today we're looking at the sons of liberty
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the questions down in the description the sons of liberty were a secret society or group that
formed shortly after the stamp act was put in place in 1765 the sons of liberty's primary
purpose was to defend the rights of the american colonists and fight against british taxation it
was founded by samuel adams who was a second cousin to founding father and future president
john adams samuel adams was a politician from massachusetts who had been very much opposed
to british efforts to tax the colonies prior to the sons of liberty adams had been part of what
was called the loyal nine which was a group of nine boston citizens who met secretly to organize
protests against the british the small group would later transform into the sons of liberty
however with both the loyal nine and the sons of liberty it's rather difficult to determine
what they were and weren't responsible for since their meetings were basically in secret and they
they really you know would have been arrested if the british learned of their plans
there's very little documentation or really a paper trail to follow of their activities
the sons of liberty took their name from a speech given by isaac berry in parliament in february of
1765. in his speech he called american colonists who fought against british laws sons of liberty
the group was founded in august of 1765 in boston but within six months there were sons of liberty
groups in new york rhode island new hampshire maryland and virginia as i stated before the
sons of liberty wanted to do whatever they could to make sure british taxes that they believed
to be unjust could not be collected many times their activities turned violent one of the sons
of liberty's primary tools was intimidation they would intimidate tax collectors with with physical
threats and many times actually attacking them the tar and feathering of tax collectors became
a common practice and it was a punishment that was used on ships to punish those who disobeyed and
was intended to basically humiliate the victim the victim of a tar and feathering would many times be
stripped nude and then would have pine tar poured on them pine tar was used to seal boats and did
not necessarily have to be heated up so very seldom did anyone experience severe burns from it
but once the tar was applied and then feathers would be dumped on them they would be
many times forced to parade around as an example to everyone of what happens to tax collectors
the sons of liberty in boston would call for meetings to take place at the liberty tree
which was a famous elm tree that stood near boston common which was a central area in downtown boston
on august 14 1765 a large group met under the liberty tree this is considered to be the first
public meeting in resistance to the british that would eventually lead to the american revolution
from the tree that night they hung an effigy which is a model or small replica of a person the effigy
was of andrew oliver who was the person chosen by the british to be in charge of making sure
taxes were collected there in boston the sons of liberty marched through the streets carrying
oliver's effigy and called for him to resign they even went as far as to burn down oliver's
office and then even after oliver did resign they attacked thomas hutchinson's home who was the
lieutenant governor of massachusetts and a friend of oliver during the siege of boston in 1776
british soldiers would chop down the liberty tree and use it as firewood as a sign of disrespect
to the americans eventually the sons of liberty would take part in important events such as the
boston tea party and take part in this the warning system to rally minutemen to fight the british
at lexington and concord at the beginning of the revolution but i'll cover those in other
bell ringers some of the leading members of the sons of liberty were people such as john
hancock joseph warren paul revere patrick henry and even benedict arnold were instrumental in
helping shape public opinion and sharing the message of resistance against british taxation
as the revolution drew closer the sons of liberty transformed into what became known
as the committee of safety which was organized to be an almost shadow government that operated and
controlled the colonies without the knowledge of the british actions taken by the sons of
liberty would be monumental leading towards the american revolution and eventually full
independence from britain so with that hopefully you learned something and thanks for watching
you