Over hundred years ago — before the United States became a nation — a group of people from Weare, New Hampshire rose up in defense of their pine trees. This event has come to be called “the Pine Tree Riot.”
In the 1700s, the people of Weare, New Hampshire were hardy and self-reliant. They were pioneers who built log cabins with their own two hands and plowed their fields with wooden plows.
But from across the Atlantic Ocean came a law that forbid them from cutting down the best of their Eastern White Pines. These trees now belonged to the King — or so the King said.
For decades, the colonial men of New Hampshire ignored this thievish law. The pine trees of New Hampshire belonged to them, not to a King on the other side of the ocean. They weren’t convinced that the King had any authority over their pine trees. They cut down the trees, and they got away with it.
But fifty years after the law was enacted, a new Governor was appointed in New Hampshire. He remembered this law, and he was determined to enforce it.
Town after town surrendered to the Governor. Individual after individual surrendered to the Governor. Almost everyone surrendered to the Governor. But not the men of Weare, New Hampshire.
They refused to give in, and they formed a riot to oppose the unjust law. Although everything that was done at that riot was not admirable, the Pine Tree Riot was one of the first acts of revolt by the American colonists against British rule. It eventually led to a more just system of government on this continent.
The pine tree law, as it was enforced, was more oppressive and offensive to the citizens of New Hampshire than all the above acts combined, and contributed more to unite the yeomanry in hostility to the British government. The only reason why the “Rebellion” at Portsmouth and the “Boston tea party” are better known than our Pine Tree Riot is because they have had better historians. The bitter feeling, that grew out of these and other laws, soon culminated in the Revolution
The History of Weare New Hampshire, 1735-1888 by William Little