dChan - Q Origins Project Archive

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Mechanics/Liberty Boys

The first Patriot intelligence network on record was a secret group in Boston known as the "Mechanics." Their activities in the 10 years before the outbreak of the Revolution in April 1775 included some of the earliest uses in America of warning, surveillance, and intelligence collection. One of the Mechanics was Boston silversmith Paul Revere.

The Mechanics

The Mechanics apparently grew out of the old Sons of Liberty organization that successfully opposed the hated Stamp Act, passed by Britain's Parliament as a revenue generating measure on March 22, 1765. Although the Stamp Act was repealed following Colonial protests in 1766, some Mechanics, mainly skilled laborers and artisans, continued to organize resistance to Crown authority and gather intelligence on British activities and movements.

In the words of Paul Revere, "in the fall of 1774 and winter of 1775, I was one of upwards of thirty, chiefly mechanics, who formed ourselves into a committee for the purpose of watching British soldiers and gaining every intelligence on the movements of the Tories." According to Revere, "We frequently took turns, two and two, to watch the (British) soldiers by patrolling the streets all night."

In addition to their surveillance activities, the Mechanics, also known as the Liberty Boys, sabotaged and stole British military equipment in the Boston area.

Their security practices, however, were amateurish. They met regularly in the same place (the Green Dragon Tavern), and one of their leaders (Dr. Benjamin Church) was a British agent.

Nonetheless, they had good sources of their own, and saw through the cover story the British had devised to mask the march of 700 Redcoats on Concord to seize Patriot stores of munitions and arms.