Stamp Act

BRITAIN'S ACTIONS

The Stamp Act was passed by the British Parliament on March 22, 1765. The new tax was imposed on all American colonists and required them to pay a tax on every piece of printed paper they used. Ship's papers, legal documents, licenses, newspapers, other publications, and even playing cards were taxed. The money collected by the Stamp Act was to be used to help pay the costs of defending and protecting the American frontier near the Appalachian Mountains.

The Stamp Act also said that colonists who disobeyed the Act would be tried in special courts, which did not have juries.

COLONISTS' REACTIONS

The Stamp Act angered the colonists, even though the actual cost of the Stamp Act was relatively small. What made the law so offensive to the colonists was not its cost, but the standard it seemed to set.

In the past, taxes and duties on colonial trade had always been viewed as measures to regulate commerce, not to raise money. The Stamp Act, however, was viewed as a direct attempt by England to raise money in the colonies without the approval of the colonial legislatures. If this new tax were allowed to pass without resistance, the colonists reasoned, the door would be open for far more troublesome taxation in the future.

Colonists therefore believed the Act took away their right to make their own laws. They also believed the Act took away their right to a jury trial.

COLONISTS' PROTESTS

Few colonists believed that they could do anything more than grumble and buy the stamps until the Virginia House of Burgesses adopted Patrick Henry's Stamp Act Resolves (a series of resolutions passed by the Virginia House of Burgesses in response to the Stamp Act). These resolves declared that Americans possessed the same rights as the English, especially the right to be taxed only by their own representatives. Colonists summed up this sentiment in the phrase, “No taxation without representation!”

Additional protests against the Stamp Act included:

Colonists calling themselves the Sons of Liberty led marches against the Act. They seized and burned the hated stamps in several cities, as well as intimidated the stamp agents who collected Parliament's taxes.
Women formed groups called the Daughters of Liberty, who called upon all women to boycott British goods.
The Stamp Act Congress convened in New York City (October 1765) by representatives of nine of the American colonies to frame resolutions of “rights and grievances” and to petition the king of England and the British Parliament for repeal of the Stamp Act. It was the first time that representatives of the colonies had gathered and acted collectively, precipitating the formation of the Continental Congress and the onset of the American Revolution.

Ultimately, Britain had no choice but to repeal the Stamp Act the following year.

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