Sons of Liberty

Sons of Liberty. After the British Parliament passed the Stamp Act in 1765, small groups in each colony—generally artisans or intercolonial merchants, joined by a few attorneys, doctors, and teachers—became convinced that only large crowds prepared to act violently could successfully resist the tax. Together they had the contacts and expertise to organize townspeople against the tax. Leaders in Connecticut dubbed their followers “Sons of Liberty.” The name spread rapidly, soon coming to stand for everyone who participated in the popular resistance to the Stamp Act. Between August and December 1765, the Sons of Liberty forced stamp distributors to resign, governors to withhold stamped paper, and courts to remain open in defiance of the law. Their efforts prevented enforcement of the act and led to its repeal in March 1766.

British politicians and conservative colonists hoped the Sons of Liberty would disband after repeal. Suspicious of British motives and convinced that liberty was still at risk, however, the Sons remained active, and maintained contact with one another throughout the colonies. While persuading voters to purge conservatives from colonial assemblies and replace them with liberty's friends, they strengthened their own popular base by serving the interests of artisans and small merchants.

In every imperial crisis between 1766 and 1774, the Sons of Liberty called forth crowds to bully British officials and American sympathizers, confident that colonial governments could not respond effectively. In the process, they deepened estrangement between the colonists and their British governors and taught the people that government should rest on popular consent. The collapse of royal authority in 1774–1775 and its swift replacement by local committees and provincial congresses reflected a decade's work by the Sons of Liberty.
See also Adams, Samuel; Boston Tea Party; Colonial Era; Republicanism; Revolution and Constitution, Era of; Revolutionary War.

Bibliography

Pauline Maier , From Resistance to Revolution: Colonial Radicals and the Development of American Opposition to Britain, 1765–1776, 1972.
Edward Countryman , A People in Revolution: The American Revolution and Political Society in New York, 1760–1790, 1981.

John L. Bullion