In Boston, Opponents of the Stamp Act Hung an Effigy of the Local Stamp Master, Andrew

In Boston, opponents of the Stamp Act hung an effigy of the local stamp master, Andrew Oliver, from a 120-year-old elm that came to be known as the Liberty Tree. On August 14, 1765 a mob dragged the effigy through the streets and after beheading and burning it, broke into Oliver’s house and raided his wine cellar.

Circumstantial evidence suggests that Sam Adams may have had a role in the planning the effigy parade and raid on Oliver’s house. There is no doubt this act met with his approval. In an article in the Boston Gazette, he referred to the anti-stamp agitators as “Sons of Liberty.”

In the American colonies, pine tar could easily be found in the shipyards and most everyone had goose-feathered pillows. With the materials at hand, tarring and feathering was a common threat. Though the tarring was not usually fatal, it was extremely unpleasant. Applying the hot tar to bare skin usually caused painful blistering and efforts to remove it often made the condition worse. The adding of feathers which stuck to the tar added to the humiliation and made the victim a comical figure.

A famous instance of this happened to John Malcolm, a customs official. At about 8:00 on the evening of January 25, a club wielding mob gathered outside his home. The mob raised a ladder, broke an upstairs window, captured Malcolm, threw him in a cart and carted him to the Customs House on Kings Street where he was tarred and feathered.

The tar was heated until it was thin. Although it was “one of the coldest nights” of the winter, so cold that Boston Harbor had frozen, the poor man was stripped naked. The tar was applied to his flesh with a tar brush, after which he was doused with feathers while the tar was still warm.

Malcolm was paraded around the crowded streets with his neck in a halter and was finally taken to the Liberty Tree, where he refused to resign his royal position or to curse the royal governor, Thomas Hutchinson. The crowd then set off for the gallows on Boston Neck. On the way Malcolm complained he was thirsty. He was given a bowl of tea and ordered to drink to the “king’s health.” He was then told to drink to the “queen’s health.” Then two more quarts of tea were produced and Malcolm was commanded to drink to the health of a number of the members of the royal family.

“For God’s sake, be merciful, I’m ready to burst. If I drink a drop more, I shall die.” Malcolm implored. “Suppose you do, you die in a good cause, and it is as well to be drowned as hanged,” was the reply.

Nine more drinks to “good health” were forced down Malcolm’s throat. He turned pale, shook his head and instantly threw up in the bowl which had just been emptied. Shouts from the crowd could be heard, “What are you sick of, the royal family?”

At the gallows the noose was placed in position around Malcolm’s neck. With the threat of being hanged he gave in and cursed the governor. The stubborn, brave man was further carted around the town, made to repeat various humiliating oaths, and finally deposited back at his home just before midnight, half frozen, an arm dislocated and “in a most miserable position, deprived of his senses.”

The frost and tar caused an infection that made his skin peel extensively. However, he preserved a piece of skin with the tar and feathers still adhering, which he carried to England as proof of his sufferings when, somewhat recovered, he set sail in May to try to gain compensation for his loyalty.