This was one of the first acts of forceful protest against British policies. After being fined and refusing to pay for possessing trees marked with the broad arrow, a New Hampshire mill owner leading other mill owners and townsmen assaulted the sheriff and his deputy sent to arrest him by giving him one lash with a tree switch for every tree which the mill owners were fined, cutting the ears, manes, and tails off their horses, and forced them out of town through a jeering crowd. In the Province of New Hampshire, enforcement led to the Pine Tree Riot in 1772, where a statute had been in effect since 1722 protecting 12-inch diameter trees.
Surveyors marked trees appropriated to the Crown with the broad arrow symbol, but the so-called broad-arrow policy was never effectively enforced and colonists cut mast pines for sale on the black market. Lacking domestic production of timber, and with imports from Russia and Sweden vulnerable to disruption, England included a mast-preservation clause in the 1691 Massachusetts Charter to ensure a reliable supply of 24-inch (61 cm) diameter trees for the Royal Navy. Following their 1620 arrival to Plymouth, the Pilgrims began harvesting the indigenous pines two decades later, they began exporting the wood as far as Madagascar. New England's eastern white pine was prized in the colonial shipbuilding industry for its quality and height. Leading up to the Revolutionary War, the pine tree became a symbol of colonial ire and resistance as well as multi-tribal support of independence. Ĭolonists adopted the pine as a symbol on flags and currency in the 17th century, including variants of the flag of New England and coinage produced by the Massachusetts Bay Colony from 1652 to 1682. The "tree of peace" is featured in the center of the Hiawatha Belt, the Iroquois national belt, named for the Great Peacemaker's helper, Hiawatha. After warring for decades, leaders of five nations - the Seneca, Cayuga, Onondaga, Oneida, and Mohawk - buried their weapons beneath a tree planted by the Iroquois Confederacy founder, the Great Peacemaker, at Onondaga.
The pine tree has been symbolic in New England since the late 16th century, predating the arrival of colonists.
The following summer, on July 26, 1776, the Massachusetts General Court established the flag of the state navy with a resolution that stated in part: ".that the Colours be a white Flag, with a green Pine Tree, and an Inscription, 'Appeal to Heaven'." Pine tree symbolism In a letter dated October 21, 1775, Reed suggested a "flag with a white ground and a tree in the middle, the motto AN APPEAL TO HEAVEN" be used for the ships Washington commissioned. The design of the flag came from General Washington's secretary, Colonel Joseph Reed. A modern rendition of the original 1901 Maine Flag.