Scholars are not sure where the idea for a liberty tree or a liberty pole first came from. Liberty trees may have been connected in some colonial minds to the freedom of the forests of North America, and several colonies had special trees identified with their history such as Connecticut’s “Hartford Charter Oak,” Maryland’s “Annapolis Tulip Poplar,” and Pennsylvania’s “Treaty Elm.” There may also be some connection to the English maypole, a traditional fertility symbol and the focal point of community festivities in the spring. Whatever the lineage, the use of a liberty tree first appeared in Boston during the Stamp Act (1765) controversy. On August 14, 1765, anti-Stamp Act demonstrators hung the effigy of Andrew Oliver (the colonial stamp distributer) and the Earl Of Bute (an unpopular adviser of King George III) from a tree and made it the centerpiece of their protest. Soon Bostonians were calling it the liberty tree. The Sons Of Liberty hung a plaque commemorating August 14 around the tree. On November 1, 1765, the day the Stamp Act was to go into effect, a crowd celebrated by hanging effigies of George Grenville and John Huske, who was popularly believed to be an initiator of the Stamp Tax. On December 17, 1765, the Sons of Liberty compelled Oliver to repeat his resignation as stamp agent in front of the liberty tree.
New Yorkers took the next step by changing the tree into a pole. To celebrate the repeal of the Stamp Act and the birthday of George III, New Yorkers raised a flagpole on their commons in June 1766. But with the New York assembly refusing to comply with the Quartering Act (1765), the flagstaff soon became a symbol of resistance to imperial regulation. Since it stood on the parade ground, it was a constant irritant to the British soldiers stationed in the city. After soldiers tore down the pole, New Yorkers, resentful of this attack on their “Tree of Liberty,” erected a new pole. This liberty pole became a rallying point for anti-imperial demonstrators and was torn down by soldiers and put up again by New Yorkers several times. On January 18, 1770, soldiers and citizens fought a street battle against each other because of the liberty pole that is popularly known as the Battle Of Golden Hill. Other communities began to erect their own liberty poles, and by the
John McRae's engraving shows Americans in 1776 reacting to news of independence by hoisting a liberty pole festooned with flags while another group cuts down a tavern sign emblazoned with a figure of George III. (Library of Congress)
Time of the Revolutionary War (1775-83), liberty poles could be found in almost every colony.
After the war, liberty poles occasionally appeared, and they were revived as an important political symbol in the 1790s. The French used liberty poles during their revolution (1789-99). In part because of the French example, but also harking back to their use in the 1760s and 1770s, the Democratic-Republican Party used poles in their celebrations. They also appeared during the Whiskey Rebellion (1794) and Fries’s Rebellion (1798-99). Supporters of Thomas Jefferson rallied around liberty poles, called sedition poles by the Federalist Party, to register opposition to the Alien and Sedition Acts (1798). After 1800, although liberty poles symbolized the Jeffersonian triumph, they lost some significance. During the 1820s, supporters of Andrew Jackson raised hickory poles while the followers of Henry Clay displayed the ash pole. The Republican Party of the 1850s occasionally used liberty poles.
See also resistance movement; riots.
Further reading: Arthur M. Schlesinger, “Liberty Tree: A Genealogy,” New England Quarterly 25 (1952): 435-458; Alfred Young, Liberty Tree: Ordinary People in the American Revolution (New York: New York University Press, 2006).
World History
