[6] The most incendiary tax was the Stamp Act of 1765, which caused a firestorm of opposition through legislative resolutions (starting in the colony of Virginia), public demonstrations,[7] threats, and occasional hurtful losses.

[8] 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.

[12] The Sons of Liberty popularized the use of tar and feathering to punish and humiliate offending government officials starting in 1767.

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.

"[14] 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, the Queen and the Royal Family";[14] only much later during the course of the Revolution did they begin to stridently oppose giving any support to the monarchy.

Early in the American Revolution, the former Sons of Liberty generally joined more formal groups, such as 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.

John S. Hobart, Gilbert Potter, Thomas Brush, Cornelius Conklin, and Nathaniel Williams, Huntington, Long Island.

"[18] After the end of the American Revolutionary War, Isaac Sears, Marinus Willet, and John Lamb revived in New York City the Sons of Liberty.

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.

An original flag flown from the Liberty Tree is in the collection of Revolutionary Spaces in Boston at the Old State House.

In the early 19th century, there was an organization in Bennington, Vermont named the Sons of Liberty; this organisation included local notables such as military officer Martin Scott and Hiram Harwood.

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.