield deserters. The group held numerous peace meetings. A few agitators, some of them encouraged by Southern money, talked of a revolt in the Old Northwest, with the goal of ending the war. In 1864, both the KGC and the Order of the Sons of Liberty were prosecuted for treason by federal authorities, especially in Indiana. In 1948, a radical wing of the

Zionist movement Zionism is an ethnocultural nationalist movement that emerged in Europe in the late 19th century that aimed to establish and maintain a national home for the Jewish people, pursued through the colonization of Palestine, a region roughly co ...

, calling itself the "Sons of Liberty", launched a boycott of British films in the U.S.; this was in response to British policies in

Palestine Palestine, officially the State of Palestine, is a country in West Asia. Recognized by International recognition of Palestine, 147 of the UN's 193 member states, it encompasses the Israeli-occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and th ...

References

Notes Further reading :18th century Sons * * Carson, Clayborne, Jake Miller, and James Miller. "Sons of Liberty." in ''Civil Disobedience: An Encyclopedic History of Dissidence in the United States'' (2015): 276+ * * * Dawson, Henry Barton. ''The Sons of Liberty in New York'' (1859) 118 pages
online edition
*Foner, Philip Sheldon. ''Labor and the American Revolution'' (1976) Westport, CN: Greenwood. 258 pages * * * Labaree, Benjamin Woods. ''The Boston Tea Party'' (1964). * * Maier, Pauline. "Reason and Revolution: The Radicalism of Dr. Thomas Young," ''American Quarterly'' Vol. 28, No. 2, (Summer 1976), pp. 229–24
in JSTOR
* * * , a Marxist interpretation * * * * Walsh, Richard. ''Charleston's Sons of Liberty: A Study of the Artisans, 1763–1789'' (1968) * Warner, William B. ''Protocols of Liberty: Communication Innovation and the American Revolution'' (University of Chicago Press, 2013) :Later groups * * Churchill, Robert. "Liberty, conscription, and a party divided-The Sons of Liberty conspiracy, 1863–1864." ''Prologue-Quarterly of the National Archives'' 30#4 (1998): 294–303. * Rodgers, Thomas E. "Copperheads or a Respectable Minority: Current Approaches to the Study of Civil War-Era Democrats." ''Indiana Magazine of History'' 109#2 (2013): 114–146
in JSTOR

External links

Association of the Sons of Liberty in New York, December 15, 1773
{{Authority control 1765 establishments in the Thirteen Colonies American Revolution National liberation movements New York (state) in the American Revolution Patriotic societies Patriots in the American Revolution Secret societies in the United States Tarring and feathering in the United States Samuel Adams John Hancock Patrick Henry Paul Revere

History

New York

Flags

Famous Sons of Liberty

Boston

New York

Other

Later societies

See also

References

External links