Sons of Liberty-Patriots or Terrorists

August of 1765 the English crown passed a law that would cause upheaval within the colonies. The colonies they felt they protected from the French and in the Indians just a few years before. The English soldiers went to North America and risked their lives fighting for the Americans. The Americans that didn't respect them, didn't appreciate them and above all things spoke against the taxes and tariffs that were now being put in place to help pay for that war.

That August the English Parliament passed what came to be known as the Stamp Act. The point of this tax was to raise money by putting a stamp on items that the Americans would buy. They planned on putting the stamp on playing cards, newspapers, wills and other documents. The Americans saw this as an additional unnecessary tax. The Sons of Liberty rose up in protest of the Stamp Act. They started out in Massachusetts but by the end of 1765 they were in all of the colonies. They were mostly workers and tradesmen when they started out, they were neither the business owners nor the wealthy. The Sons of Liberty started out as organization of disgruntled men that were tired of the English trying to push taxes upon them. They were to speak out, rally and protest against these injustices. What follows though can be viewed in more than one way. We see them as the men who helped to lead the early stages the American Revolution. We see them as the early unnamed founding fathers, those who fought for equal representation, those who spoke out against the unfair taking of rights and privileges that all men should have. But there is another way to look at the actions of the Sons of Liberty. You can argue the fact that many of the things they did could be seen as terrorist acts. Destruction of property, both public and private, and the threatening of lives could be seen as acts of terror.

One of first acts by the Sons of Liberty was on August 14, 1765. This was before the Stamp Act was to go into action. That night the Sons of Liberty burned Andrew Oliver, who was going to be the stamp agent for Boston, in effigy. Meaning they created the likeness of him and hung it in a tree. At that point a small mob had gathered at the sight. The sheriffs had been ordered to remove the effigy but didn't for fear of their lives. The mob then went on to burn some of Oliver's property before moving onto his house. Once outside his house they threw stones at the building and cut the head off the effigy. Oliver and his family escaped from the house without injury. By the end of the night members of the Sons of Liberty raided Oliver's house. In New York, Major Thomas James said he would carry out the Stamp Act at all costs. The Sons of Liberty attacked his house and burned Governor Cadwallader Colden in effigy as well.

That was just the beginning; there were stories of the Sons of Liberty tar and feathering tax collectors and bailiffs trying to arrest debtors. They would capture the person, put hot tar on them and then pour feathers (often chicken) over them. The tar and feathers would stay on the bodies for days. The main purposes of this were for humiliation and hope that they leave town.

After the Stamp Act was repealed the Townshend Acts was the next attempt by Parliament to get tax money from the colonies. This put taxes on goods coming into the colonies like paint, lead and tea. The Sons of Liberty would threaten customs agents in all of the colonies. They basically would try to scare these men either out their job or out of the colonies.

The Sons of Liberty didn't just go after the English or the English agents; they also went after Americans who were sympathizers of the Crown. In Connecticut, for example, the Sons of Liberty went "Tory hunting", where they would seek out a Tory (someone loyal to England) and force them recant their views or leave the colony.

The Sons of Liberty eventually lead to the formation of the Committee of Correspondence. These organizations were men against the taxes England was trying to impose and they communicated throughout the colonies on how to disrupt the actions of the English. For example on December 16, 1773 members of this group boarded ships sitting in Boston Harbor and dumped tea overboard. What became known as the Boston Tea Party was the last straw for the lawbreakers of Boston. The English Army was moved it.

All of these actions were seen by the Americans, then and today, as acts of Patriotism, acts that showed the English that we were not going to back down for our beliefs. The English saw these acts as treasonous. They were directly against the English Crown. The Sons of Liberty were members of the English Empire and to take action against its officers, property and goods was seen as treason.

One can see that these men were passionate about their beliefs. Not everything that Sons of Liberty did was destructive, they did write pamphlets and in newspapers and hold non-violent protests. But they way that they got their point across was with action, whether that be by threatening or destroying. Were these men patriots or terrorist? History is a matter of perspective and how you read these actions will determine your opinion is on them.