Misplaced Pages

#507492

45-636: On December 16, 1773, a group of colonists — all men, and members of the Sons of Liberty — met in Boston to protest the tax on tea imposed by England. When their protest went unheeded, they disguised themselves as their idea of Mohawk people , proceeded to Boston harbor, and dumped overboard 342 chests of English tea. (See Boston Tea Party .) In the late 18th century, the Tammany Societies, named after Tamanend , were formed. The most well-known of these

90-605: A "Board of Great Chiefs", which includes the "Great Senior Sagamore " (first vice-president), "Great Junior Sagamore", "Great Chief of Records" (secretary), "Great Keeper of the Wampum " (treasurer) and " Prophet " (past president). The headquarters of the Order has been in Waco, Texas , since at least 1979. They maintain an official museum and library in Waco. A side degree of the order

135-555: A chief so grand, who won her heart and hand, But a warrior bold, who wooed her with a song: Chorus: My sweet Anona, in Arizona, There is no other maid I'd serenade; By camp-fires gleaming, of you I'm dreaming, Anona, my sweet Indian maid. When her father heard that his Anona, Loved the youthful brave; Straight-a-way he said he would disown her, things looked grave. She must marry "heap big chief," Sweet Anona hid her grief, Ran away, so they say, And got married to

180-462: A member's 12 cent a week dues went into a fund which was used to pay disability benefits to members at a rate of about "three fathoms per seven suns" ($ 3/week) for up to "six moons" (6 months) and then two dollars a week. Some medical care ("a suitable nurse") was available, and also a death benefit of one hundred dollars. The fund was invested in bonds, mortgages, and "Building Association Stock". Meetings were held weekly on Friday nights. The Order has

225-748: A new group calling itself the Sons of Liberty issued and distributed a declaration in New York City called the Association of the Sons of Liberty in New York , which formally stated that they were opposed to the Tea Act and that anyone who assisted in the execution of the act was "an enemy to the liberties of America" and that "whoever shall transgress any of these resolutions, we will not deal with, or employ, or have any connection with him." After

270-456: A non-Native organization. The group's ritual terminology is derived from language they believe is used by Native Americans , though it also shows the influence of Freemasonry . Outsiders are called " Palefaces ", to open a meeting is called "kindling the fire", officers' installations are called "Raising up of Chiefs" and voting is called "twigging". The Masonic influence is seen in the three basic degrees – Adoption, Warrior and Chief. There

315-482: A three tiered structure. Local units are called "tribes" and are presided over by a " Sachem " and a board of directors. Local meeting sites are called " Wigwams ". The state level is called the " Reservation " and governed by a "Great Sachem" and "Great Council" or "Board of Chiefs". The national level is the "Great Council of the United States". The Great Council consists of the "Great Incohonee" (president), and

360-519: A unifying name helped to promote inter-Colonial efforts against Parliament and the Crown's actions. Their motto became " No taxation without representation ." In 1765, the British government needed money to afford the 10,000 officers and soldiers living in the colonies, and intended that the colonists living there should contribute. The British passed a series of taxes aimed at the colonists, and many of

405-628: Is also a fourth degree, Beneficiary, for insurance. Originally, the society used the Hebrew Anno Mundi system for calendar year numbering when dating their documents, rather than AD (note: the Redmen did not use the Common Era reference); however, in CE 1865, a new system was devised and adopted, known as the "Great Sun of Discovery" (GSD). The first year of the system, known as GSD 1, was

450-572: The Committee of Safety . "The association of the Sons of Liberty was organized in 1765, soon after the passage of the Stamp Act, and extended throughout the colonies, from Massachusetts to South Carolina. It appears that New York was the central post from which communications were dispatched, to and from the east and to the south as far as Maryland..." While the exact name "Sons of Liberty" may not have been taken up as their official moniker by

495-682: The Treaty of Paris (1783) , they called for the confiscation of the property of Loyalists. Alexander Hamilton defended the Loyalists, citing the supremacy of the treaty. An original flag flown from the Liberty Tree is in the collection of Revolutionary Spaces in Boston at the Old State House. The flag is wool with nine vertical stripes, four white and five red. The owner of the flag post-Revolution, Samuel "Rat-Trap" Adams, claimed that

SECTION 10

#1732802530508

540-480: The "Sons of Liberty", launched a boycott of British films in the U.S., in response to British policies in Palestine . Notes Further reading Anona (song) "Anona" is a popular song supposedly written by Vivian Grey (pseudonym for Mabel McKinley, niece of William McKinley ), but in fact composed by Robert Keiser King in 1903, both as an intermezzo and a vocal number. Popular in its day, it

585-494: The 1820s. Parallel lines of advancement were offered in the Order of Red Men: a series of military titles and a set of “Indian rankings.” Class and ethnic differences introduced by new immigrants, anti-Masonic persecutions , attacks on fraternal groups based on excessive drinking, and, ultimately, a widespread cholera epidemic in 1832 led to the decline of the organization. In 1834, the Improved Order of Red Men (IORM)

630-518: The Baltimore "Sons" thanked their New York brethren for having forced Zachariah Hood , who had been appointed stamp-master for Maryland, into resigning his commission. Hood had arrived in New York on a ship from London, and as soon as his mission became known to The Liberty Boys of New York, they arranged for a meeting with him at which they reasoned with him in their own inimitable way and thus secured his "resignation." A list of New York members of

675-607: The Boston Sons of Liberty held a public rally in celebration of the 4th Anniversary of their founding. At 11 in the morning they gathered at the Liberty Tree in Boston where they gave speeches and made toasts; they then paraded to the Liberty Tree Tavern in nearby Dorchester, where they held a celebratory dinner of 300 members of the organization in a tent set up next to the tavern, where "Music played, and at proper Intervals Cannon were fired. [...] About Five o'Clock

720-585: The Company left [the tavern] in a Procession that extended near a Mile and a half, and before Dark entered the City, went round the State House and retired each to his own House." At this time in the history of their organization they still considered themselves to be loyal subjects of the monarchy of Great Britain; when it came time at both events to give a round of toasts, the first toasts were to "The King,

765-592: The Order was open to whites only. That year the 106th Great Council of the United States eliminated the all-white clause in what was called a "turning point for the order". In the present-day, the Improved Order of Red Men is open to people of all ethnic backgrounds. The order itself claims direct descent from the Sons of Liberty , noting that the Sons participated in the Boston Tea Party dressed as their idea of "Indians". Thus, they continue to dress as "Indians" and use Native American terminology, despite being

810-669: The Queen and the Royal Family"; only much later during the course of the Revolution did they begin to stridently oppose giving any support to the monarchy. The Bostonian branch of the Sons of Liberty were responsible for organizing and executing the famous Boston Tea Party of 1773 in response to the Tea Act . Early in the American Revolution, the former Sons of Liberty generally joined more formal groups, such as

855-407: The Sons of Liberty "mob terror." In popular thought, the Sons of Liberty was a formal underground organization with recognized members and leaders. More likely, the name was an underground term for any men resisting new Crown taxes and laws. The well-known label allowed organizers to make or create anonymous summons to a Liberty Tree , " Liberty Pole ", or other public meeting-place. Furthermore,

900-770: The Sons of Liberty compiled by the Sons in Maryland, written on 1 March 1766, lists the following correspondents in the colony of New York: "New York [city] — John Lamb , Isaac Sears , William Wiley , Edward Laight, Thomas Robinson, Flores Bancker, Charles Nicoll, Joseph Allicoke , and Gershom Mott. Jer. Van Rensselaer , Maynard Roseboom, Rob. Henry, and Thos. Young , Albany. John S. Hobart , Gilbert Potter, Thomas Brush, Cornelius Conklin, and Nathaniel Williams, Huntington, Long Island. George Townsend, Barack Sneething, Benjamin Townsend, George Weeks, Michael Weeks, and Rowland Chambers, Oyster Bay, Long Island." In December 1773,

945-489: The United States decided that it was legal and proper for them to do so. The group then surrendered its charter and formed a new, German-speaking Independent Order of Red Men. It asked the other German-language groups (or Stamms) to join the new group, but few did so. The Independent Order had a height of 12,000 members, though in the 1880s many Stamms returned to the Improved Order. It still existed in 1896, but according to Albert C. Stevens it gave "no sign of vigorous growth". In

SECTION 20

#1732802530508

990-646: The authorities. Their actions made many of the stamp distributors resign in fear. The organization spread after independent starts in several different colonies under various names. The name Sons of Liberty was used beginning in November in New York and Connecticut. By November 6, a committee was set up in New York City to correspond with other colonies, and by November 11 a meeting in Windham, Connecticut laid out organizational plans. In December an alliance

1035-471: The colonists refused to pay certain taxes; they argued that they should not be held accountable for taxes which were decided upon without any form of their consent through a representative. This became commonly known as " No Taxation without Representation ." Parliament insisted on its right to rule the colonies despite the fact that the colonists had no representative in Parliament. The most incendiary tax

1080-633: The draft, and shield deserters. The group held numerous peace meetings. A few agitators, some of them encouraged by Southern money, talked of a revolt in the Old Northwest , with the goal of ending the war. In 1864, both the KGC and the Order of the Sons of Liberty were prosecuted for treason by federal authorities, especially in Indiana. In 1948, a radical wing of the Zionist movement , calling itself

1125-646: The early 1920s, Arthur Preuss could not get into contact with them, but felt it probably still existed. In 1904, another group called the Independent Order of Red Men emerged in Virginia, this time composed entirely of African Americans. When the Improved Order objected to the use of the name, the leader of the group, R. M. Spears, had the charter withdrawn and renamed the group the "Afro-American Order of Red Men and Daughters of Pocahontas ". The Virginia IORM still apparently considered an injunction against

1170-523: The early 19th century, there was an organization in Bennington, Vermont , named the Sons of Liberty, that included local notables such as military officer Martin Scott and Hiram Harwood. The Improved Order of Red Men , established in 1834, claimed to be descended from the original Sons of Liberty, noting that the Sons participated in the Boston Tea Party dressed as their idea of "Indians". The name

1215-528: The end of the American Revolutionary War , Isaac Sears , Marinus Willet , and John Lamb revived in New York City the Sons of Liberty. In March 1784, they rallied an enormous crowd that called for the expulsion of any remaining Loyalists from the state starting May 1. The Sons of Liberty were able to gain enough seats in the New York assembly elections of December 1784 to have passed a set of punitive laws against Loyalists. In violation of

1260-532: The flag was used by the Sons of Liberty, although there is no contemporary documentation of a non-British striped flag used by the Sons of Liberty. A flag having 13 horizontal red and white stripes was used by the Continental Navy and by American merchant ships during the war, although the two styles of flag do not appear to be related. At various times, small secret organizations took the name "Sons of Liberty". They generally left very few records. In

1305-409: The leaders of the New York opposition to the Stamp Act in 1765 - they were popularly known there around that time as " The Liberty Boys " - it appears that they were known to other "Sons of Liberty" organizations in other states by that name not long after that time. There is a letter written by the "Sons of Liberty" in Baltimore, Maryland, "to the Sons of Liberty in New York", dated 6 March 1766 in which

1350-763: The members of the Degree of Hiawatha were concentrated in New England . In 1979 there were less than 5,000 members in approximately 125 "Councils". The Order female auxiliary is the Degree of Pocahontas and dates to the 1880s and the Degree of Anona , a junior order of the Degree of Pocahontas, was formed in 1952. The Improved Order of the Red Men grew in membership in the late 19th century. It reached 519,942 members in forty-six states in 1921, but had declined to 31,789 in 32 states in 1978 and to 15,251 by 2011. Until 1974,

1395-599: The new group, but it is unclear how the episode turned out. A Tribe #23 based in Metompkin, Virginia is attested by the existence of a ribbon badge in the collection of Theda Skocpol , suggesting that the group had at least 23 local "tribes" in the state. The badge is identical to the ones worn by the IORM, except with the AAORM initials. Sons of Liberty This is an accepted version of this page The Sons of Liberty

Improved Order of Red Men - Misplaced Pages Continue

1440-649: The organization in pockets of the United States; for example, in southern West Virginia, during the build up to the West Virginia Mine Wars, "the Improved Order of Red Men [was] . . . the most comfortable lodge for Socialist miners and other radical workers." After the Civil war in West Virginia, the Improved Order of Red Men became a fraternal organization of some notoriety for vigilante activity. The Red Men Act, West Virginia's anti conspiracy law,

1485-537: The repeal of the Stamp Act in 1766, the Sons of Liberty in Dedham, Massachusetts , erected the Pillar of Liberty . The Sons of Liberty popularized the use of tar and feathering to punish and humiliate offending government officials starting in 1767. This method was also used against British Loyalists during the American Revolution. This punishment had long been used by sailors to punish their mates. On August 14, 1769,

1530-524: The same pseudo-Indigenous phrasing as the rest of the constitution: Sec. 1. No person shall be entitled to adoption into the Order except a free white male of good moral character and standing, of the full age of twenty-one great suns, who believes in the existence of a Great Spirit, the Creator and Preserver of the Universe, and is possessed of some known reputable means of support. In one 1886 "tribe",

1575-534: The year that Christopher Columbus arrived in the Americas, namely AD 1492. In this system, years were known as "great suns" and months were called "moons", each with their own epithet, e.g. "Cold Moon" for January, but the length of these years and months conformed to the conventional Gregorian calendar . The order has historically opposed federal welfare programs, waste in government and Communism. However, there are examples of substantial socialist participation in

1620-466: Was New York City's Society of St. Tammany, which grew into a major political machine known as " Tammany Hall ." For the next 35 years, the original Sons of Liberty and the Sons of St. Tamina groups went their own way, under many different names. Around 1813, a disenchanted group created the philanthropic "Society of Red Men" at historic Fort Mifflin in Philadelphia . The organization grew in

1665-621: Was a loosely organized, clandestine, sometimes violent, political organization active in the Thirteen American Colonies founded to advance the rights of the colonists and to fight taxation by the British government. It played a major role in most colonies in battling the Stamp Act in 1765 and throughout the entire period of the American Revolution . Historian David C. Rapoport called the activities of

1710-781: Was also used during the American Civil War . The Copperhead group, the Knights of the Golden Circle , reorganized in 1863 as the "Order of American Knights". In 1864, it became the Order of the Sons of Liberty , with the Ohio politician Clement L. Vallandigham , most prominent of the Copperheads, as its supreme commander. In most areas, only a minority of its membership was radical enough to discourage enlistments, resist

1755-499: Was formed between groups in New York and Connecticut, and the name of Sons of Liberty was first used in Boston. January bore witness to a correspondence link between Boston and New York City, and by March, Providence, Rhode Island had initiated connections with New York, New Hampshire , and Newport, Rhode Island . March also marked the emergence of Sons of Liberty organizations in New Jersey, Maryland, and Virginia. To celebrate

1800-678: Was founded in 1890 as the National Haymakers' Association . There was also once a uniformed division called the Knights of Tammany, as well as a group called the Chieftains League, which consisted of members who had been exalted to the Chief Degree (see below) and were in good standing within their respective "tribes". In 1952, the Order created the Degree of Hiawatha , as a youth auxiliary for males 8 and up. Most of

1845-642: Was passed in response to a groundswell of such violence. Occasionally this vigilante activity included the use of red masks over their faces. The IORM supported the founding of the Society of American Indians in 1911 and helped organize the SAI's first two conferences. In 1850, the German-language, "Metamora Tribe of Baltimore", refused to pay a benefit, even though the Great Councils of Maryland and

Improved Order of Red Men - Misplaced Pages Continue

1890-473: Was recorded a number of times. The lyrics as published in the vocal version: In the western state of Arizona, Lived an Indian maid; She was called the beautiful Anona so 'tis said. Graceful as a fawn was she, Just as sweet as she could be, Eyes so bright, dark as night, Had this pretty little Arizona Indian maiden. All the chiefs who knew her, Came to woo her, For her pined To marry she declined, At last she changed her mind, But 'twas not

1935-494: Was started as a revival in Baltimore. It was focused on temperance, patriotism and American History. In 1835, with only two groups in place (called "tribes" by the IORM), a larger IORM was organized. Unlike the original Order, the IORM uses only expanded Native American titles. Rather than the public display of Native American costumes, the IORM uses its regalia in private gatherings. In 1886, its membership requirements were defined in

1980-509: Was the Loyal Nine , which burned effigies of Stamp Act commissioner Andrew Oliver in Boston on August 14, 1765. When he did not resign, the group escalated to burning down his office building. Even after he resigned, they almost destroyed the whole house of his close associate Lieutenant Governor Thomas Hutchinson . It is believed that the Sons of Liberty did this to excite the lower classes and get them actively involved in rebelling against

2025-480: Was the Stamp Act of 1765 , which caused a firestorm of opposition through legislative resolutions (starting in the colony of Virginia ), public demonstrations, threats, and occasional hurtful losses. The name is presumed to have been inspired by the phrase's use in a pro-American, anti-taxation speech in the House of Commons on February 6, 1765, by Irish MP Isaac Barré . A precursor of the Sons of Liberty in Boston

#507492