First Revolutionary Protest in Boston

637 Washington St

On Aug 14, 1765 in response to the stamp act Bostonians hung an effigy of Andrew Oliver, a Boston merchant who was appointed (without his knowledge) to collect the stamp tax. Shoemaker Ebenezer McIntosh had skills in turning out a crowd but had a penchant for violent protests, he was known for leading the South End’s brawlers in the annual anti-Catholic Pope’s Day riots. At 5 p.m. that day, McIntosh led several protesters as they put the effigy in a coffin and paraded it through Boston’s streets. “Liberty, property, and no stamps!” cheered the crowd of several hundred as they passed a meeting of Massachusetts’ governor and council at the Town House (now the Old State House). On the docks, some of the crowd found a battering ram and destroyed a building that Oliver had recently constructed. Others gathered outside Oliver’s house. “They beheaded the Effigy; and broke all the Windows next [to] the Street,” wrote Francis Bernard, the horrified governor of Massachusetts, “[then] burnt the Effigy in a Bonfire made of the Timber they had pulled down from the building.” The mob also stormed into the house, splintered furniture, broke a giant mirror, and raided Oliver’s liquor supply. Oliver, who had fled just in time, sent word the next day that he would resign as stamp commissioner, despite never formally accepting the position.

-Source Links-

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/story-behind-forgotten-symbol-american-revolution-liberty-tree-180959162/

https://www.history.com/news/the-stamp-act-riots