Sons of Liberty

Table of Contents

Introduction References & Edit History Quick Facts & Related Topics

Images & Videos

Document from January 1770 entreating the “Sons and Daughters of Liberty” to purchase nothing from Boston tradesman William Jackson because he ignored the colonial boycott on British imports.

Read Next

Iraqi Army Soldiers from the 9th Mechanized Division learning to operate and maintain M1A1 Abrams Main Battle Tanks at Besmaya Combat Training Center, Baghdad, Iraq, 2011. Military training. Iraq war. U.S. Army

8 Deadliest Wars of the 21st Century

Bar graph of the United States Death Toll during major events. Infogram chart.

U.S. Death Toll During Major Events

Discover

A Factory Interior, watercolor, pen and gray ink, graphite, and white goache on wove paper by unknown artist, c. 1871-91; in the Yale Center for British Art. Industrial Revolution England

Inventors and Inventions of the Industrial Revolution

Why Do We Eat Turkey on Thanksgiving?

Diverse elementary school children wearing school uniforms running outside of school. Boys girls

Pro and Con: School Uniforms

The Cheshire Cat is a fictional cat from Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. (Alice in Wonderland)

11 Banned Books Through Time

Los Angeles Police Department wanted flyer on Elizabeth Short, aka the "Black Dahlia," who was brutally murdered in January 1947. The FBI supported the Los Angeles Police Department in the case, including by identifying Short through her fingerprints that

America’s 5 Most Notorious Cold Cases (Including One You May Have Thought Was Already Solved)

Mayer Amschel Rothschild (1744-1855), founder of the house of Rothschild; lithograph by Friedrich Lieder, c. 1830.

Where Do Anti-Semitic Conspiracy Theories About the Rothschild Family Come From?

A human Inuit skull in a stone chambered cairn in Ilulissat in Greenland. These ancient graves are pre christian and are at least 2000

14 Tough Questions Answered

Sons of Liberty

United States history [18th century]

Written and fact-checked by The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Article History

Quick Facts

Date:: 1765 - c. 1783

Key People:: Isaac Sears

See all related content

Sons of Liberty, organization formed in the American colonies in the summer of 1765 to oppose the Stamp Act. The Sons of Liberty took their name from a speech given in the British Parliament by Isaac Barré (February 1765), in which he referred to the colonials who had opposed unjust British measures as the “sons of liberty.”

The origins of the Sons of Liberty are unclear, but some of the organization’s roots can be traced to the Loyal Nine, a secretive Boston political organization whose members included Benjamin Edes and Samuel Adams. The Boston chapter of the Sons of Liberty often met under cover of darkness beneath the “Liberty Tree,” a stately elm tree in Hanover Square. The Sons of Liberty rallied support for colonial resistance through the use of petitions, assemblies, and propaganda, and they sometimes resorted to violence against British officials. Instrumental in preventing the enforcement of the Stamp Act, they remained an active pre-Revolutionary force against the crown.

The Editors of Encyclopaedia BritannicaThis article was most recently revised and updated by Jeff Wallenfeldt.