ho demand that the effigies be cut down. Guarding the effigies were men from the Northend. As the crowd grew, the magistrates retreated. The effigy of stamp master Oliver was then cut down by men from the Southend and paraded around town on a bier.
The mass demonstration ended up at a new building being erected by Oliver that many supposed would be used as a stamp office. In destroying Oliver's building, the symbolic actions of the crowd were transformed into direct action with symbolic meaning: "By using his property--and increasing it in the process--to deprive others of some of their property and thereby of their liberty, Oliver violated the social responsibility to the community that was inherent in property ownership" (Hoerder 99).
From there, the crowd's wrath turned to Oliver's private house. They broke windows and railings, forced their way in and searched for Oliver. Oliver was not there, but his friends were. The crowd did not injure them because their target again was the wealth that symbolized their ow
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