Sons of Liberty - Societies, Flags

An organization in the American Revolution that provided popular leadership in the resistance movement against Britain. Composed mainly of artisans, small traders, and dissident intellectuals, it operated as an organized inter-colonial group in 1765–6. Thereafter, the men who had taken part continued to provide popular leadership. The term was also used to describe all Americans involved in the revolutionary movement.

The Sons of Liberty was a label adopted by Patriots in the British North American colonies before the American Revolution. Then Isaac Barre, a Member of Parliament and supporter of the American colonists, responded by describing the Americans as "these Sons of Liberty" and warned that they would resist the new tax.

North American colonists from Savannah to Halifax did indeed protest against the Stamp Act in 1765, through legislative resolutions (starting in Virginia), public demonstrations (starting in Massachusetts), threats, and occasional violence.

In the popular imagination (as in the novel Johnny Tremain by Esther Forbes), the Sons of Liberty was a formal underground organization with recognized members and leaders. Newspaper articles, handbills, and diaries referred to "True Born Sons of Liberty," "Sons of Freedom," and "Daughters of Liberty." The label let organizers issue anonymous summons to a Liberty Tree, "Liberty Pole", or other public meeting-places, let Patriot groups in one town communicate with those elsewhere, and let any man or boy imagine himself a Son of Liberty.

A group calling itself the Sons of Liberty existed in almost every colony. Famous members included Paul Revere, John Adams and his cousin, Samuel Adams, who was a leader of the New England sons.

The Sons are widely known for their violent and destructive acts.

British authorities and their supporters considered the Sons of Liberty as seditious rebels, and referred to them as "Sons of Violence" and "Sons of Iniquity."

Societies

The name was also used during the American Civil War.

The Improved Order of Red Men, a patriotic fraternal secret society, claims to actually be the Sons of Liberty, having adopted the Native American motif after the Boston Tea Party.

The name Sons of Liberty also denotes a patriotic secret society at the University of Virginia.

Flags

In 1767, the Sons of Liberty adopted a flag with nine vertical stripes (five red and four white).

A flag called the American Merchant Stripes, having thirteen horizontal red and white stripes, used by American merchant ships during the war, was also associated with the Sons of Liberty.