this post was submitted on 27 May 2024
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The pine tree flag has a pine tree and the words “an appeal to heaven” on it.
The phrase refers to John lockes writing where he asserted that when arbitration through laws and courts failed, the wronged parties have the right to “an appeal to heaven”, a veiled reference to violence in revolution.
The ideas was that if it gets bad enough, pull out the tool and let god figure out who’s right.
The pine tree gets a lot of attribution but the one that seems the least like bullshit is the pine tree riot, where in order to preserve British naval might the crown sent surveyors out to mark the best pine trees with a broad arrow so they could be used as masts in British ships and made it illegal to cut marked trees otherwise.
Some people cut the trees and they were found at a sawmill. The mill owners were charged and ordered to pay, and the crown bought off their lawyer so they wouldn’t be able to mount a defense.
The mill owners got a group of people together and attacked the sheriff who represented the crown while he was sleeping, beat him up, mutilated his horses and ran him out of town on them.
They were charged less than a pound each plus court costs for this. It’s famous because even though that was a decent amount of money for the time, it was just money and it meant that discontent among the colonists could be harnessed by moneyed people at no bodily cost to them.
People don’t like the pine tree riot now. It’s a pretty weird and uninspiring event unless you cast yourself in the role of a beloved local business owner.