SONS OF LIBERTY

The Sons of Liberty were the first broad-based, intercolonial organization to encourage American resistance to Britain. Emerging suddenly during the latter half of 1765, chapters of the Sons of Liberty formed throughout the American colonies for the singular purpose of forcing Parliament to repeal the Stamp Act. Although future events would mythologize them as the original revolutionaries, their goals were far from radical, seeking only to convince the British to restore the imperial Constitution. The Sons' methods of mobilizing protest, including the participation of many diverse socioeconomic groups, the development of effective propaganda and communication networks, and a concern for restraining violence and wanton destruction, would become the formula for the movement leading up to the Revolution.

Beginning in the summer of 1765, groups that identified themselves as the Sons of Liberty appeared in several American cities, including Boston, New York, Providence, Newport, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Norfolk, and Charlestown. In many cities the Sons of Liberty grew out of established urban clubs and societies, most famously the Loyal Nine in Boston. As these organizations became known as the Sons, they also broadened their social bases to include politicized artisans, shopkeepers, and tradesmen. During the Stamp Act riots, the Sons made alliances with mob leaders like Ebenezer McIntosh, leader of Boston's South End gang, for the dual purpose of mobilizing mass resistance and keeping their own participation hidden. Perhaps the most important constituency in the Sons, however, was newspaper printers. Printers Benjamin Edes (Boston Gazette), William Goddard (Providence Gazette), Samuel Hall (Newport Mercury), and William Bradford (Pennsylvania Journal) were all members of their local Sons of Liberty; the printers' participation ensured that the Sons' message would reach a wide audience.

Although attention has generally focused on the role of the Sons in Boston's Stamp Act riots, the attempts of Isaac Sears, John Lamb, and the New York Sons of Liberty to organize intercolonial communication networks were also significant. Beginning in November 1765, the New York Sons sent representatives to chapters in Connecticut, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts proposing alliances and establishing avenues to share information. Although short-lived, the importance of this initial effort by the New York Sons to make connections with colleagues in other colonies would later become clear: it was a first step toward continental unity and the creation of a common cause.

The Sons of Liberty movement declined after Parliament repealed the Stamp Act in March 1766. Having achieved their goal, many groups, including the pivotal New York Sons, saw no need to continue resistance. Devoted to maintaining order and restoring "balance" to the British Constitution, the Sons were not yet revolutionaries. Still, they did not completely disappear. The Boston Sons remained intact; in fact, by the late 1760s its membership had evolved from its artisan roots to include many elite leaders, including Samuel Adams, John Hancock, James Otis, Joseph Warren, and John Adams. In 1768 the Boston Sons began corresponding with John Wilkes, a popular English radical whose political persecution made him a celebrity in America.

By the 1770s, however, the term Sons of Liberty had lost its specific meaning. Instead, it became a general label like patriot or Whig that referred to a supporter of American rights. Symbolic for its reference to one of the clearest successes of American resistance, the label did resurface at certain points during the imperial crisis, most importantly as the name of the group responsible for the Boston Tea Party in 1773.

The Sons of Liberty movement of 1765–1766 would become a model for future American protests against the British. Later organizations would follow the Sons' strategies of focusing political energy, loudly broadcasting grievances, restraining violence, establishing communication networks between the colonies, and mobilizing broad groups of people to support the common cause.

See alsoBoston Tea Party; Stamp Act and Stamp Act Congress .

bibliography

Davidson, Philip. Propaganda and the American Revolution, 1763–1783. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1941.

Maier, Pauline. From Resistance to Revolution: Colonial Radicals and the Development of American Opposition to Britain, 1765–1776. New York: Knopf, 1972.

Morgan, Edmund S., and Helen M. Morgan. The Stamp Act Crisis: Prologue to Revolution. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1953.

Nash, Gary B. The Urban Crucible: Social Change, Political Consciousness, and the Origins of the American Revolution. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1979.

Robert G. Parkinson