With the emphasis growing stronger in recognizing the 250th Anniversary of our nation (1776 – 2026), many communities are turning to planting, or replanting, Liberty Trees. Most everyone associates the original as “The” Boston Liberty Tree, the Elm, in the center of the rebellion within Boston. Liberty Poles were also popular, especially after the British cut down the elm. Poles are replaceable. But was it the first Liberty tree or pole? The Romans erected what is believed to be the first liberty pole after assassinating Julius Caesar. The murder plot’s leaders met at the Roman Forum, where someone placed a Phrygian cap from a freed slave on top of a pole to show the Romans had won their freedom from Caesar’s tyranny. Since at least the 14th century, the tree Gernikako Arbola, in the Basque town of Gernika, has acted as a meeting place for citizens of the province. The tree represents the traditional freedoms of the people from Biscay, one of the provinces of the Basque Country of Spain. Nowadays, the president of the Basque Country, known as the Lehendakari, swears his charge there. The White Pine, or Pinus Strobus, also has important points of symbolism. It has long been regarded as the "monarch of the forest". For many Native Americans, it is considered the "Tree of Peace".

Large trees make for great meeting places. Randolph Township (Morris) claims a white oak Liberty Tree dating to 1720. John Adams recorded the planting of a new buttonwood (American sycamore) in Quincy, Massachusetts, on May 4, 1766, noting in his diary with an inscription that marked the tree as “a tree of liberty.” In 1766, Newport’s patriots assembled under the liberty tree on a triangular piece of land at the corner of Thames and Farewell streets. William Read had donated that land to William Ellery and other Sons of Liberty shortly after the repeal of the Stamp Act. Under a suitable buttonwood tree, the patriots held mock funerals for liberty and hanged unpopular Loyalists in effigy. They also put up a liberty pole at a distance from the tree and put their colors on both whenever appropriate. When the British occupied Newport, they cut down the liberty tree. The pride of New Hampshire was in the Pine Tree Riot of 1772. The pine tree, in particular, became a symbol of liberty, independence, and strength in the New England colonies, and was used on flags, banners, and even coins. I doubt they met under any other tree. The Bucks of America, a unit of free black soldiers from Massachusetts who used liberty trees on their regimental flags and pins, also chose a pine tree as a representation of liberty. Yet most liberty trees were shade trees, not pine trees.

Origin by E. Benjamin Andrews (1844–1917) - Taken from The Project Gutenberg EBook of History of the United States, Volume 2 (of 6), by E. Benjamin Andrews, c.1894 Archive.org - A Reverence For Wood by Eric Sloane https://archive.org/details/a-reverence-for-wood/page/76/mode/2up Thomas Crane Public Library The Quincy Room Lantern Slides 1801-1850. Missing 1801. Dup 1821 Charleston's Liberty Tree, a grand Live Oak, remained standing until British military forces overwhelmed the American defenders in the summer of 1780. Sometime after capturing the colonial capital of South Carolina on May 12th, General Henry Clinton ordered his troops to chop down the majestic live oak and burn it into oblivion. The Boston Liberty Tree, an elm, remained a gathering point during the decade leading up to the Revolutionary War. The ground surrounding it became known as Liberty Hall. The Liberty Tree was felled in August 1775 by Loyalists led by Nathaniel Coffin Jr. or by Job Williams. Reportedly, it made 14 cords of firewood. For many years, local citizens used the tree stump as a reference point, similar to the Boston Stone. During an 1825 tour of Boston, the Marquis de Lafayette declared, "The world should never forget the spot where once stood Liberty Tree, so famous in your annals." While there was technically a Liberty Tree in each of the 13 original colonies, but some of the “trees” were poles, such as Georgia's original “tree” in Savannah. The liberty pole sprang up in response to specific events, where perhaps a tree was either not a common gathering place or otherwise unavailable. One of the best-known poles was erected by the Sons of Liberty at Golden Hill in New York City in 1765. It was a location where the Sons and their supporters could meet to agitate for repeal of the Stamp Act. The pole was located just across from, and in plain view of, an abandoned building that served as one of the city’s largest army barracks. The Bostonians Paying the Excise - Man, 1774 British print by Philip Dawe that depicts the tarring and feathering of Boston Commissioner of Customs John Malcolm. This was the second time that Malcolm had been tarred and feathered. By Philip Dawe - John Carter Brown Library, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/ w/index.php?curid=242263 The Sons were so outraged when a group of off-duty soldiers sawed down the liberty pole on 16 January 1766 that a two-day riot ensued. A replaceable pole proved useful. This began an almost yearly ritual where soldiers would cut down the pole and instigate a fight with the Sons of Liberty. Once tempers cooled, the Sons of Liberty would defiantly raise a new pole in the same spot. Despite the colonists’ addition of protective devices like iron rings to the pole, the soldiers found ever more innovative ways to fell the offensive post. There was a mention of trying to blow up the pole with a powder charge. Continued on page 3 Page 3 The Hornet’s Nest Jul - Sep 2023 On May 19, 1774, 1,000 residents of Farmington, Conn., erected a liberty pole, burned an effigy of Gov. Thomas Hutchinson and a copy of the Boston Port Act. Shutesbury, Mass., erected a liberty pole on Sept. 5, 1774, the day the Continental Congress first met. By October 1774, Connecticut newspapers reported, “Liberty-poles from 100 to 170 feet high, are erected and erecting in most of the towns of Connecticut.” In Machias, Maine, a Liberty Pole erected in 1775 by the O'Brien brothers (for whom an entire class of US warships would eventually be named) sparked a fight with British Sea Captain James Moore who was bringing the town news of Lexington’s "Shot heard around the world". When Moore saw the Pole, he demanded they take it down, but the townsfolk wouldn't hear of it and their resistance to the King's tyranny led to one of the first naval battles of the American Revolution. In Georgia the “Sons of Liberty” were known as “Liberty Boys.” “Liberty, property, and no stamps!” was their cry. August 10, 1774, thirty men plotted at Tondee’s Tavern in Savannah. This is considered Georgia’s first participation in what would become the American Revolution. The first physical response of the Liberty Boys in Savannah was to seize ammunition stored in the magazine on May 11, 1775. It was planned and carried out by members of the Council of Safety. About six hundred pounds of powder fell into the hands of the Liberty Boys. Some was sent to South Carolina, the rest was hidden in the garrets and cellars of the patriots who had seized it. Tradition says some of this powder was sent to Massachusetts, where it was used by the patriots who drove the British before them at the battle of Bunker Hill. Other events occurred that showed the temper of the Liberty Boys. On the 4th of June, when Governor Wright came to fire salutes in honor of King George’s birthday, he found the cannon had been spiked, dismounted, and rolled to the bottom of the bluff. On June 5th, the first liberty pole in the Colony was set up in Savannah. A young man named Hopkins, who spoke contemptuously of the members of the Committee of Public Safety, was seized by a mob, tarred and feathered, placed in an illuminated cart, and paraded up and down the streets of Savannah. Liberty trees today, as in the leadup to the Revolutionary War, may be of any species. Maryland’s Liberty Tree was a tulip poplar that was used as a rally point for the Maryland colony during the Revolutionary War. The 400-year-old tulip poplar stood on the grounds of St. John's College in Annapolis, Maryland until 1999, when it was felled after Hurricane Floyd caused irreparable damage to it. Seedlings were started to perpetuate the importance of the Liberty Tree's place in history. You can acquire a “DNA” offspring from this tree through the Allegany County Forestry Board, c/o Maryland Forest Service. Native or other types of trees are available from local nurseries, or online. It is recommended that any tree being planted be researched for it’s “thrive-ability” in the location it is planted. One wants to ensure that the tree grows and lasts for years to come. Since many meetings occurred around a mug of ale, perhaps we should think about a few Liberty Taverns as well? Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberty_Tree http://www.gatrees.net/TreeTalk/Archive/LibertyTree.cfm https://www.gainesvilletimes.com/news/north-georgia-plants-tree-to-celebrate-liberty/ https://chattanoogacw.com/news/local/georgia-military-colleges-historical-liberty-tree-to-be-cut-down-due-to-aging https://www.history.com/news/liberty-trees-symbol-revolutionary-war https://www.tapinto.net/towns/randolph/sections/community-life/articles/randolph-s-300-year-old-liberty-tree-livesout-final-day-removal-to-take-place-aug-31 https://www.americanghostwalks.com/articles/liberty-pole-benedict-arnold-ghost https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=31852 https://www.ccpl.org/charleston-time-machine/remembering-charlestons-liberty-tree-part-1 https://www.ccpl.org/charleston-time-machine/remembering-charlestons-liberty-tree-part-2 https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=4269&context=gradschool_dissertations https://www.todayingeorgiahistory.org/tih-georgia-day/sons-of-liberty-meet-in-savannah/#:~:text=On%20this% 20day%20in%201774,would%20become%20the%20American%20Revolution https://www.tota.world/article/1867/#:~:text=The%20Sons%20of%20Liberty%20were,the%207th%20of% 20October%2C%201765. https://libertytreesociety.org/ https://parkplanning.nps.gov/projectHome.cfm?projectID=18512 https://libertyoakgso.com/about/ https://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/wm851X_Newport_RI_Liberty_TreeThomas Crane Public Library The Quincy Room Lantern Slides 1801-1850. Missing 1801. Dup 1821 https://newenglandhistoricalsociety.com/six-places-that-raised-a-liberty-pole/ https://constitutingamerica.org/new-hampshire-the-first-in-the-nation-guest-essayist-honorable-bill-obrien/ https://www.lpdosf.com/gg-park https://www.revolutionarywarjournal.com/liberty-trees-and-poles/ https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/liberty-trees-and-poles