Who were the Sons of Liberty?

The Sons of Liberty were a group of shopkeepers and tradesmen in Boston who agitated against the British Stamp Act and other taxes. They engaged in acts of protest and sabotage that peaked with the 1773 Boston Tea Party.

After the end of the French and Indian War in 1763, the British government found itself in debt. Reasoning that much of its debt came from defending the lightly taxed American Colonies, it introduced several taxes without parliamentary representation for the colonies. Boston tradesmen and shopkeepers, realizing these laws could put them out of business, banded together to fight the new tax laws through protests, rioting and looting tax assessors' offices and homes.