Hello everyone today we're gonna get back into the American Revolution cards, and we'll be talking about a political organization which was sometimes violent...(properly something you can see on the card in the video yeah basically that guy hanging from the waist is about to be tarred and feathered common practice on Tax collectors back in the day), This is on The Sons of Liberty from The Revolution Category in Story of America Cards.

(What was The Sons of Liberty?)

The Sons of Liberty was a loosely organized, clandestine, sometimes violent, political organization active in the Thirteen American Colonies founded to advance the rights of the colonists and to fight taxation by the British government. It played a major role in most colonies in battling the Stamp Act in 1765 and throughout the entire period of the American Revolution.

In popular thought, the Sons of Liberty was a formal underground organization with recognized members and leaders. More likely, the name was an underground term for any men resisting new Crown taxes and laws. The well-known label allowed organizers to make or create anonymous summons to a Liberty Tree, "Liberty Pole", or other public meeting-place. Furthermore, a unifying name helped to promote inter-Colonial efforts against Parliament and the Crown's actions. Their motto became "No taxation without representation."

(Citizens of Independence)

When Great Britain Imposed the hated Stamp Act on the American colonies in 1765, outraged men in various colonies banded together in secret patriotic groups called "Sons of Liberty", to protect their rights, Feelings ran particularly strong against those officials who has been appointed to distribute the despised stamps, which taxed the colonists for all kinds of printed matter, mostly newspapers and pamphlets.

In Boston the Sons of Liberty strung up a dummy of a man appointed to sell stamps there.

As the revolution approached, the Sons of Liberty became a powerful influence in the struggle for independence from Great Britain. Within each colony individual groups maintained contact by means of messengers and new societies sprang up constantly.

In taking joint action against England's harsh measures, the Sons were led by local merchants, lawyers, and politicians with the full backing of the town's mechanics and artisans.

Occasionally emotions got out of hand and rioting took place, In New York City for example, the homes of British officials were attacked and taverns were raided.

And in Boston, the patriots sacked and burned the mansion of the royal governor, Thomas Hutchinson. The Sons were normally well organized under their leaders, however, and provided a solid basis for the move to Independence, which grew rapidly after "Intolerable Acts" of 1774.

The Sons of Liberty societies also conducted funerals for patriots killed in riots and street brawls. They hanged unpopular officials in effigy (a dummy representing the official was strung up in a public place) and denounced British tyranny at every opportunity. They wrote and circulated patriotic decrees.

They erected "Liberty Poles" in defiance of British authority and promoted dinners, picnics, and rallies in the name of liberty.

When the Sons of Liberty discovered with delight that the British authorities were unable to suppress them, they began issuing quasiofficial decrees of authority. They would also summon British agents to "Liberty Trees'' to explain their conduct to the people.

When, towards the close of the Revolution, the dream of independence seemed at hand, the Sons of Liberty began to disband. By the time the Battle of Yorktown was fought in 1781, the two most active sons of Liberty chapters in New York City and Boston had virtually ceased to exist.

(Later societies)

At various times, small secret organizations took the name "Sons of Liberty". They generally left very few records. In the early 19th century, there was an organization in Bennington, Vermont, named the Sons of Liberty, that included local notables such as military officer Martin Scott and Hiram Harwood.

The Improved Order of Red Men, established in 1834, claimed to be descended from the original Sons of Liberty, noting that the Sons participated in the Boston Tea Party dressed as their idea of "Indians"

The name was also used during the American Civil War. The Copperhead group, the Knights of the Golden Circle, reorganized in 1863 as the "Order of American Knights". In 1864, it became the Order of the Sons of Liberty, with the Ohio politician Clement L. Vallandigham, most prominent of the Copperheads, as its supreme commander. In most areas, only a minority of its membership was radical enough to discourage enlistments, resist the draft, and shield deserters. The group held numerous peace meetings. A few agitators, some of them encouraged by Southern money, talked of a revolt in the Old Northwest, with the goal of ending the war.

In 1948, a radical wing of the Zionist movement, calling itself the "Sons of Liberty", launched a boycott of British films in the U.S., in response to British policies in Palestine.

(Ending)

And that's all that I'll be talking about the sons of liberty, I hope you enjoyed it and I'll see you next time in my other cards.