Sons of Liberty

AN INTERACTIVE ACTIVITY

 
You will not be run from this land!  Just because you are loyal to England, you will not be chased across the Atlantic Ocean.  You just won't commit treason!

As the bitterness against England grows, you find it harder to live in your city.  Mobs attack your house.  When war breaks out, they stone your carriage when you go to church.

You do your best to keep out of trouble.

A rumor begins to spread that you are a British spy.  Some colonial soldiers are ambushed, and your neighbors blame you.  A mob surrounds your house.

"Come out, Tory spy!" they demand.

You get your family out the back door.  You leap onto a waiting horse to escape, but the mob blocks your passage.  They drag you from your steed.

"I am no spy!" you shout.

"You are a Tory!" the leader of the mob cries.  "You stand with the tyrant King George!" 

You are stripped of your clothing and hogtied.  You are plunged into a barrel of hot molasses, which covers even your hair.  The mob then rolls you in a heap of chicken feathers.  You are a sticky, mortified mess!  They load you into a wagon and take you into town.  Everyone in town comes outside to laugh at the procession.

You finally shake free and clean yourself up, though the scent of molasses stays with you for weeks, a bitter reminder of your humiliation. 

You flee with your family to Kentucky, where you hide out in the wilderness, living off the land. 

After the war, you move to Philadelphia.  You start a new business, a large hardware store, and make a good living.  Everyone is too busy building the new country to discover your personal history.  You are glad that the U.S. won its independence, even if you were on the other side.

You are mostly just happy to see that you are all Americans again.

OUCH!