Sons of Liberty

In 1765, a group of Boston patriots unite to challenge the new taxes and defend what they believe are their natural rights.

They call themselves the Sons of Liberty.

The Sons of Liberty were a very diverse group ethnically and most of all economically, every level from the top 1% to the bottom 1%.

The Sons of Liberty, which began as a protest movement in Boston, quickly spread to other colonies.

In particular, in urban centers where colonists are engaged in trade, which is being affected by British taxation, They're going to begin first by vocally opposing parliamentary taxation and then by using acts of violence and even intimidation.

They wanted to make it very well known that the taxes were unpopular.

So on top of writing things in newspapers and, you know, the popular refrain, no taxation without representation, they also made it difficult to collect taxes.

So they would tar and feather tax collectors, burn people in effigy who had been put in positions of power by the British Empire.

Not Tommy Boy Hutchison.

It was basically the Sons of Liberty and the rabble that had been roused by the likes of Samuel Adams and a couple other key figures are starting.

Names we also recognize from later parts are starting to get involved in our story post Boston Massacre.

John Adams plays a huge role coming up here in just a sec.

That makes sense.

Right, including but not limited to Benjamin Franklin and Isaac Barr, who, if you don't remember, was a loud opponent of the Stamp Act back during that time.

He is the one who gave the speech that gave them the name Sons of Liberty.

Yeah.

Even Washington seems to have approved of persecution of the Tories by the mob.

In seventeen seventy-six General Putnam meeting a procession of the Sons of Liberty who were parading a number of Tories on rails up and down the streets of New York attempted to put a stop to the barbarous proceeding.

Washington, on hearing of this, administered a reprimand to Putnam, declaring that to discourage such proceedings was to injure the cause of liberty in which they were engaged, and that nobody would attempt it but an enemy to his country.

Very early in the revolution the Whigs began to organize.

Uh, in, in Boston you had some fired up patriots.

But ultimately they decide after in Boston you had the Boston Massacre 1770, you have the Sons of Liberty, uh, origination 1772, you have the Boston Tea Party '73.

Well, 1774 there is a call f- to all the colonies like, "Hey, why don't we send some leaders together to talk about h- how do we resolve the conflict we have with Mother England and, and figure out how we're gonna work forward in this." Hmm.

And at the time, some people, for example, Boston, Massachusetts, they were like, "We have to separate.

THE REVEREND JONATHAN BOUCHET TELLS US THAT HE WAS COMPELLED TO PREACH WITH LOADED PISTOLS PLACED ON THE PULPIT CUSHIONS BESIDE HIM.

on one occasion he was prevented from entering the pulpit by two hundred armed men whose leader warned him not to attempt to preach i returned for answer says boucher that there was but one way by which they could keep me out of it and that was by taking away my life at the proper time with my sermon in one hand and a loaded pistol in the other like nehemiah i prepared to ascend my pulpit when one of my friends mr david crawford having got behind me threw his arms round me and held me fast he assured me that he had heard the most positive orders given to twenty men picked out for the purpose to fire on me the moment i got into the pulpit that the practices of the mob were not frowned upon by the revolutionary leaders there is good reason for believing the provincial congress of new york in december seventeen seventy six went so far as to order the committee of public safety to secure all the pitch and tar necessary for the public use and public safety even washington seems to have approved of persecution of the tories by the mob In 1776, General Putnam, meeting a procession of the Sons of Liberty, who were parading a number of Tories on rails up and down the streets of New York, attempted to put a stop to the barbarous proceeding.

Washington, on hearing of this, administered a reprimand to Putnam, declaring that to discourage such proceedings was to injure the cause of liberty in which they were engaged, and that nobody would attempt it but an enemy to his country.

Very early in the Revolution, the Whigs began to organize.