700. The Liberty Tree: One of America's First Symbol of Freedom

Hello everybody, welcome back to another episode of The Way the World Works. Today I want to talk to you about one of my favorite revolutionary era poems, written by one of my favorite revolutionary writers, so these are two of my favorite things. The poem is called The Liberty Tree, and it was written by Thomas Paine in 1775. Now if you're a frequent listener of the show and a reader of the titled one's books, which of course you are, then you're familiar with the name Thomas Paine, but you probably know

him most from his pamphlet Common Sense, which at one point of time is going to be the second most read thing after the Bible in the American colony, so it's huge, and it's going to have a major impact on how people view the crisis with Britain. So before I read the poem, I just want to give a little bit of background information, and that is that if you don't remember, Thomas Paine comes to America in 1774 from Britain, and you might be thinking that is not the kind of person you think who would be a die-hard

revolutionary, but Thomas Paine was close with a man named John Wilkes, and we're going to do a whole separate episode on him because I find him fascinating, but he is part of the British government, actually a parliament, but he supports some things that are going on in America, and so he's going to teach Thomas Paine about this stuff, and so when Thomas Paine comes to America, he's already got these ideas of liberty in his head. So the Liberty Tree, well first I'm going to read you the poem, and then we're going

to talk about what it means and why it's important, but I want you to not focus so much on, yes, some of these words might be a little, they might sound a little complex to you because this was written in the 18th century, they use different words. So while I read it, just kind of sit back, take it in, don't worry about not understanding every word, just just listen to the poem being read, and then we'll discuss it. So here is a reading of the Liberty Tree by Thomas Paine.

In a chariot of light from the regions of the day, the goddess of Liberty came. Ten thousand celestials directed the way, and hither conducted the dame. A fair-butting branch from the gardens above where millions and millions agree. She brought in her hand as a pledge of her love and the plant she named Liberty Tree. The celestial exotic struck deep in the ground, like a native it flourished and bore. The fame of its fruit drew the nations around to seek out this peaceable shore.

Unmindful of names or distinctions they came, for freemen like brothers agree. With one spirit in dude, they won friendship pursued and their temple was Liberty Tree. Beneath this fair tree, like the patriarchs of old, their bread in contentment they ate. Unvexed with the troubles of silver and gold, the cares of the grand and the great. With timber and tar they old England supplied and supported her power on the sea. Her battles they fought without getting a groat for the honor of Liberty Tree.

But here ye o' Swain's tis a tale most profane. How all the tyrannical powers. King's commons and lords are you writing a mane to cut down this guardian of ours. From the east to the west blow the trumpet to arms, through the land let the sound of it flee. But the far and the near all unite with a cheer in defense of our Liberty Tree.

Isn't that a fun poem? I love the last part specifically, but let's get into this a little bit more. So we already know Thomas Paine wrote it in 1775 and that's going to be before common sense comes out. So you have to remember that at this time, Thomas Paine is not a household name yet. No one really knows who he is.

He's just a new immigrant, working as a writer and an editor and just trying to get by. So he writes this poem, but it's not some abstract poem about this tree he made up in his mind. There is an actual Liberty Tree. It is an elm tree and it's in Boston and it became very important to the events leading up to the revolution.

Now in other episodes, we talked about the acts that happened, you know, like the Stamp Act, the Sugar Act that led to the revolution. So after the Stamp Act is written, and if you remember, that was the rule that put a tax on basically everything from paper to printed goods and it required that you had a stamp on these things so that you knew you paid the tax on it, this is going to be really outraging the colonists, especially in Boston.

And so there was this tree that they deemed, you know, the Liberty Tree and this is where people are going to gather to protest. So the tree itself is going to become a symbol for freedom and it's going to become very important because that's where people are going to gather to protest what they perceive as England stepping on their freedom. Now what is a symbol and why is it important?

Obviously, the ideas are what matter, right? But you can't touch an idea, it's not tangible, right? You can't hug an idea, but you can touch, you can see a symbol. And so symbols become really important because of the ideas that they represent, right? The symbol itself, the tree, isn't a matter of life or death to the cause of Liberty. It's the idea that it represents, but that helps motivate people, helps give them power.

That's kind of a concept behind flags, right? A flag itself, that's just a piece of cloth, but a flag represents something else. And so when people are carrying it in battle or they're waving it, it's supposed to be a reminder of the things that the thing you're fighting for represents. So if you're fighting for freedom, what does it represent? And then you can look to that tree or that flag.

And so Liberty Tree, this very real tree is going to become a symbol for freedom, for defiance against what the British are doing by cutting off the colonists' rights. But the tree itself is a really interesting symbol that they chose, right? Because think about it, trees start as a seed, right? And then they get their roots planted and they start small and they grow and they grow and they grow and they can last for generations, right?

And they can shade people, they can provide shelter, they can be a gathering place. And so there's a lot of symbols with trees specifically that made the Liberty Tree the ideal stand in, right, for this idea of liberty and uniting the colonists together. Now, in the beginning of the poem, we talk about how the goddess of Liberty brought this branch of the Liberty Tree to the people. Now obviously, this is supposed to be like a story.

The goddess of Liberty is supposed to be this representation of freedom, of this stand-in person who is helping to protect the people with freedom. And she's going to bring the branch of Liberty. And so by talking about this, by talking about us planting this idea in the soil and watching it grow, that's really important because the revolution hasn't started yet. So what Payne is really saying is this cause of freedom, this love of Liberty, it was already

in our soil. It was already in our roots, right? It's part of who we are. And so it wasn't something that began later on. It's not something we decided we needed. It wasn't a right given to us by government that the concept of Liberty was felt in the

colonies that it was God given that all we had to do was be born to get it. And so that's really powerful, right? He's literally saying this idea of Liberty is in our soil, which is so appropriate for Boston, right? Because we often think of Boston as the hotspot for where the revolution was born. Now, then you have the stands of the passage of this poem that talks about people trying

to cut down the Liberty Tree. And what is that saying? That's representation of the Brits trying to slice our Liberty, trying to kill our Liberty, trying to cut it down. But here's the really interesting part about this. When pain is writing this poem, it's 1775, but there is an important distinction in like

the months that it was written because when it was written, the Liberty Tree was still there. But later on in that same year, the Brits are going to come around and cut down the trees, things start heating up between them and the colonists. So the Liberty Tree being cut down was a metaphor here in Payne's poem, but it's actually going to happen. And guess what?

When it did happen, Britain was thinking that they were going to show us like, you better obey or else. We're going to cut down your symbol. You guys better get in line in an obey and guess what happened? That had the opposite effect because this was such a powerful symbol, because it meant so much to the people of Boston, that just made them more angry.

That just made them more steadfast in their belief that Liberty was the most important thing. And so it's interesting because Payne talks about the symbolism here of what would happen if they did cut it down, and then they really ended up cutting it down later on. And it proved to be kind of a mistake on the end of the Brits because it did not make us fall online, right? It made the colonists even more angry.

But here's the thing, a tree can be cut down. That symbol can be destroyed. But what does that mean? Does that mean the ideas destroyed? No, because ideas are bulletproof. Ideas can't be killed, right?

A symbol, that stand in, yes, that can be. And it's good that we have those tangible things to remind us of these ideas. But that is what makes ideas and words so powerful is they cannot be killed. They cannot be stuffed down unless the people fail to remember them. And so Liberty Tree itself, yes, just a symbol, but it being cut down, that's just reminding the colonists how much more they have to fight, and that it's not dead.

Freedom isn't dead. Freedom is now, you know, it's more important than ever to keep it alive. And so the fact that his poem is almost reflecting what's going on in real life and just kind of showing what the symbolism is and all of it is so important. And I think that's what makes the poem so beautiful. Just a few months after Liberty Tree is written, Thomas Paine is going to go on to write common

sense. And he's just going to, you know, shoot up in popularity. Now Thomas Paine is going to be such a gifted writer and so good at capturing just emotion and rousing the people to want to defend Liberty. But there were several points, actually, I just finished writing a book on George Washington, where George Washington was very supportive of Thomas Paine receiving some sort of money

or holding a position in the government because he was so integral. He had played such an important role in spreading the spirit of Liberty. And it's interesting to hear George Washington say that because I think we've talked about this before, but George Washington was not known particularly as being an intellectual. He was not the ideas man. He was literally the action man is as a military man.

But he admired those who did have this intellectual capacity. That's why he admired to appoint Jefferson, though they kind of had some some some guff later with each other. But he really admired Thomas Paine in his use of words. And I couldn't agree more. I think Thomas Paine just so perfectly and poetically captures the spirit of the revolution.

And again, how funny for it to come from somebody who would just move from Britain. And I think that also teaches us another important lesson, which is that these ideals, these rights and liberties that we were trying to defend were actually of the old English tradition. It wasn't something new. We were just saying, hey, to, you know, the king, why don't you stand up for these things that have already been a part of the British Constitution for so long?

So that's a really interesting point too. And it also reminds us how many different ways Liberty has to be fought for, right? You had George Washington fighting the military fight, but then you had people like, you know, Jefferson, who were these intellectual fighters and then you had people like Paine who were, you heard about people who work in communications, that's their job to like write and to and to communicate ideas, Thomas Paine, it was one of the first American communicators

really because he was so good at using his words to invoke emotions inside of people and to show them what was at stake. And remember, we've talked about this over and over and we learned through storytelling. We learned through symbols, but it was a very real tree. It was a very real symbol for an idea that was so powerful. And again, that it was in Boston, I think is even more poetic because of the important

role that Boston played in the revolution. So I encourage you to go back as a family and read the poem again and maybe take some time to really go through each stanza and discuss what it means. This is a really good episode to get you started on that. I know a lot of families like to read the Declaration on the 4th of July, but it might be fun to supplement it with also some, some body of work like this.

Maybe it's the Liberty Tree. Maybe it's a common sense that's going to be a longer reading, but still. So there's a lot of really good just poetry and documents and even plays. We talked about Mercy Otis Warren. She was a playwright who wrote plays about the revolution. There's so many good things.

So just a little challenge maybe to start a new tradition with your family. I will leave it there. As always, don't forget to like and subscribe to the podcast. And until next time, guys, I will talk to you later.