Liberty pole

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Liberty pole at the border to the Republic of Mainz., a product of the French Revolutionary Wars, watercolor by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, 1793

A Liberty pole is a tall wooden pole, often used as a type of flagstaff, planted in the ground, which may be surmounted by an ensign or a liberty cap (see Phrygian cap).

A liberty pole was often erected in town squares in the years before and during the American Revolution (Newport, RI, Concord MA, Savannah, GA, New York City, NY, Caughnawaga, NY). An often violent struggle over Liberty Poles erected by the Sons of Liberty in New York City (see Battle of Golden Hill) and periodically destroyed by British authorities (only to be replaced by the Sons with new poles) raged for 10 years: from the repeal of the Stamp Act in 1766 until the revolutionary New York Provincial Congress came to power in 1775.^[1] The liberty pole in New York City was crowned with a gilt vane bearing the single word, "Liberty".

When an ensign was raised (usually red) on a Liberty Pole, it would be a calling for the Sons of Liberty or townspeople to meet and vent or express their views regarding British rule. The pole was known to be a symbol of dissent against Great Britain. The symbol is also apparent in many seals and coats of arms as a sign of liberty, freedom, and independence.

During the Whiskey Rebellion, locals in western Pennsylvania would erect poles along the roads or in town centers as a protest against the federal government's tax on distilled spirits, and evoking the spirit embodied by the Liberty Poles of decades earlier.

The Arbres de la liberté ("Liberty Trees") were a symbol of the French Revolution, the first being planted in 1790 by a pastor of a Vienne village, inspired by the 1765 Liberty Tree of Boston. One was also planted in front of the City Hall of Amsterdam on 4 March 1795, in celebration of the alliance between the French Republic and the Batavian Republic.

[edit] Footnotes

[edit] See also

• Liberty Tree
• Maypole

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