An American Liberty Elm was named after the Liberty Tree, regarded as the country’s first symbol of freedom. On the morning of August 14, 1765, the people of Boston awoke to find two effigies hanging from an elm in protest of the Stamp Act, and from that day the tree became known as the Liberty Tree. It stood through countless meetings, speeches, and celebrations, served as a rallying place for the Sons of Liberty, and in August 1775 British soldiers cut it down as a last act of violence before evacuating Boston because it bore the name Liberty.