Erection of the Liberty Pole in Manhattan
- When
- 1766
- Where
- The Fields, between Broadway and Park Row, Manhattan (per legacy record); The Fields, Manhattan (per legacy record)
- Episodes
- 2
A liberty pole is a wooden pole, or sometimes a spear or lance, surmounted by a cap of liberty, mostly the Phrygian cap. Such poles were often erected in town squares in the years before and during the American Revolution. A legacy record describes an erection in Manhattan on George III's birthday in 1766, but the supplied passages do not corroborate that episode.
Episodes
- Erection of the liberty pole on the king's birthday (legacy record)
A legacy record describes Sons of Liberty members in Manhattan erecting a liberty pole as a protest on George III's 28th birthday, but no supplied passage corroborates it.
- British soldiers cut down the pole (legacy record)
The legacy record states that British soldiers cut down the Manhattan liberty pole in August 1766; no supplied passage mentions this removal.
Background and detail
Background. A liberty pole is a wooden pole, or sometimes a spear or lance, surmounted by a "cap of liberty", mostly of the Phrygian cap. The symbol's form is well attested in the supplied material, which also notes that liberty poles were often erected in town squares in the years before and during the American Revolution.
The Manhattan Episode. A legacy record describes members of the Sons of Liberty in Manhattan erecting a liberty pole as a protest on the occasion of King George III's 28th birthday, placing the tall wooden pole with a Phrygian cap on the Fields somewhere between Broadway and Park Row, with British soldiers cutting it down in August. No supplied passage corroborates these details, so they are retained only as unverified legacy content.
People involved
- Sons of Liberty · Protest group named in the legacy record as erecting the pole; not corroborated by supplied passages
Sources
- Liberty pole Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-22
Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.