The Société des Fils de la Liberté (, ''Society of the Sons of Liberty'') was a paramilitary organization founded in August 1837 in

Lower Canada The Province of Lower Canada (french: province du Bas-Canada) was a British colony on the lower Saint Lawrence River and the shores of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence (1791–1841). It covered the southern portion of the current Province of Quebec an ...

(modern-day

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

History

The society was founded by young supporters of the

Parti patriote The Parti canadien () or Parti patriote () was a primarily francophone political party in what is now Quebec founded by members of the liberal elite of Lower Canada at the beginning of the 19th century. Its members were made up of liberal prof ...

who became impatient with the pace of progress of the movement for constitutional and parliamentary reforms. One of the principal founder was young

Amédée Papineau Louis-Joseph-Amédée Papineau, or Amédée Papineau (1819–1903) was a writer and Québecois patriot and present at the meeting at which the was founded. He was the eldest son of Louis-Joseph Papineau, a leader in the Rebellions of 1837, Rebe ...

, the son of the famous politician

Louis-Joseph Papineau Louis-Joseph Papineau (October 7, 1786 – September 23, 1871), born in Montreal, Quebec, was a politician, lawyer, and the landlord of the ''seigneurie de la Petite-Nation''. He was the leader of the reformist Patriote movement before the Low ...

. The organization took its name from the American

Sons of Liberty The Sons of Liberty was a loosely organized, clandestine, sometimes violent, political organization active in the Thirteen American Colonies founded to advance the rights of the colonists and to fight taxation by the British government. It pl ...

founded by

Samuel Adams Samuel Adams ( – October 2, 1803) was an American statesman, political philosopher, and a Founding Father of the United States. He was a politician in colonial Massachusetts, a leader of the movement that became the American Revolution, an ...

during the

American Revolution The American Revolution was an ideological and political revolution that occurred in British America between 1765 and 1791. The Americans in the Thirteen Colonies formed independent states that defeated the British in the American Revolut ...

. The Société des Fils de la Liberté held its first public assembly on September 5 and began to recruit men to form militias. A public assembly was held every Monday after its foundation. It published a manifesto on October 4 and adopted a national anthem for Canada. The organization had two sections: a civil one, led by André Ouimet,

and

Edmund Bailey O'Callaghan Edmund Bailey O'Callaghan, (probably 27 February 1797 – 29 May 1880) was a doctor and journalist. Career Born in Mallow, County Cork, Ireland, he studied medicine in Paris and immigrated to Lower Canada in 1823 where he became involved ...

and a military one, led by

Thomas Storrow Brown Thomas Storrow Brown (July 7, 1803 – November 26, 1888) was a Canadian journalist, writer, orator, and revolutionary in Lower Canada (present-day Quebec). Biography Born in St. Andrews, New Brunswick, the son of Henry Barlow Brown and R ...

came up with the motto of the société ''En avant'' (French for "go forward"). Various organizations had already been formed who pressured the Governor

Lord Gosford Earl of Gosford is a title in the Peerage of Ireland. It was created in 1806 for Arthur Acheson, 2nd Viscount Gosford. The Acheson family descends from the Scottish statesman Sir Archibald Acheson, 1st Baronet of Edinburgh, who later settled ...

to act and quell the upcoming rebellion before lives were lost and property destroyed. At the

Assemblée des Six-Comtés The Assembly of the Six Counties (french: Assemblée des six-comtés) was an assembly of Patriote leaders and approximately 6,000 followers held in Saint-Charles, Lower Canada (present-day Quebec) on October 23 and October 24, 1837, despite t ...

, on October 23, those in attendance sanctioned the Société des Fils de la Liberté. However, the organization disappeared shortly after the confrontation with the

Doric Club The Doric Club was an association of Loyals set up in Lower Canada by Adam Thom, a lawyer and journalist, in March 1836. A noted opponent of the Patriotes, the group was both a social club and a paramilitary organization. It was used as the ar ...

on November 6. Following the November 16 order to arrest 26 Patriote leaders on charges of sedition, including Papineau, O'Callaghan, Brown and Ouimet, many members of the Société des Fils de la Liberté took part in the armed conflict of 1837 and the two invasion attempts of 1838.

Footnotes

External links

Manifesto of the Fils de la liberté
(in French)
Manifesto of the Fils de la liberté
(Unofficial English translation) {{DEFAULTSORT:Societe des Fils de la Liberte Military history of Quebec Lower Canada Rebellion Patriote movement Paramilitary organizations based in Canada 1837 establishments in Lower Canada Military units and formations established in 1837

History

See also

Footnotes

Further reading

External links