1765
The Sons of Liberty Take to the Streets
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turmoil surrounding the Stamp Act and aimed at getting the act repealed.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 plebeians,” 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, everything 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 antiCatholic “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 recommended 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 sympathetic 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 officials, the Sons of Liberty were dangerous 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 tactics 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 govA 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 several 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 provided 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