The Sons of Liberty and Their Effects on American Revolution
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The American revolution was more of an evolution than a revolution since many changes were brought up by the revolution. The revolution was the most successful since the thirteen British colonists fought had and they managed to defeat the British. A contributing factor to the success of the revolution was a group known as sons of liberty. The Sons of Liberty was a group of men founded in August 1765. It started in Boston, Massachusetts, as a secret group that fought over the high British taxation and aimed at advancing the rights of the thirteen European colonies. This was a political, patriot and preliminary organization . The paper will focus on discussing the sons of liberty and their effect on the American revolution since it was formed during the time of the revolution and had a significant impact on Americans winning the revolution.
On March 22nd, 1765 the Stamp Act was passed by the British parliament. The stamp act imposed taxes on the Americans where on every piece of paper used they were supposed to pay taxes. Among the things that were taxed included, playing cards, shipment papers, licenses and any newspaper that was published by the Americans. The British considered this as a small tax, but to the Americans, this was offensive since it was an indirect way of stealing from them. Even though the act did not come to pass till November, the colonist was not happy and reacted with the immediate announcement of the tax imposition Act . Imposing this taxes meant that the lives of Americans were going to be hard thus the men formed an organization called the Sons of Liberty later in the year to help fight these issues. The stamp act was not going to benefit the country, but instead, it was going to help the British government raise funds to support their army during the American revolution.
The emotions and reactions from the Americans and the need to counter the act best explain how The Sons of Liberty started. Among the groupings of the sons of liberty was the loyal nine which comprised of the American elites. Among the elites includes John Smith, Joseph Fidel, and Samuel Adams. The Loyal Nine played a role in setting goals and limits of the riots and placed boundaries on riots and how effective they will be . The loyal Nine are greatly remembered for causing chaos at the Boston tea party where the threw Chests of tea that belonged to the British into the harbor and later celebrated it. The Name Sons of Liberty does not imply that the members and participants in this group were only men but also women and children. The founders of the organization were mostly the wealthy men from America. An example being Paul Revere who was an engraver, an industrialist and a silversmith. It is believed that smaller groups such as the Loyal Nine and Boston Caucus were among the smaller patriotic organizations formed early and later joined to the big group, Sons of Liberty.
In their fight towards the discriminatory rule of the British colonial government, the Sons of Liberty used different tactics for different events. Among the tactics used included; Mob rule where a good example is after the organization’s members met under a tree in Boston they decided to storm Oliver Andrew’s office and his home . The mob was comprising more than a thousand men and women who were angry about the tax rule and since Andrew Oliver was a British Tax agent then the reason for attacking him. Also, they used tactics of scaring the British agents away; they also used violence for example feathering and tar, gunshots, pilling of stocks and used gun power to resist the British acts of discrimination. The Sons of Liberty successfully undermined the British rule and their events as explained bellow affected the American revolution.
If you were a resident in Boston, then to know that there was a meeting with the sons of liberty then you would see flags hanged on post thus the next day there was going to be a meeting under the tree at Boston. Since it was an underground operation, then only members would understand what the flag on the tree implied but not the British officials since the meetings were aimed at ending their unfair rule. The Sons of Liberty were well organized, and on every instance of protests majority would come out to counter the British government. Sons of Liberty was among the most patriotic groups during the American Revolution, and the members were loyal to the rules and at no instance was there a report of someone leaking the organization’s information to the British officials .
On the case of Andrew Oliver, the angry patriots paraded him on the streets and made him swear an oath that he will not support and take part in the British taxation any more. Earlier on the same day, the mob rule had stomped on, beheaded and set the effigy on fire as a result of being hungry before they proceeded to Oliver’s house. What transpired in Oliver’s home did scare him, and on August 17th Oliver decided to resign. This created fear on other British officials for they now knew what the Sons of Liberty were capable of thus some were reluctant to collect the taxes.
The Boston Tea Party.
The Sons of Liberty are greatly remembered for the protests at Boston in December 16th, 1773. The sons of Liberty were angry at a series of acts which the British had imposed on American colonist thus decided to revolt. Boston was among the most extensive and busiest harbor for the British activities. At Griffins Warf, the angry American patriots boarded the ships at the port decided to dump 352 chests of tea into the water . This was the among the major acts that would show the British that the Americans were not happy with their rule and enacting laws without representation from the thirteen colonies. According to George Hews, he tells us that there were British army ships that surrounded them but not made an effort of attacking them. They watched as the tea thoroughly get exposed to the water . Only one of them was arrested and sent to prison the rest managed to get away due to the American costumes.
The Sons of Liberty did not hurt anyone except the tea; it was reported that after disposing the tea into the after they went ahead and swept the ship. Despite hurting none, King George II was answerable to the British parliament. The event led to the Coercive Act which was intended to stop the rebellion and cause disunity among the colonies which failed. Among the provisions of the act were; the Boston harbor was to be closed until the tea that was lost in the tea party was paid . The Massachusetts constitution and free elections of town officials came to an end. These were some of the provisions which were intolerable and led to the Second Tea Party. In March 1974, The sons of Liberty were disappointed with the coercive acts and thus around sixty members decided to Board one of the British ships called fortune and threw thirty chests of tea into the water. The event was named the second Boston tea party. As a result of the event, many tea dumping followed in the other colonies that are, in South Carolina, New York, and Maryland. The second tea party was not noticed as the first one was.
The first continental congress was convened with elected members from each colonist where they developed ways to counter the British government rule. The Boston tea party had united the thirteen colonists since before they were dived on how to move forward . The congress resolved to agreements such as; boycotting the British goods, called for the repeal of the Coercive Acts and also did declare that the colonists had the right to be governed independently. Britain was reluctant to respond, and after a few months, the Americans could not tolerate any more thus the beginning of the American revolutionary war in 1775 .
From the reaction of the Sons of Liberty then the events followed sparked the American Revolution thus we can say they caused underlying causes of the revolution through the Boston tea party.
End of stamp duty act
The stamp duty act which was aimed at collecting funds for England demanded that for one to pay the stamp tax, it will be through only with British currency that is silver or gold. If you did not have silver or gold, you needed to trade to attain it. The Sons of Liberty did not rest till the British government placed an end to this rule . One achievement that the Sons of Liberty as a result of their protests was the British Parliament finally ended the stamp duty act which then the Americans free form this discriminatory taxes imposed on them. Since their primary purpose was to end the Stamp Act by forcing tax collectors to resign for example the case of Andrew Oliver, and Americans to stop ordering British goods, then they did accomplish it . As a result of achieving their goals then it was the right time to dissolve the movement. In the year 1776 after the Sons of Liberty disolved the group after their motto of “no representation no taxation” was almost achievable since there was no more taxation.
Effects of Sons of Liberty on American Revolutionary War
Even though the group had been dissolved, it left a great impact on the Americans who were now fighting the revolutionary war. The Americans were able to get united starting from the Boston Tea Party, and even members from the thirteen colonies joined the Sons of Liberty movement. A good example is a Congress that was established where 13 members from the colonies came together to write down their demands to the British government. Unity was also created among the thirteen American colonies where they fought together with the war and could help King George II to get men to recruit in his army to fight the revolutionary war . Perhaps the men learned that the togetherness that the Sons of Liberty had was fruitful.
The Sons of liberty helped to strengthen the Americans who fought the war, where from the tactics they used the American troops could employ some when attacking the British army. Perhaps since after ten years is when the British decide to end the stamp duty act thus the men who fought the army were encouraged not to back off since one day they will win against the British government . We are aware that the revolutionary war lasted for a very long period despite the British army being stronger than America’s. The Americans were patient enough to fight to see the British government loose. The revolutionary war just began at the end of 1775, and this was the time American rebels had started to act on British soldiers at Concord and Lexington, Massachusetts. The war became a long battle for Americans and George Washington, and at long last, they won.
The Sons of Liberty did create fear among the British officials. Before the movement was dissolved, many British officials had resigned as a result of their torture and mob. At the start of the year 1776, there was chaos caused by the Sons of Liberty which caused the royal governors to go into hiding. The loyal governors depended on the militia and sheriffs to protect them from the violent Sons of liberty, but this could not happen since the same sheriffs were members of the group and were so loyal to sell them out . During the time the British governors were so afraid to open the stores containing weapons since the Sons of Liberty could abruptly come and loot them. Probably the British government was now aware of what the Americans were capable of this during the revolutionary war they had to be much more prepared since the Sons of Liberty had managed to remove nearly all governors in the thirteen colonies thus they were strong enough.
Lastly, we can see the Sons of Liberty played a significant role toward the Americans winning the revolutionary war, gaining independence and even the establishment of a fair constitution. A good constitution can be explained by battling the unfair Acts which would then not be included in the articles of confederation. The Sons of Liberty helped the Americans in gaining their sense of nationalism and realize that the British government was depriving them their right . Through collaboration among the colonies during the time of sons of liberty came to be what strengthen them in the later years of the revolution. Lastly, the Sons of Liberty demand for independence brought the thirteen colonies together, and that is what we see today as the United States . The Sons of Liberty is remembered today as one of the successful movements during the American revolution.
Bibliography
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