The Sons of Liberty & John Wilkes

In many descriptions of the early years prior to the American Revolution, I found references to secretive groups called "Sons of Liberty", which spontaneously, and independently organized throughout the colonies, in response to abuses to liberty by agents of the Crown..

I did extensive keyword searches for `Sons of Liberty', before there was an internet, at the Savannah Public Library and what follows are my findings and how it relates to the Internet today.

. The 'Sons of Liberty' were a secret society, with many members of influence, one of whom was Paul Revere, in Boston. The Boston Sons of Liberty would meet in the `Long Room' above a tavern called `The Dragon', which had a copperplate of a dragon on its sign out front, that had turned, as copper does, green with age and corrosion, and was known to its patrons as "the Green Dragon". It was in this long room, above the Green Dragon, that the various protests and demonstrations in Boston were planned, including the throwing some tea in Boston Harbor.

John Hancock, shipper, and rum smuggler, was the financier, an who at the direction of Boston's tax collector, Samuel Adams, financed the protests and activities of the early Patriots. John Hancock had such a nice signature because he signed it so many times on bills of lading..

The `hero' of the Sons of Liberty, was a Member of the British minority party at the time, one John Wilkes, son of a distiller, who published a political rag called `The North Briton' His newsletter was a barb in the side of the king as well as his lackey in Parliament, Lord Bute. In the 45th issue of this newsletter, John Wilkes, said that

"A man is a sovereign unto himself, and (thus) may only be ruled by his own consent"

John Wilkes was most popular, with the people, and was elected Lord Mayor of London at one point. He was the champion of the Colonies in England, and could be considered one the first English `populist'. The phrase "sons of Liberty' was first used by a member of the minority party who had fought side by side with the colonists in the French & Indian War, in defense of some onerous action by the majority party, and knew the tenacity and determination of the colonists, and said something similar to

" Do not underestimate these `sons of liberty' in America.."

Reading these populist writings, in his home north of London, in the early 1760's, that said that elected officials should truly represent the interests of `the body of the people', was a man named Thomas Pain. When Thomas Pain came to America, and began his writings, he signed his name with a flourish that was misunderstood by the Americans to be an `e', and tiring of correcting people, he began for the sake of brevity, to call himself Thomas `Paine'.

A hundred years later, one newspaper account at the time said that the man who shot President Lincoln, jumped from the balcony onto the stage, and yelled his name (a moniker)

"John Wilkes Bute", which was interpreted to have something to do with John Wilkes and Lord Bute. A reporter got it wrong, and now history calls him `Booth...' This was fascinating, as well as puzzling, that so little of this story of the roots of liberty are taught in the American Public School system...I consider this `lost knowledge'. Knowledge I now feel is essential for the maintenance of that Liberty that our forefathers sought in coming to this `New World'.

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