Everyone remembers the Sons of Liberty from the American Revolution. They were (quite literally) the first “Tea Party.” But people usually associate them with the activities in Boston, and maybe New York City.
But a lot of people don’t remember that the City of Norfolk (then the Borough of Norfolk) was right there along with their Massachusetts brethren.
According to William W. Abbot, on March 13, 1766, “A number of the inhabitants of the town and environs of Norfolk assembled at the court house and formed the Sons of Liberty. The Sons of Liberty usually appeared hereafter at the forefront of any anti-British agitation in the colonies.”
It was the height of anti-tax sentiment throughout the colonies, the Stamp Act imposing oppressive burdens on the purchase of goods — and, yes, services.
The City of Norfolk “Preserved as a monument of their patriotic spirit and love to their country” the following resolution:
Having taken into Considerations the evident Tendency of that oppressive and unconstitutional Act of Parliament, commonly called the Stamp Act, and being desirous that our sentiments should be known to Posterity; and recollecting that we are a Part of that Colony who first in General Assembly openly expressed their Detestation to the said Act (which is pregnant with Ruun, and productive of the most pernicious Consequences), and unwilling to rivet the Shackles of Slavery and Oppression on ourselves and Millions yet unborn, have unanimously come to the following Resolutions:
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Resolved, That we acknowledge our Lord and Sovereign, King George the Third, to be our rightful and lawful King, and that we will, at all times, to the utmost of our Power and Ability, support and defend his most sacred Person, Crown, and Dignity; and shall be always ready, when constitutionally called upon, to assist his said Majesty, with our Lives and fortunes; and to defend all his Just Rights and Prerogatives.
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Resolved, That we will by all lawful Ways and Means which Divine Providence has put into our hands, defend ourselves in the full enjoyment of, and preserve inviolate to Posterity, those inestimable Privileges of all freeborn British Subjects of being taxed only by Representatives of their own Choosing; and of being tried by none but a Jury of their peers. And that if we quietly submit to the Execution of the said Stamp Act, all our Claims to civil Liberty will be lost, and we and our Posterity become absolute Slaves. For, by that Act, British Subjects in America are deprived of the invaluable Privileges aforementioned.
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Resolved, That a committee be appointed, who shall in such manner as they shall think most proper, go upon necessary Business and make public the above Resolutions, and that they correspond as they shall see Occasion with the Associated Sons of, and Friends to, Liberty in the other British Colonies in America.
Remember, contrary to many histories composed after the culmination of the American Revolution, colonists in 1766 (and especially Virginians) did not protest the King. Their complaints lay mainly with Parliament, and their assumed “virtual representation,” i.e., Parliament’s assertion that actual representatives were not needed from the colonies in order to exercise their right to tax a portion of the totality of property in the realm.
