This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 4/18/2024
[LIBERTY POLE]. Supplement to the Providence Gazette. Attempt to cut down a liberty pole. Providence: John Carter, 10 February 1770. Vol. 8, No. 318. 2pp., small folio broadsheet (356 x 229 mm), some browning. During the American Revolution, the Liberty Pole emerged as a powerful symbol of colonial resistance against British oppression. Erected in various towns and cities, the Liberty Pole was a tall wooden mast adorned with symbols of liberty, such as banners, flags, and sometimes effigies representing grievances against British rule. These poles served as rallying points for colonists advocating for independence and became focal points for public gatherings, protests, and expressions of defiance. The Providence Gazette reports that “a number of men belonging to the 16th regiment, quartered in this city, made an attempt to cut down the Liberty Pole in the fields, by sawing off the spurs round it, and afterwards attempted to blow it up, by boring a hole in the Pole, which they filled with powder, and set fire to it.”