<P> Whether stimulated externally or ignited internally, ferment during the years from 1761 to 1766 changed the dynamics of social and political relations in the colonies and set in motion currents of reformist sentiment with the force of a mountain wind . Critical to this half decade was the colonial response to England's Stamp Act, more the reaction of common colonists than that of their presumed leaders . </P> <P> Both loyal supporters of English authority and well - established colonial protest leaders underestimated the self - activating capacity of ordinary colonists . By the end of 1765...people in the streets had astounded, dismayed, and frightened their social superiors . </P> <P> Early street protests were most notable in Boston . Andrew Oliver was a distributor of stamps for Massachusetts who was hanged in effigy on August 14, 1765 "from a giant elm tree at the crossing of Essex and Orange Streets in the city's South End ." Also hung was a Jack boot painted green on the bottom ("a Green - ville sole"), a pun on both Grenville and the Earl of Bute, the two people most blamed by the colonists . Lieutenant Governor Thomas Hutchinson ordered sheriff Stephen Greenleaf to take down the effigy, but he was opposed by a large crowd . All day the crowd detoured merchants on Orange Street to have their goods symbolically stamped under the elm tree, which later became known as the "Liberty Tree". </P> <P> Ebenezer MacIntosh was a veteran of the Seven Years' War and a shoemaker . One night, he led a crowd which cut down the effigy of Andrew Oliver and took it in a funeral procession to the Town House where the legislature met . From there, they went to Oliver's office--which they tore down and symbolically stamped the timbers . Next, they took the effigy to Oliver's home at the foot of Fort Hill, where they beheaded it and then burned it--along with Oliver's stable house and coach and chaise . Greenleaf and Hutchinson were stoned when they tried to stop the mob, which then looted and destroyed the contents of Oliver's house . Oliver asked to be relieved of his duties the next day . This resignation, however, was not enough . Oliver was ultimately forced by MacIntosh to be paraded through the streets and to publicly resign under the Liberty Tree . </P>

What form of protest was effective against the stamp act