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The Société des Fils de la Liberté was a paramilitary organization founded in August of 1837 in Lower Canada (modern-day Quebec) by young supporters of the Parti patriote who became impatient with the pace of progress of the movement for constitutional and parliamentary reforms. The organization took its name from the American Sons of Liberty founded by Samuel Adams during the American Revolution.
The Fils de la liberté Society 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, lead by André Ouimet, Louis-Joseph Papineau and Edmund Bailey O'Callaghan and a military one, lead by Thomas Storrow Brown.
The various Loyalist organizations that had already been formed pressured the Governor Lord Gosford to act and quell the upcoming rebellion.
At the Assemblée des Six-Comtés, on October 23, the Patriote leaders officially approved of the Fils de la Liberté. The organization disappeared shortly after the confrontation with the Doric Club on November 6.
Following the November 16 order to arrest 26 Patriote leaders, including Papineau, O'Callaghan, Brown and Ouimet, many members of the Fils de la liberté took part of the armed conflict of 1837 and the two invasion attempts of 1838.
See also
External links
- Excerpts of the manifesto of the Fils de la liberté (http://cgi2.cvm.qc.ca/glaporte/1837.pl?out=article&pno=document51) (in French)
- Excerpts of the manifesto of the Fils de la liberté (http://english.republiquelibre.org/manifesto-fils-de-la-liberte.html) (Unofficial English translation)