More than 200 years ago, a group of British colonists in America decided that the conditions under which they were governed had become intolerable. Angry and frustrated that King George III and the British Parliament ignored their lawful complaints and petitions, they decided it was time to take action.

Knowing that their deeds --- often directed at individuals and property --- were illegal, and punishable by imprisonment and even death, these agitators plotted and conducted their missions in secret to protect their identites as well as those who supported them. Calling themselves the Sons of Liberty, they gathered together in a radical society committed to imposing forcible change. Determined men, including cousins Samuel and John Adams, Paul Revere, Patrick Henry, and John Hancock, saw themselves as patriots. Yet to the crown --- and many of their fellow colonists --- these men were terrorists whose treason deserved death.

In this gripping narrative, Les Strandiford reveals how this group of intelligent, committed men, motivated by economics and political belief, began a careful campaign of interlocking events that would channel feelings of vague injustice into an armed rebellion of common cause that would defeat an empire.