This week on Dave Does History on Bill Mick Live, we peel back the glossy myths of patriotism and peered into the grit and grime of liberty’s earliest champions: the Sons of Liberty. You’ve heard the name, you’ve probably imagined tricorn hats and righteous speeches. But what if the revolution’s first sparks looked less like a powdered wig convention and more like a gangland turf war?
That’s exactly what Dave unpacks in this eye-opening episode, tracing the roots of the Sons of Liberty not to the hallowed halls of political theory, but to the brawling streets of 1760s Boston. At the heart of the chaos was Pope Night—a bizarre blend of anti-Catholic rage and class warfare, where rival gangs (yes, literal gangs) clashed over the “honor” of burning effigies. It wasn’t noble. It wasn’t orderly. But it was tradition, and in Boston, tradition meant sanctioned mayhem.
Enter Ebenezer Mackintosh, the South Side gang boss turned revolutionary firebrand, and the Loyal Nine, a shadowy group of Boston elites with a knack for spin and a taste for strategic anarchy. Together, they took the raw energy of street violence and weaponized it into a political movement. Dave shows how these unlikely collaborators forged the early resistance to the Stamp Act, built coalitions with the help of Sam Adams (less beer, more brains), and laid the groundwork for organized rebellion.
But this isn’t a sanitized tale. Dave doesn’t shy away from the uncomfortable truth that the Sons of Liberty used intimidation, racial animus (especially toward Scottish loyalists), and outright destruction to push their agenda. Was it mob rule or liberty’s last, best hope? That question lingers—and rightfully so.
In classic Dave Does History fashion, this episode brings the fire and the nuance. It challenges us to reconsider our historical heroes, not as marble statues, but as complex, flawed people who built a nation amid blood, smoke, and burning effigies.
If you think the revolution started with Jefferson’s pen, this hour will make you rethink everything. Listen now to “The Sons of Liberty” and find out what really happened when rebellion wore gang colors and carried torches through Boston’s streets.
DAVE DOES HISTORY 
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