Sons of Liberty Worksheets
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Fact File
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Table of Contents
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Summary
- Origins
- Symbols and Demonstrations
- Major Actions and Resistance
- Later Societies
Key Facts And Information
Let’s know more about the Sons of Liberty!
The Sons of Liberty was a secret group in the American colonies that stood against British taxes and unfair laws. They wanted fair treatment for the colonists and helped fight the Stamp Act of 1765 and other British colonial laws. Instead of being a formal group with clear leaders, the name ‘Sons of Liberty’ was used for anyone who protested British control. They met in secret at Liberty Trees or Liberty Poles and used the motto, ‘No Taxation Without Representation’ to bring colonists together. One of their most famous actions was the Boston Tea Party in 1773, where they dressed as Indigenous people and threw British tea into the harbour to protest the Tea Act. Their efforts helped lead to the American Revolution.
Sons of Liberty flag
Origins of the Sons of Liberty
- In 1765, Britain needed money to pay for 10,000 soldiers in the American colonies. To raise funds, they created new taxes and expected the colonists to help pay. Many colonists refused, arguing it was unfair since they had no say in British decisions. This led to the idea of ‘No taxation without representation’.
- The group got its name from a speech by British politician Isaac Barré, who supported the colonists and called them the ‘Sons of Liberty’. The Sons of Liberty quickly spread, with groups forming in different colonies. By November 1765, there were groups in New York and Connecticut. New York became an important centre helping to organise protests in other colonies.
- By March 1766, the movement had reached New Jersey, Maryland, Virginia and Rhode Island. These groups worked together, shared ideas and planned protests, helping their cause grow across the colonies.
Symbols and Demonstrations of the Sons of Liberty
- The Sons of Liberty used symbols and demonstrations to inspire people and show their resistance:
- Liberty Tree: In Boston, they hung British officials in effigy (lifelike dummies representing people) from the Liberty Tree, a large tree used as a symbol of protest, to show their anger.
- The Sons of Liberty Flag: The group also had a flag that represented their resistance. One version featured nine vertical stripes (four white and five red) symbolising the nine colonies that took part in the Stamp Act protests. This flag was flown from the Liberty Tree in Boston. Another flag, with 13 horizontal red and white stripes, was later used by the Continental Navy and American merchant ships during the Revolution.
- Tar and Feathering: They made British tax collectors suffer public humiliation by pouring hot tar and feathers on them.\
- Liberty Poles: In New York and other cities, they raised Liberty Poles to show their fight for freedom.
- Public Celebrations: On 14 August 1769, the Boston Sons of Liberty held a huge rally to celebrate their fourth anniversary. They had music, speeches, cannon fire, and a parade that stretched a mile and a half.
- At first, the Sons of Liberty still saw themselves as loyal British citizens. At their events, they even made toasts to the King and Queen. But over time, they became stronger opponents of British rule.
Major Actions and Resistance
The Sons of Liberty were known for their bold and sometimes aggressive actions against British rule. They used protests, public gatherings and direct action to fight against unfair laws and taxes.
Protests Against the Stamp Act (1765–1766)
- The first major event that brought the Sons of Liberty together was the Stamp Act of 1765. This law required colonists to buy special stamps for newspapers, legal papers and other printed materials. The Sons of Liberty strongly opposed this tax and took action.
- In Boston, they burned a stuffed figure of Andrew Oliver, the tax collector, to scare him. They later attacked his home and office. As a result, many stamp tax collectors resigned because they were afraid of the protests.
- The Sons of Liberty also held large gatherings to encourage people to resist the tax. They told people to stop buying British goods until the Stamp Act was removed. Because of these actions, Britain cancelled the Stamp Act in 1766. However, problems between Britain and the colonies continued.
Printed copy of the Stamp Act 1765
Protests Against the Townshend Acts (1767-1770)
- After the Stamp Act was repealed, Britain passed the Townshend Acts, which taxed paper, glass, lead, paint and tea. Thus, the Sons of Liberty organised more protests.
- They poured hot tar and feathers on British tax officials and people who supported British rule to punish and embarrass them. In New York City, they put up Liberty Poles to show their resistance. British soldiers kept tearing them down, but the Sons of Liberty rebuilt them.
- In 1770, during the Boston Massacre, British soldiers shot into a crowd of angry colonists, killing five people. This event increased hatred towards British rule. Eventually, the protests worked, and Britain removed most of the Townshend taxes, except for the tax on tea.
Gaspee Affair (1772)
- The British ship, HMS Gaspee, was stopping colonial boats to check for smuggled goods off the coast of Rhode Island. Many colonists saw this as unfair.
- On 9 June 1772, members of the Sons of Liberty and other colonists tricked the ship’s captain into sailing into shallow waters, where the ship got stuck. That night, they climbed aboard, took the crew prisoner and set the ship on fire. The British tried to find out who was responsible, but no one was ever caught.
- With the company given monopoly on the tea trade through the Act, more colonial merchants joined the protest movement.
- On 29 November 1773, a mass meeting of the Whig party led by Samuel Adams was called when the tea ship Dartmouth arrived in Boston Harbor. The meeting resulted in the passing of a resolution that urged the Dartmouth captain to send the ship back with no import duty pay. Twenty-five men from the meeting were also asked to watch the ship and prevent it from unloading its cargo tea.
Boston Tea Party (1773)
- One of the most famous actions of the Sons of Liberty was the Boston Tea Party. The enactment of the Tea Act led seven ships carrying East India Company tea to be sent to the colonies from September to October of 1773. More than 600,000 pounds of tea were inside the ships.
- When the American colonies learned the details of the Act, they were enraged and led a campaign to raise awareness. The Sons of Liberty played a major role in organising protests and spreading resistance.
- Since the Tea Act, colonial smugglers were threatened out of business for making legally imported tea cheaper. Those who were not named as consignees by the East India Company but were legitimate importers of tea were also threatened by the Act.
- When Governor Thomas Hutchinson of Massachusetts refused to grant permission for the ship to leave without its import pay, two more ships arrived in Boston Harbor. On 16 December, while Adams was trying to regain control of the meeting full of enraged colonists with a population of 16,000, a group of 30 to 130 men disguised as Mohawk people boarded the merchant ships full of chests of tea and dumped them all into the harbour at Griffin’s Wharf. The cost of the property damage amounted to over $1,700,000 in today’s money.
- When the tea ship William intended for Boston arrived and tea was taxed and sold to private properties, the Sons of Liberty entered its warehouse and destroyed all the tea they could find. Although some tea was already being sold at Davison, Newman and Co, this too was rummaged by the angry colonists. The last remaining tea was dumped into the harbour on 7 March 1774.
Cartoon depicting the Intolerable Acts
Intolerable Acts and More Protests (1774)
- After the Boston Tea Party, Britain passed the Intolerable Acts to punish the colonies. These new laws:
- Closed Boston Harbor until the lost tea was paid for
- Ended self-government in Massachusetts, putting it under British military control
- Allowed British officials to avoid trial in the colonies
- Forced colonists to house British soldiers (Quartering Act)
- The Sons of Liberty continued to fight against these laws and helped organise the first 92,000 pounds of tea destroyed. At the Continental Congress in 1774, leaders from different colonies met to plan their response.
Attack on John Malcolm (1774)
- John Malcolm was a British tax official and loyalist who was known for strictly following British laws that many colonists disliked. On 25 January 1774, he argued with a young boy in Boston and then hit a man named George Hewes with his cane.
- That night, members of the Sons of Liberty and other angry colonists pulled Malcolm out of his home. They tore his clothes, covered him in hot tar and feathers, and forced him to drink tea to mock the British tea tax. After that, they marched him through the streets before finally letting him go.
American Revolution (1775)
- As tensions grew, the Sons of Liberty played a key role in the start of the American Revolution. On 18 April 1775, Paul Revere, a member of the Sons of Liberty, rode from Boston to Lexington to warn that British soldiers were coming.
- The first battles of the war (Battles of Lexington and Concord) began on 19 April when British troops tried to take weapons from colonial militias. The Sons of Liberty helped organise militias that fought back and forced the British to retreat.
- Once the war began, many Sons of Liberty joined official groups like the Committees of Safety and the Continental Army. Some leaders, like Samuel Adams and John Hancock, became important figures in the fight for independence.
Later Societies
- The name Sons of Liberty did not disappear after the American Revolution. Over the years, different groups used it for their own causes, often to show resistance against the government or unfair treatment. Many of these groups were secret, and little is known about what they did.
- One of the first groups to use the name after the Revolution was in Bennington, Vermont, in the early 19th century. This group included well-known local figures like military officer Martin Scott and Hiram Harwood. While there isn’t much information about what they did, they likely saw themselves as continuing the fight for freedom.
- Another group, the Improved Order of Red Men, was founded in 1834. They claimed to be connected to the original Sons of Liberty because of the Boston Tea Party.
- During the American Civil War (1861–1865), the name Sons of Liberty was used by a pro-South group in the North. This group started as the Knights of the Golden Circle (KGC), made up of Copperheads (or Northerners who wanted to end the war and make peace with the Confederacy). In 1863, they changed their name to the Order of American Knights, and by 1864, they became the Order of the Sons of Liberty.
- Their leader was Clement L. Vallandigham, an Ohio politician who strongly opposed the war. Some members of this group simply held meetings for peace, while others were more extreme. Some tried to stop men from joining the Union army, hid soldiers who ran away from battle, and even planned to start a rebellion in the Midwest. Some of their actions were secretly supported by the South.
- The US government saw them as dangerous. In 1864, federal authorities arrested many members, especially in Indiana, and charged them with treason. The group quickly lost power after this. The Sons of Liberty name appeared again in the 20th century but for different reasons. In 1948, a Zionist group in the United States called itself the Sons of Liberty when it boycotted British films. This was a protest against British policies in Palestine, where Britain was limiting Jewish immigration after World War II.
Image Sources
- https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/15/US_Sons_OfLiberty_9Stripes_Flag.svg/1920px-US_Sons_OfLiberty_9Stripes_Flag.svg.png
- https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/40/Parliament_Stamp_Act1765.jpg
- https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/57/The_able_doctor%2C_or_America_swallowing_the_bitter_draught_%28NYPL_Hades-248165-425086%29.jpg/1920px-The_able_doctor%2C_or_America_swallowing_the_bitter_draught_%28NYPL_Hades-248165-425086%29.jpg
Frequently Asked Questions About The Sons of Liberty
- Who were the Sons of Liberty?
The Sons of Liberty was a secret political organisation formed in the American colonies in the 1760s to protest British taxation and policies.
- When were the Sons of Liberty formed?
The group was founded in 1765 in response to the Stamp Act, which imposed taxes on printed materials in the colonies.
- What was the purpose of the Sons of Liberty?
Their main goal was to resist British taxation and government control, especially unfair laws like the Stamp Act and Townshend Acts. They used protests, boycotts, and sometimes violence to oppose British rule.