The Sons of Liberty
If you had lived in mid-eighteenth century Boston, you might have heard of them. The Sons of Liberty were a group of men at the time. They met to discuss politics and what the members could do to influence them. These people were mostly fishermen, sailors, blacksmiths, butches—people who had little if any say at all in society. With that in mind, consider their reactions to the tea taxes, Townshend acts, and stamp acts.
Already impoverished people now had to pay higher prices for goods that had never been cheap. These outraged colonists made up the ranks of the Sons of Liberty. Organized by the influential-and radical Bostonian—Samuel Adams, they usually met late at night in an abandoned distillery. There, and under the branches of the Liberty tree, an imposing elm where the group sometimes met, began the bold plans for revolution.
While today we praise all efforts made towards gaining independence, the views of that time were quite different. Estimates show that up to a third of colonists were Torries, or Loyalists who whole-heartedly obeyed the British crown, and Parliament. Another sizeable portion of the population was neutral. The Sons of Liberty knew their opponent was infinitely larger, and more respected than they were. I don’t know whether it was sheer rage that drove them onwards, but something gave these men the enormous necessary courage to fight. They often haunted storefronts, urging customers to abstain from buying tea or overpriced cloth and sugar. Sometimes wooden picket signs were driven into the yard of an offending merchant’s store, warning people that they sold the heavily taxed items. However, many other protests were more destructive, some even violent. Some groups made cloth dummies representing tax collectors and burned them in public, along with banners cursing the man’s family. Another tactic was mobbing. Angry Sons of Liberty would storm the homes of stamp or tax collectors and break in. They’d storm into the yard, smashing out windows of expensive glass with stones. If they managed to get inside, they’d raid the home, taking as many valuables as possible. Paintings would be ripped from their frames, furniture trampled and destroyed, the silverware stolen, and crockery broken. In one instance, even shingles were torn from the roof of a stamp collector’s house. Due to such blatant actions, some historians have begun to call this group of radicals terrorists.
Despite the questionable nature of their methods, it must be admitted that the Sons of Liberty played a crucial role in the efforts of our revolution. When British troops marched on Lexington and Concord, they were met by a mob of defiant colonists whom fully intended to keep their stockpiled weapons. This arousal was initiated by members of the Sons of Liberty, including Paul Revere, who rode through the night to warn the townspeople of the advancing troops. There was another skirmish which the group was responsible for. At the Battle of Golden Hill, a group of British troops and some members of the Sons of Liberty fought out a dispute over the soldiers’ actions.
Beyond this, there is little documentation regarding this group’s involvement in the rising of the Revolutionary War. However, I feel sure that these radicals, having been the ones to spark the spreading flames of revolution, were among the most eager to join Washington’s new army.
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Please, I humbly beg of you--critique me out the door!
--Voxina
*Title edited by Kitty15: please don't use full caps in any part of your title.*
This review will probably be very picky, but... well, you asked for it! 
