America’s War of Independence led to an upsurge of support for reform in Britain, as the costly conflict heightened critiques of government repressiveness and lack of representation. In 1778, freeholders mobilized the Association Movement, which sought to raise a national wave of petitions in support of Parliamentary Reform. The movement and its affiliated Society for Constitutional Information caucused reformers of many causes – radical and moderate, including special-interest reformers seeking greater religious freedom and/or antislavery measures – together to make a common push for systemic changes.

American examples led British reformers to mobilize as they never had before. Amid the John Wilkes controversies of the late 1760s, which became a flash point for concerns over the unrepresentativeness of the British Parliament, government corruption, and rights to free speech, liberal supporters organized the Society of Supporters of the Bill of Rights with a Virginian as its secretary. Seeking to affiliate reformers’ support across Britain and the empire, while endeavoring to also support Americans during the prerevolutionary controversies, the Supporters and their successor organizations provide structure to the reform movement, whereas previously politicians had sought to maintain their “independence“ and avoid formal organizations.

This chapter explores the American Sons of Liberty as the first modern social movement. Contesting Parliament’s Stamp Act of 1765, colonists across the British possessions mobilized angry protests and – even more consequently – affiliated through correspondence and deputations to create a new sort of alliance. For the first time, societies openly affiliated in pursuit of a common political objective. The repeal of the Stamp Act just months later, as the American movement won sympathy and respect in Britain, demonstrated the measure’s efficacy, and the Sons’ model would soon be called upon again.