Discover

:''For the video game, see .

The 'Sons of Liberty' was a secret organization of American Patriots which originated in the Thirteen Colonies before the American Revolution. British authorities and supporters known as Loyalists considered the Sons of Liberty as seditious rebels, and referred to them as "Sons of Violence" and "Sons of Iniquity." Patriots attacked the apparatus and symbols of British authority and power such as gentlemen's homes, Customs officers, East India Company tea, and as the war approached, vocal supporters of the Crown. The Sons of Liberty wanted to resist the British Crown with acts of protest, and were often involved in mob violence.

Contents

History

Level of organization

Flags

Later societies

Bibliography

See also

External links

History

The Sons of Liberty took their name from a debate on the Stamp Act in Parliament in 1765. Charles Townshend, speaking in support of the act, spoke contemptuously of the American colonists as being "children planted by our care, nourished up by our indulgence... and protected by our arms." Then Isaac Barre, a Member of Parliament and supporter of the American colonists, responded by describing the Americans as "the Sons of Liberty" and warned that they would resist the new tax.
North American colonists from Savannah to Halifax did indeed resist the Stamp Act in 1765, through legislative resolutions (starting in Virginia), public demonstrations (starting in Massachusetts), threats, and occasional violence. The success of this popular movement—the Stamp Act became unenforceable and was repealed in 1766—emboldened colonial Whigs to resist other new taxes with similar measures in the following years.

Level of organization

In the popular imagination (as in the novel ''Johnny Tremain'' by Esther Forbes), the Sons of Liberty was a formal underground organization with recognized members and leaders. More likely, the name was an umbrella term for any men resisting new Crown taxes and laws. Newspaper articles, handbills, referred to "True Born Sons of Liberty," "Sons of Freedom," and "Daughters of Liberty." The label let organizers issue anonymous summons to a Liberty Tree, "Liberty Pole", or other public meeting-places, let Patriot groups in one town communicate with those elsewhere, and let any man or boy imagine himself a Son of Liberty.
Groups identifying themselves as Sons of Liberty existed in almost every colony. Members were drawn from across class distinctions, although these borders were less well-defined in colonial America. Prominent members included Paul Revere, Thomas Young, Joseph Warren, Alexander McDougall, Patrick Henry, John Hancock, Isaac Sears, John Lamb, James Otis, Thomas Crafts, Jr., John Adams, and his cousin, Samuel Adams, who was a leader of the New England resistance. Silas Downer, a so-called "Forgotten Patriot", spoke as a Sons of Liberty member at one of the famed Liberty Trees in 1766.[1]
The Sons of Liberty are best known for the Boston Tea Party, where members of the group, dressed to evoke the appearance of Native American Indians, poured several tons of tea into the Boston Harbour in protest of the Tea Act. A long-running skirmish over Liberty Poles in New York City between local Sons of Liberty (a.k.a. "Liberty Boys") and British troops stationed there raged intermittently from 1766 until the city's military occupation by General William Howe in 1776.[2]

Flags

In 1767 jutis, the Sons of Liberty adopted a flag with nine vertical stripes (five red and four white). It is supposed that ''nine'' represented the number of colonies that were to attend the Stamp Act Congress. A flag having thirteen horizontal red and white stripes, used by American merchant ships during the war, was also associated with the Sons of Liberty. While red and white were common colors of the flags, other color combinations, such as green and white, in addition yellow and white, were used.^[1][2]

Later societies

The name was also used during the American Civil War. Early in 1864, the Copperhead organization, the Knights of the Golden Circle, was reorganized as the ''Order of the Sons of Liberty''.
The Improved Order of Red Men, a patriotic fraternal secret society, claims to actually be the Sons of Liberty, having adopted the Native American motif after the Boston Tea Party.
The name ''Sons of Liberty'' also denotes a patriotic secret society at the University of Virginia.

Bibliography

★ Becker, Carl. "Growth of Revolutionary Parties and Methods in New York Province 1765-1774." ''American Historical Review'' 1901 7(1): 56-76. Issn: 0002-8762 Fulltext: in Jstor

★ Champagne, Roger J. "Liberty Boys and Mechanics of New York City, 1764-1774." ''Labor History'' 1967 8(2): 115-135. Issn: 0023-656x Fulltext: in Ebsco

★ Champagne, Roger J. "New York's Radicals and the Coming of Independence." ''Journal of American History'' 1964 51(1): 21-40. Issn: 0021-8723 Fulltext: in Jstor

★ Irvin, Benjamin H. "Tar, Feathers, and the Enemies of American Liberties, 1768-1776." ''New England Quarterly'' 2003 76(2): 197-238. Issn: 0028-4866 Fulltext: in Jstor

★ John C. Miller; ''Origins of the American Revolution.'' (1943) online edition

★ Herbert M. Morais, "The Sons of Liberty in New York" in Richard B. Morris ed. ''The Era of the American Revolution'' (1939) pp 269-89 online edition

See also

★ Société des Fils de la Liberté (Quebec)

★ Stamp Act Congress

★ T.S.O.L. (band)

★ '' (videogame)

★ Boston Tea Party

External links

★ ''The Sons of Liberty'', ushistory.org

★ ''The Sons of Liberty'', u-s-history.com

★ ''Sons of Liberty: Terrorists'', Archiving Early America