Phillipston Liberty Tree Monument
Phillipston, Worcester County, Massachusetts
Marker Inscription
This American Liberty Elm was named after "The Liberty Tree: Our Country's first Symbol of Freedom." On the morning of August 14, 1765, the people of Boston awakened to discover two effigies suspended from an elm tree in protest of the hated stamp act.
The Story
This monument honors a living American Liberty Elm planted in tribute to Boston's original Liberty Tree. On August 14, 1765, colonists in Boston hung effigies of a stamp officer and a British official from a great elm near the Common, launching a wave of protest against Parliament's Stamp Act. That tree became the rallying point for the Sons of Liberty, and elms and poles like it sprang up across the colonies as living emblems of resistance to taxation without representation.
Why it matters
The Liberty Tree was America's first shared symbol of organized resistance to British rule, and monuments like this one keep alive the memory of how ordinary colonists turned a roadside elm into the seedbed of the Revolution.
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Related events
- · Stamp Act protest of August 14, 1765
- · Liberty Tree
Themes & tags
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