Liberty Tree

It required all legal documents, permits, commercial contracts, newspapers, pamphlets, and playing cards in the American colonies to carry a tax stamp.

The act was met with widespread anger in the colonies, and in Boston a group of businessmen calling themselves the Loyal Nine began meeting in secret to plan a series of protests against it.

[4] Peering up from inside the boot was a small devil figure holding a copy of the Stamp Act and bearing a sign that read: "What Greater Joy did ever New England see / Than a Stampman hanging on a Tree!

Ebenezer Mackintosh was a shoemaker who handled much of the hands-on work of hanging effigies and leading angry mobs, and he became known as "Captain General of the Liberty Tree.

In 1774, a customs official and staunch loyalist named John Malcolm was stripped to the waist, tarred and feathered, and forced to announce his resignation under the tree.

Soldiers from the 29th Regiment of Foot tarred and feathered a colonist named Thomas Ditson and forced him to march in front of the tree as punishment for attempting to buy a musket from them.

[7] 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.

[11] To call attention to how obscure the site had become, Kessler interviewed waitresses at the Essex Delicatessen below the bas relief plaque on Washington Street.

That's a roast beef sandwich with a slice of Bermuda onion, Russian dressing, and a side of potato salad," said one waitress who had worked beneath the plaque for 20 years.

The Liberty Tree "became a rallying point for colonists protesting the British-imposed Stamp Act in 1765 and became an important symbol of their cause," the inscription says.

[16] A 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.

The last surviving liberty elm in France stands in the parish of La Madeleine at Faycelles in the Département de Lot.

[21] A liberty tree was also planted in Rome's Piazza delle Scole in 1798 to mark the legal abolition of the Roman Ghetto (which was, however, re-instated with the resumption of Papal rule).

The last surviving liberty elm in Italy, planted in 1799 to celebrate the new Parthenopean Republic, stood until recently in Montepaone, Calabria.