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02 Revolution The Sons of Liberty Take to the Streets 1765 When the British Parliament passed the Stamp Act (which placed a tax on printed material such as deeds) in 1765, the colonists demonstrated their opposition to this new tax by boycotting British goods and engaging in protests that ranged from peaceful demonstrations to violent attacks. From this uprising came the Sons of Liberty, an organized resistance group intent on repealing the Act. The Sons of Liberty initiated many of their fellow colonists into the issues of revolution and the passions of protest. Formed in 1765, the Sons of Liberty was the first radical intercolonial group in America born from the turmoil surrounding the Stamp Act and aimed at getting the act repealed. Although, as historian Edward Countryman states, the leadership of the Sons of Liberty fell somewhere between “the elite and the ple- beians,” in the demonstrations and violence that marked the group’s existence it reached into the lower class, tapping into the anger about conditions that went beyond the Stamp Act itself. In addition to the Stamp Act, the formation of the Sons of Liberty relied on two other developments. First was the use of mob action prior to the Act. The colonies had experienced numerous tumults, every- thing from roving gangs in the cities to armed rebels along the frontiers. The Sons of Liberty built on this tradition, even borrowing the ceremonies, such as the street marches that accompanied the anti- Catholic “Pope’s Day,” and using the leaders who had been involved in earlier street demonstrations. Second, the Sons of Liberty emerged only after other individuals and groups, largely disorganized, had begun protesting the Stamp Act. The colonists hated the act, as it was a tax passed by a government in which they had no representation. On the night of August 26, 1765, a mob in Boston descended on the home of Lieutenant Governor Thomas Hutchinson. Thinking him responsible for having recom- mended passage of the Stamp Act (he actually opposed it), and worried that documents in his possession might reveal the names of colonists involved in smuggling, the mob smashed the door to his house, tore the wainscoting from its walls, stole all his furniture and clothing, and chopped down his fruit trees. Hutchinson later said, “Such ruins were never seen in America.” The following day, protesters in Newport, Rhode Island, burned pro-British figures in effigy and over the next several days engaged in riots that destroyed the homes of two residents who supported the Stamp Act. A mob in New York City took to the streets on November 1, 1765, spurred on by stories that Acting Governor Cadwallder Colden possessed a supply of stamps; the mob destroyed his gilded coach. Historians are unsure whether the mob was organized by the Sons of Liberty. It was led by Isaac Sears, John Lamb, and others who were emerging as New York’s Sons of Liberty, but it is possible they did not formally organize as a group until November 6. In Boston, a club called the Loyal Nine had formed in August 1765 to lead protests but did not call itself the Sons of Liberty until some time in December. The Sons of Liberty took their name from a speech in Parliament by Issac Barre, a member sympa- thetic to the colonial cause. In reply to Charles Townshend’s argument in favor of the Stamp Act, Barre said, “As soon as you began to care about [the colonists], that care was exercised by sending persons to rule over ’em in one department or another, who were . sent to spy out their liberty, to misrepresent their actions and to prey upon ’em: men whose behavior on many occasions had caused the blood of these sons of liberty to recoil within them.” At first, the Sons of Liberty drew its leadership and members mainly from artisans, intellectuals, and intercolonial merchants. Intellectuals included Samuel Adams of Massachusetts, who wanted to make his colony an austere Christian community. The artisans came primarily from those whose shops suffered from the importation of British goods, individuals such as the silversmith Paul Revere and the shoemaker George Hewes. The intercolonial merchants were those with few ties to the transatlantic trade. Neither rich enough CHAPTER TWO: REVOLUTION AND NATION-BUILDING 37 to be part of the elite nor poor enough to be part of the lower class, the Sons of Liberty represented a middling sort with close ties to the common people, the very segment essential in winning independence from Britain. By spring 1766, the Sons of Liberty existed in every colony from South Carolina to New Hampshire, and many of them corresponded with one another. In the eyes of British offi- cials, the Sons of Liberty were danger- ous radicals. Historian John C. Miller observed that, “Crown Officers and stamp masters alike believed that the Sons of Liberty had begun a reign of terror in which every supporter of British sovereignty would be crushed by the patriot mob.” Whatever the tac- tics and wherever they took action, Sons of Liberty sought to disrupt any attempt to use the tax stamps. Initially, they neither desired to overthrow the existing colonial gov- A cartoon depicts the Sons of Liberty battling British soldiers. (Bettmann/CORBIS) ernments nor radically alter them. The New York City Sons of Liberty declared: “[We] are not attempting . any change of Government—only a preservation of the Constitution.” The various Sons of Liberty aimed their complaint mainly at Parliament, and on sever- al occasions they affirmed their loyalty to the king; the New London, Connecticut group declared its “most unshaken faith and true allegiance to his Majesty King George the Third.” Nevertheless, as they broadened their base of support, evolving from a secret group to a public one, even printing the proceedings of their meetings in newspapers, they reached into the lower orders for members. As they did so, they plunged into class issues. In New York, the Sons of Liberty protested unemployment, high rents, and high prices. Edward Countryman says, “For both the leadership and the people of New York, domestic issues were part of the crisis.” The Sons of Liberty disbanded when Parliament repealed the Stamp Act in 1766. But several of them reorganized to protest Parliament’s passage of the Townshend Acts in 1768, which sought to impose taxes on imports. They continued in existence until the American Revolution ended in 1783. Whether proclaiming the more moderate goal of repealing the Stamp Act, engaging in the more extreme acts of violence, or supporting the overthrow of British authority during the revolution, the Sons of Liberty pro- vided a radical leadership crucial in winning American independence. Further Reading Countryman, Edward. The American Revolution. New York: Hill and Wang, 1985. Maier, Pauline. From Resistance to Revolution: Colonial Radicals and the Development of American Opposition to Britain, 1765–1776. New York: W. W. Norton, 1991. 38 REBELS AND RENEGADES.
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