The Revolutionary War in South CarolinaJon HaleCCSD - JIT

Resistance to TaxationThis political cartoon, published by a British newspaper, shows a tax collector being tarred, feathered, and forced to drink tea by a group of rebellious Bostonians. The Stamp Act, a tax on printed paper, hangs upside down on a tree. The tree also holds a waiting noose. In the background, rebels dump tea (another taxed item) into the harbor. All of this activity demonstrates the Bostonians’ anger at “taxation without representation.”

“Tarred and Feathered and Forced to Drink Tea,” 1774 political cartoon, from the website Freedom: A History of Us, www.pbs.org/historyofus. Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division (reproduction number, LC-USZ62-9487 [B&W film copy negative]).

The Stamp Act (1765-1766)

1. The noose might be a general threat or a symbol that represented the popular use of effigies in protests.

2. The “Liberty Tree”

3. “Stamp Act” (upside down)

4. This outfit identifies the participant as a sailor; the apron on the man next to him as an artisan

5. The liquid uses was distasteful and likely to promote vomiting, probably vinegar

6. Tarring and feathering

7. Boston Tea Party

8. Liberty cap on a pole, a symbol of the American Revolution and the Sons of Liberty

Siege of Charleston, 1780

American victories

Battle King’s Mountain (October, 1780)

Langston Hughes

Writer and poet, 1902-1967

“Harlem” (Dream Deferred)

“I, too, Sing America”