Sons of Liberty

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For the video game, see Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty

The Sons of Liberty as depicted in British press

The Sons of Liberty was a label adopted by Patriots in the Thirteen Colonies before the American Revolution. British authorities and their supporters 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, however they did want mob violence.

1 History
2 Level of organization
3 Flags
4 Later societies
5 Bibliography
6 See also
7 External links

[edit] 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 "these 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 The success of this popular movement—the Stamp Act became unenforceable and was repealed in 1766—emboldened colonial Whigs to resist other new taxes with similar measures in the following years.

[edit] 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, and diaries 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, Joseph Warren, Patrick Henry, John Hancock, James Otis, Thomas Crafts jr., John Adams, and his cousin, Samuel Adams, who was a leader of the New England resistance.

The Sons of Liberty are best known for the Boston Tea Party, where members of the group, dressed as Native American Indians, poured several tons of tea into the Boston Harbour in protest of the Tea Act.

Champagne (1964) considers the role of radical leadership in New York during the critical years of 1775 and 1776, focusing primarily on Isaac Sears, John Lamb, and Alexander McDougall, leaders since 1765 of New York's Sons of Liberty. By the time independence was declared, these three leaders who, more than any others, had paved the way for New York's independence, were out of public life, with the consequence of depriving New York's lower class of a political voice and of giving the Robert R. Livingston faction virtually a free hand in establishing New York's independence. In another article Champagne (1967) studies the social origins and political behavior of the Liberty Boys (Sons of Liberty) of New York City who were drawn from the lower social and economic strata of society. Rent by internal divisions, loyal to leaders as well as political principles, involved in local politics, the Liberty Boys were a "complex lot" whose alliances with the aristocracy shifted in response to personality clashes and factionalism. They were suffered by the aristocracy because they were useful in political struggles since they formed the largest single group in the city's electorate. By 1774 full-blown political opposition to aristocratic leadership had emerged from the Sons of Liberty. The author presents tables showing the adult male electorate, identifies mechanic voters by occupation, and the distribution of mechanics' votes in the election of the Assembly in 1768 and 1769.

Irvin (2003) examines how the folk ritual of tarring and feathering was linked to the course that colonists took from defiance to revolution, causing extreme antagonism between Patriots and Loyalists, and how the ritual changed the colonists' notion of citizenship from allegiance to Britain to allegiance to each other and to the formation of America, during 1768-76. Although it became a "trademark of the American cause," the practice was actually introduced by transatlantic sailors, who used it to punish and humiliate perpetrators of various offenses. It became popular when the Sons of Liberty used it to protest the Townshend Revenue Act of 1767 by attacking informants and customs officials. The Continental Congress in 1774 approved a plan of nonimportation and nonexportation known as the Articles of Association and even encouraged tar and feather attacks by local committees on those who defied the association. Ordinary townspeople also embraced tarring and feathering to quiet those who vocalized, sometimes vehemently, opposition to American independence. Sometimes property was the target of the practice, and militia members also engaged in tarring and feathering while on the march.

[edit] Flags

In 1767, 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.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] 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.

[edit] 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