The Liberty People

Sons of Liberty

Colonists opposed to the unfair(for them) Stamp Act. Later on, this opposition created a strong feeling of union among every colonist, they thought they had the power to fight this together, the ones that disagreed to pay British taxes called themselves Patriots. Since this situation emerged, every citizen demonstrated more interest in politics due to this a group created an association called the "Sons of Liberty", this was a secret organization that, as you know, they formed to  protest the Stamp Act. This idea created success in most of the colonies, one of the most famous and successful leaders was Samuel Adams, whom also was the cousin of John Adams(Second official President of the United States), this association was created in Boston, Massachussets. The poor tax collectors had to suffer the consequences because even though they didn't had the fault, they got assaulted by the colonists. On August, 1765, something awful happened, the Sons of Liberty organized a mob and destroyed the house of a tax collector. This mob was like a wake up call for the other tax collectors, because it created a sense of fear in them. But someone had to denounce this riots, and that was the job of Massachussets lieutenant governor, Thomas Hutchinson, he insisted that the colonists had the LEGAL duty(like obligation but legal) to pay the taxes imposed by the Parliament. After he denounced this, the colonists were NOT happy, so they organized another mob in which they destroyed Hutchinson's house, therefore nobody in Boston dared to talk about the taxes. By the end of the year their where no tax collectors, but why? How bad did the colonists treat them? Well, the colonists had this method called tarring and feathering which consisted in the Bostonians to pour hot tea all the way down the throat of the innocent tax collector, this caused burns and sometimes lead to death, However, the goal of tarring and feathering was mainly humiliation, not death, and not many deaths were recorded. Usually, people were scarred for life by the hot tar and resulting injuries from the removing, marking them to other members of the community as victims of tarring and feathering. The victims also died as a result of lynchings, in which they were tarred and feathered, went around town, and then they hung.

Tarring and Feathering