Founded in Boston in 1765, the Sons of Liberty orchestrated many important moments during the American Revolution, including the Boston Tea Party and Paul Revere's famous ride.
Library of CongressThe Sons of Liberty helped orchestrate the Boston Tea Party in 1773.
On Dec. 16, 1773, over 100 men boarded a trio of ships in Boston Harbor. Once on board, they grabbed 342 chests full of tea — and tossed them into the water. The so-called Boston Tea Party was one of the most important events in the lead-up to the American Revolution, and it had been organized by a secret group known as the Sons of Liberty.
So who were the Sons of Liberty?
Organized in Boston in 1765, the Sons of Liberty initially formed to protest British taxation. Led by men like Samuel Adams and John Hancock, the group ultimately shifted their goal to advocate for American independence.
Their tactics ranged from boycotts and other forms of civil disobedience to smuggling and violence. They threatened shopkeepers who broke British boycotts. They tarred and feathered British tax collectors. And they pushed the Thirteen Colonies toward independence — and war.
A Group Formed To Protest British Taxes
The Sons of Liberty formed in 1765, largely in response to British policies after the end of the French and Indian War (1754 to 1763). Once the conflict ended, the British found themselves deeply in debt, and decided to enact new taxes on their American colonists to recoup their losses.
Wikimedia CommonsA depiction of Bostonians reacting to the Stamp Act.
In 1765, the British introduced the Stamp Act, which taxed everything from newspapers and almanacs to dice and playing cards. These taxes were highly unpopular in the Thirteen Colonies and, in Boston, outrage about the Stamp Act led to the formation of a secret group: the Loyal Nine.
This group, which quickly morphed into the Sons of Liberty, did not aim for outright independence. They simply wanted tax relief, and rallied their members with famous cry: “no taxation without representation!” After the passage of the Stamp Act, they targeted Andrew Oliver, the colonial officer who collected the stamp tax, and forced him to resign his post.
But though the Stamp Act was repealed, it was quickly replaced with other despised British laws. The Townshend Act of 1767 taxed paint, paper, glass, and lead, and the Tea Act of 1773 allowed the flailing British East India Company to sell tea duty-free to colonists. This gave the British East India Company a monopoly on tea sales in the colonies, and made it much harder for colonial tea merchants to sell their products.
Public DomainThe Sons of Liberty pressured a British tax collector to resign and invited Bostonians to attend his resignation.
As a result, the Sons of Liberty grew. And before long, their goal shifted from taxation protests to something much larger: American independence.
The Sons Of Liberty — And How They Drove The Colonies Toward Independence
Though the Sons of Liberty formed in Boston, chapters of the group soon spread across the rest of the Thirteen Colonies. They counted among their members Samuel Adams, the cousin of future president John Adams, Patrick Henry, who would famously declare, “Give me liberty, or give me death!” and Paul Revere, who became famous for his 1775 “Midnight Ride.”
The Sons of Liberty enforced boycotts of British goods by intimidating local businesses who refused to comply, burned effigies of British officials, and subjected British loyalists to tarring and feathering.
Public DomainLeading the Sons of Liberty turned Samuel Adams into a target for the British.
They were joined in their efforts by the Daughters of Liberty, a women’s group that formed in 1766. According to the American Battlefield Trust, the Daughters of Liberty pushed for the boycott of British goods, held “spinning bees” to replace expensive British imports with homemade colonial goods, and even helped organize protests. They eschewed tea and at least one chapter instead drank locally-made “New England Rum.”
“With ladies on our side, we can make every Tory tremble,” Sons of Liberty leader Samuel Adams purportedly declared.
Indeed, it would take everyone to resist the British.
After the passage of the Tea Act, things came to a head in Boston in 1773, when the Sons of Liberty (and Daughters of Liberty leader Sarah Bradlee Fulton) set out to protest a shipment of British tea. When a ship, Dartmouth arrived in Boston Harbor in November 1773 laden with tea, the Sons of Liberty refused to let it unload. Two more ships, the Beaver and the Eleanor, also soon arrived, and were also prevented from unloading their tea.
On Dec. 16, 1773, thousands of people crowded at Boston’s Old South Meeting House to discuss what to do, and during the course of the meeting, Adams rose to his feet. In what may have been a signal, he loudly declared: “This meeting can do nothing more to save the country!”
With that, over 100 men forced their way onto the ships in Boston Harbor — the Boston Tea Party had begun. The colonists ultimately dumped 340 chests filled with more than 90,000 pounds into the water, or the equivalent, per the Boston Tea Party Ships & Museum, of “18,523,000 cups of tea.”
Public DomainThe Sons of Liberty helped orchestrate the Boston Tea Party, but their activities were so secret that many of the event’s leaders and participants remain unknown to this day.
The Boston Tea Party had been orchestrated by the Sons of Liberty. And it moved the Thirteen Colonies one step closer to war.
The Sons Of Liberty And American Independence
British politicians, declaring that Boston was the “ringleader of all violence and opposition to the execution of the laws of this country,” set out to punish the city. With the Coercive Acts of 1774, which the colonists called the “Intolerable Acts,” the British closed Boston Harbor, ended trial by jury, and stopped elections in Massachusetts.
In the aftermath, tensions between colonists and Boston and the British increased. And when the Sons of Liberty learned that British troops were preparing to march toward Lexington and Concord in April 1775, to look for military supplies and possibly to arrest Adams and his fellow Sons of Liberty member John Hancock, the group acted quickly. Dr. Joseph Warren, one of the organization’s leaders, dispatched two riders, Paul Revere and William Dawes, to spread to spread the word of the British movements.
The very next day, the American Revolution began in Lexington and Concord with the “shot heard ’round the world.”
Public DomainThe Battle of Lexington and Concord, which marked the beginning of the Revolutionary War.
As the British attempted to cool tensions in the months that followed, they did not forget — or forgive — the Sons of Liberty. British General Thomas Gage offered amnesty to all in Boston who laid down their arms that June, but excluded Adams and Hancock. Gage declared that their “offences are of too flagitious a nature” to avoid punishment.
But in the end, the American Revolution would achieve the goals of the Sons of Liberty — independence from Britain. Indeed, many of its members would add their signature to the new nation’s most important document, the Declaration of Independence, in the summer of 1776. In fact, John Hancock was the very first to sign the document.
The group had played a crucial role in moving the Thirteen Colonies away from British rule. The Sons of Liberty had organized protests like the Boston Tea Party. Paul Revere and William Dawes had warned of the incoming British invasion. Many members would sign the Declaration of Independence and, later, Samuel Adams would also help write the Articles of Confederation.
Arguably, the Sons of Liberty were the spark that lit the powder keg for American independence.
After reading about the Sons of Liberty and the role they played in the American Revolution, discover the little-known story of Anna Strong, the woman who spied for George Washington during the Revolutionary War. Or, look through these shocking facts about America’s Founding Fathers.
