[Liberty] Tree and not tree

[Joel S. Berson]

(1)  The tree in Boston, August 14:

The elm on which Oliver's effigy was hung was referred to as a "tree"
on that very date.

Source:  Providence Gazette, Aug. 24, 1765, page [3], col. 2.  [I
have not found this explicit description of the labels in any of the
four Boston newspaper issues immediately following Aug. 14.]

Dateline:  Boston, August 19.
...
On the right Arm were the initial Letters of the Stampman's Name, (A.
O.), and on the left, these lines:
       What greater Joy can NEW-ENGLAND see,
       Than STAMPMAN hanging on a Tree!


(2)  The not tree in Newport, August 27:

Source:  Boston News-Letter, September 5, 1765, page [3] (called by
EAN "Page Supplement [2]), col. 1.

 From several Letters wrote at Newport, Rhode-Island, and from the
Newport Mercury of Monday last, we have collected the following
Particulars of the Populace there:
      Newport, September 3.
...
On Tuesday Morning the 27th, between 5 and 6 o'Clock a Mob assembled,
erected a Gallows near the Town House and dispers'd, and about 10
o'Clock reassembled, when the Effigies were carted up Thames Street,
and then up King-stgreet to the said Gallows where they were hung by
the Neck, suspended near 15 Feet in the Air, and about [5?] o'Clock
in the Afternoon they made a Fire under the Gallows which consumed
the Effigies and Gallows to Ashes.


[A gallows, not a tree, was also erected in Charlestown, S.C.,
apparently on Oct. 18, 1765.  Source:  Newport [R.I.] Mercury, Nov.
11, 1765, page [3], col. 1.]

Joel

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