An elm tree in Boston became known as the Liberty Tree and served as a rallying point for growing resistance to British rule over the American Colonies. In 1765, after the British government imposed the Stamp Act to raise funds for protecting and administering the Colonies, Patriots in Boston staged the first public act of defiance against the British government there. The law required legal documents, permits, commercial contracts, newspapers, pamphlets, and playing cards in the Colonies to carry a tax stamp. On August 14, 1765, a crowd gathered beneath the elm to protest the act. Hanging from the tree was a straw-stuffed effigy labeled "A. O." for Andrew Oliver, the colonist chosen by King George III to implement the Stamp Act, and beside it hung a British cavalry boot with its sole painted green, representing the Earl of Bute and Lord George Grenville, who were considered responsible for the act. Inside the boot was a small devil figure holding a copy of the Stamp Act and a sign reading, "What Greater Joy did ever New England see / Than a Stampman hanging on a Tree!" This first public show of defiance against the Crown helped spawn the resistance that led to the American Revolutionary War ten years later. During the Siege of Boston, British soldiers and Loyalists cut down the tree and used it for firewood, knowing what it represented to Patriots. After the British evacuation in 1776, returning patriots erected another Liberty Pole at the site.