5 - INVENTION OF THE SOCIAL MOVEMENT

Summary

On 19 August 1765, the Boston Gazette published a colorful account of recent doings in central Boston:

Early on Wednesday morning last the Effigy of a Gentleman sustaining a very unpopular office, viz. that of St – p Master, was found hanging on a Tree in the most public Part of the Town, together with a Boot, wherein was concealed a young Imp of the D – l represented as peeping out of the Top – On the Breast of the Effigy was a Label in Praise of Liberty, and denouncing Vengeance on the Subverters of it – and underneath was the following Words, HE THAT TAKES THIS DOWN IS AN ENEMY TO HIS COUNTRY. – The Owner of the Tree finding a Crowd of People to assemble, tho' at 5 o'Clock in the Morning, endeavored to take it down; but being advised to the contrary by the Populace, lest it should occasion the Demolition of his Windows, if nothing worse, desisted from the Attempt.

The effigy-bearing tree became famous as the Liberty Tree. It served first as a rallying-point for Boston's patriots, then as a model for other colonial cities, and finally as a symbol of revolution in Western Europe, including the Netherlands, France, and Great Britain. Boston's early-morning tableau mingled visions of violence and of disciplined patriotism.

Effigies, their parading, and their ultimate destruction often figured in Boston's popular celebrations. They appeared notably in the anti-Catholic Pope's Day festivities organized by rival groups from the North and South Ends.