The Sons of Liberty

# Catalog Entry

The Sons of Liberty: The Maid of Tryon is a serialized historical romance by W. J. Hamilton, published by Beadle and Adams in 1868. Set during the American Revolutionary period in the Mohawk Valley near Schenectady, it centers on the Connor family: Edward Connor, a former English gentleman, and his five children including daughter Miriam (seventeen, noted as a regional beauty) and three sons—Dick and John, committed Sons of Liberty, and David, a loyalist serving Sir John Johnson.

The narrative opens with the arrival of an enigmatic stranger who delivers an impassioned speech against the Stamp Act, comparing submission to tyranny to spiritual damnation. When David Connor, now a lieutenant in Johnson's regiment, attempts to arrest the stranger, the stranger knocks him down. The incident provokes family conflict, with the loyalist David threatening to oppose his rebel brothers. The story explores the Revolutionary tensions that divided communities and even families during this period.