Sons of Liberty Stamp Destruction

Background. The Sons of Liberty was a loosely organized, clandestine, sometimes violent political organization active in the Thirteen American Colonies, founded to defend colonists' rights, including representation against British taxation. It played a major role in most colonies in battling the Stamp Act in 1765 and throughout most of the American Revolution.

Stamp Act Opposition. The Stamp Act of 1765 was the most incendiary tax, provoking a firestorm of opposition through legislative resolutions beginning in Virginia, public demonstrations, threats, and occasional hurtful losses. The British government, deeply indebted from the Seven Years' War, had stationed 10,000 officers and soldiers and intended the colonists to contribute financially to that force.

New York and Maryland. New York served as a central post for Sons of Liberty communications, dispatching correspondence east and south as far as Maryland. The New York Stamp Act opposition leaders were popularly known around 1765 as the "Liberty Boys," though other organizations knew them by the Sons of Liberty name not long after. On 6 March 1766, the Baltimore Sons of Liberty wrote thanking their New York brethren for forcing Zachariah Hood, appointed stamp-master for Maryland, into resigning his commission.