On this day,  about five months following the signing of the Stamp Act of 1765, two hundred forty-four years ago, an effigy was hung from a tree on Newbury Street in Boston. The effigy was of Andrew Oliver, the man to be commissioned as the Distributor of Stamps for Massachusetts.

Oliver was set up to be the man in Boston who would regulate the Stamp Act, selling stamps for articles such as attorney licenses, papers related to court proceedings, land grants, wills and most other legal documents. In my way of thinking, this isn’t so bad. How often would one have to pay this tax?
Now add onto that other printed or paper materials that were also taxed: playing cards, newspapers, pamphlets, and even dice. Now the tax is being paid by anyone wanting a little reading diversion or games. It would be nearly the same thing as taxing television today, as these were the pass-times!
The Stamp Act of 1765 was designed to help Britain pay for the deployment of British troops on American soil. They had been there throughout the Seven Years’ War and were (for some) luckily there for Pontiac’s Rebellion in 1763. The rebellion really decided the need for 10,000 troops to be stationed in America. An army must be fed, equipped, and housed, and the Stamp Act was to be the source of the money to pay for all of this. Great idea, on the surface! At least, it was a great idea before the British citizens of America realized that they were being denied a basic right of a British citizen – representation in Parliament. They had not voted for this tax, and by God, who pays a tax for which they didn’t cast a vote? Not British citizens, according to their Constitution!
So, as time for the Stamp Act’s enforcement approached, other schemes were in the works. Men who saw this as an opportunity for a government position sought commissions for the new posts as distributors. Benjamin Franklin, in England at the time, had even nominated a collegue for the Pennsylvania job. Back in Boston, a group called the Loyal Nine were working urgently to stir Bostonians up against the act, and eventually became known as The Sons of Liberty, a phrase used by Isaac Barré in describing the British colonists in America. They were led by a shoemaker named Ebenezer McIntosh.
This day, then, could be seen as the Sons of Liberty’s arrival on the scene, the scene being Newbury Street. Oliver, a man looking forward to his commission in a lucrative government enterprise, found himself hanging in effigy on that day. The sheriff was told to have it removed, but the presence of the mob kept them away. The mob burned Oliver’s property and then moved on toward Oliver’s house. Later, the effigy would be decapitated in front of his house, and stones hurled as his family sat inside in complete terror. The crowd moved off to nearby Fort Hill, built a bonfire, and finally burned the effigy. Most of the mob left at this point, satisfied. Oliver and his family had escaped their own home and fled to safety. Either way, the night was over for most of them.
McIntosh, however, was not finished. He led the Sons of Liberty who still remained back to Oliver’s house. They ransacked his house until around midnight. Not a window or piece of furniture remained intact. The message was sent loud and clear: Accept this commission at your own and your family’s peril.
Three days later, August 17, 1765, Andrew Oliver publicly resigned his commission. Commissioners in every colony except for Georgia would quickly follow, rendering the Stamp Act of 1765 unenforceable and certainly unprofitable. In fact, it was likely one of the most costly mistakes any government has ever made, and one that would eventually lead to the British Empire losing most of the North American continent.