Sons of Liberty

111 Boylston St Downtown, Boston, MA 02116

This path along Charles St was the former coast line in colonial times. The public gardens beside you were marshland and there were British Fortifications here during the war. AWESOME Interactive map with fortifications and former coastline:

https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/siege-of-boston-map.htm

It started with a group called the Loyal Nine – John Avery, Henry Bass (cousin of Sam Adams), Thomas Chase, Thomas Crafts, Benjamin Edes, Joseph Field, John Smith, and George Trott. The group grew into the Sons of Liberty and were known to rally and incite Boston to riot. These mobs were organized and used tactics of fear, force, intimidation, and violence in demonstration of their goals. Sam Adams is credited with founding the Sons of Liberty of which the Loyal Nine merged into and it grew from there.

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The Sons of Liberty grew from a secret group called the Loyal Nine, a secret underground society created due to the social and political fallout of the French and Indian War.

That war took place throughout the world, was just one part of a larger conflict called the Seven Years War, a war that many historians consider to be “the first World War” The French and Indian War, coupled with the fighting throughout the globe, nearly pushed the British Empire to the brink of financial collapse due to the increased spending needed to fight an international war.

As a result, the British increased taxation among the colonies and stationed soldiers of the Crown within these colonies to guard the Empire’s new territorial gains. The British Empire needed money and goods for their empire, and they turned to the colonies for both. They rationalized that fighting in North America against the French was to protect the colonists and their interests, and thus they should pay their share in taxes to help pay off their war-debt along with stationing British soldiers within the new territorial gains.

So, the solution was multiple parliamentary acts to gain tax funds and to forcefully quarter soldiers within the American colonies via the Quartering Act. (See Long Wharf – Parliamentary Acts) The first of many taxes forced upon the American people was the Sugar Act, which taxed the transport and sale of raw sugar, molasses, and rum throughout the colonies. Smuggling, however, helped to circumvent this tax, but only partly. Because the British found a way to tax almost every aspect of colonial life, the Sons of Liberty instigated riots throughout Boston, which was why Boston developed a reputation through the colonies of being rowdy and rebellious.

Even with the many diverse taxes imposed on the colonies there was a big difference between the rates from different areas. By 1714, British citizens in Great Britain were paying on a per capita basis 10 times as much in taxes as the average "American" in the 13 colonies, though some colonies had higher taxes than others. Britons, for example, paid 5.4 times as much in taxes as taxpayers in Massachusetts, 18 times as much as Connecticut Yankees, 6.3 times as much as New Yorkers, 15.5 times as much as Virginians; and 35.8 times as much as Pennsylvanians.

-Source Links-

https://www.bostonteapartyship.com/loyal-nine

https://www.bostonteapartyship.com/who-were-the-sons-of-liberty

https://www.battlefields.org/learn/articles/who-were-sons-liberty

https://www.history.com/news/sons-of-liberty-members-causes

https://www.atr.org/how-usa-was-born-tax-revolt/