Les Standiford's The Sons Of Liberty

The Sons of Liberty first came into play in the mid-1760s. The Sons of Liberty were a group of young men workers who were completely against the stamp act. This group was against the men of appointing the stamp act as well as the tax collectors. In the book Desperate Sons by Les Standiford it says that the group was upset at Van Schaack because he supposedly appointed the job of the local tax collector. The group wanted to let all of Albany know that if there were any members of the community that are qualified to be appointed the job then they must not take it no matter what was offered to them (i.e.19). The Sons of Liberty would make the potential candidates of appointed tax collector to sign an oath saying that they will not take the job.

With the National debt climbing as high as nearly eight million pounds a year it was the only way to raise money for the cause. He would try to trick the colonist into agreeing and not thinking about this by introducing the Revenue Act. The act would “reestablish the right of Parliament to raise revenue from the colonists” (i.e.117). The Revenue Act would put taxes on things that the colonists would need such as; paper, glass, lead, paint, and tea. The colonists did not look at this like it was a bad thing because they really only needed one to two items on the list like paper and tea. The other items like; glass, lead, and paint were only needed on rare occasions or wealthy people for desires. This led to the Boston Tea party later in the upcoming years. The reason why is because the Townshend was trying to help the economy by also cutting out imports of tea to England by trying to help the domestic trading called the Indemnity Act. It would help because it would help Britain make more money because the colonists would pay for the tea that is coming in on the Revenue Act and the colonists could not complain (i.e.118). The colonists were hit with another crucial group called the American Board of Customs Commissioners, they would take control of all the incoming imports such as tea as

The Sons were located in a lot of big cities around the colonies. The plan overall was to reduce or make it hard to go forward with the Stamp Act for the British. In each city that’s what they did to overall deal away with the Stamp Act for all colonists. It was for themselves because if something was to go down in Boston such as a fight between some colonists and British soldiers they wouldn’t go there to back them up, but if it was because of tax collections or anything to do with a new tax then they will come. The Sons of Liberty were just about fighting for freedom and liberty over the British government. It was seen unfair for them because they had to pay for things that they did not agree with, but in some cases reading about how Townshend was just trying to help the economy to make life easier was only back fired because colonists got notice of power being overrun. It was tricky for the British government because they just wanted to hide things from the colonists or make the taxes harder to pick up because of the terror that could happen to them. The Sons were dedicated in what they believed in and would do almost anything to try to make things fair even if at some points paying the tax could help the economy. The Sons of Liberty were an act of true Americans and what people wish to be like