The Alternative of WIlliams-Burg

Attributed to Philip Dawe British
Publisher R. Sayer and J. Bennett British

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This political satire published in London shows rough looking "Sons of Liberty" at Williamsburg, Virginia urging planters to sign a pledge of loyalty to anti-British actions passed by the Continental Congress. After the Boston Tea party of December 1773, the British parliament passed the "Intolerable Acts" that imposed further duties on their American colonies. In August 1774 the Williamsburg Resolutions were issued in response and local planters were pressured to stop exporting tobacco until the new taxes are repealed. Those reluctant to do so are here threatened with being tarred and feathered, with those elements hanging from a gibbet in the background.

The Alternative of WIlliams-Burg, Attributed to Philip Dawe (British, 1745?–?1809), Mezzotint

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