Stamp Act

A stamp act is a law enacted by government that requires a tax to be paid on the transfer of certain documents. The stamp act was considered unfair by many people. Those that pay the tax receive an official stamp on their documents. The tax raised, called stamp duty, was first devised in the Netherlands in 1624 after a public competition to find a new form of tax. A variety of products have been covered by stamp acts including playing cards, patent medicines, cheques, mortgages, contracts and newspapers. The items often have to be physically stamped at approved government offices following payment of the duty, although methods involving annual payment of a fixed sum or purchase of adhesive stamps are more practical and common.

It was a tax imposed by the British Parliament on the colonies of British America. The act required that many printed materials in the colonies be produced on stamped paper produced in London and carrying an embossed revenue stamp. The purpose of the tax was to help pay for troops stationed in North America after the British victory in the Seven Years' War. The British government felt that the colonies were the primary beneficiaries of this military presence, and should pay at least a portion of the expense. The Stamp Act met with great resistance in the colonies. It was seen as a violation of the right of Englishmen to be taxed only with their consent—consent that only the colonial legislatures could grant.

Boston Tea Party

The Boston Tea Party was a direct action by colonists in Boston, a town in the British colony of Massachusetts, against the British government. On December 16, 1773, after officials in Boston refused to return three shiploads of taxed tea to Britain, a group of colonists boarded the ships and destroyed the tea by throwing it into Boston Harbor. The Tea Party was the culmination of a resistance movement throughout British America against the Tea Act, which had been passed by the British Parliament in 1773. Colonists objected to the Tea Act for a variety of reasons, especially because they believed that it violated their right to be taxed by their own representatives. Protesters had successfully prevented the unloading of taxed tea in three other colonies, but in Boston, embattled Royal Governor Thomas Hutchinson refused to allow the tea to be returned to Britain. He apparently did not expect that the protestors would choose to destroy the tea rather than concede the authority of a legislature in which they were not directly represented. The Boston Tea Party was a key event in the growth of the American Revolution. Parliament responded in 1774 with the Coercive Acts, which, among other provisions, closed Boston's commerce until the British East India Company had been repaid for the destroyed tea. Colonists in turn responded to the Coercive Acts with additional acts of protest, and by convening the First Continental Congress, which petitioned the British monarch for repeal of the acts and coordinated colonial resistance to them.

Colonial Protest Intesify

Patriot Leader Emerge

Colonists opposed Stamp Act violently, who affected all the colonists. Those who opposed British taxes called themselves Patriots. One of the leader of the Patriots was Samuel Adams.

In August 1765 a mob let by the Patriots turn down a house of a tax collector, the Massachusetts luitenant governor Thomas Hutchinson denounced this riots. He insisted they had a legal duty to pay taxes to the government. If someone supported the duty they would torture them.

Leaders Organize a Boycott

Some leaders supported the taxes but they feared the Bostonians, so they went to the Stamp Act Congress sending 9 delegates from colonies to New York. This Congress encouraged a consumer boycott to what they import from England. They also did the non importation agreement. The Parliament took the Stamp Act aware in 1766 but put a new law to have the right to levy taxes.

The Sugar, Quartering and Stamp Acts

Colonial merchants have made themselves rich by trading and importing and they didn`t pay taxes. In 1764 George Grenville proposed to inforce the law to pay taxes.

Sugar Act: Law imposed by the Parliament in which they lower the duty on molasses.

In 1765 the Quartering Act was created this act required to provide houses and supplies to the British troops.

Massachusetts Government Act: The colony of Massachusetts was no longer allowed to make its own laws.

Stamp Act: Law imposed by the Parliament in which every printed paper newspapers, books, playing cards ect...must have the stamp.

New Taxes lead to New Protests

Charles Townshend was the financial chief officer and thought the colonists would accept indirect taxes. In 1767 Townshend Acts levied taxes on everyday things on paint, glasses, lead, paper and tea. They don't want government to only obey the Parliament they wanted to obey the assembly too. The colonists insisted in that whatever that came from the Parliament the wouldn't pay.

Violence Erupts in Boston

The strongest protest happened in Boston again. A letter was published saying the duties, much of the colonist didn't pay attention until the Massachusetts Act was dissolved. John Hancock was a wealthy merchant that had a boat, the seizing of his boat triggered riots against officers.

The crown send 4000 troops to control the people in Boston. In March 1770 colonists threw snowballs and rocks to troops, the nervous soldiers killed 5 colonists.

The Continental Congress

The first continental congress meet for the first time in Philadelphia in the fall of 1774 to protest the coercive acts.
Parliaments rejected their protest, and after the battle of lexington and concord the continental congress met in Philadelphia in May 1775. It was a very important meeting because the delegates took it upon themselves to decide if they got independence from Great Britain.

On June 7, 1776, Richard Henry Lee (delegate from Virginia) offered a vote of resolution that said "That these United Colonies are, and of right to be, free independent states, that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown and that all political connection between them and the state of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved."

Taxation without Representation

By 1763, Great Britain possessed vast holdings in North America. In addition to the thirteen colonies, twenty-two smaller colonies were ruled directly by royal governors. Victory in the Seven Years' War had given Great Britain New France (Canada), Spanish Florida, and the Native American lands east of the Mississippi River. In 1765 , the colonists still considered themselves loyal subjects of the British Crown, with the same historic rights and obligations as subjects in Britain.


The British did not expect the colonies to contribute to the interest or the retirement of debt that happened during the French and Indian War, but they did expect a portion of the expenses for colonial defense to be paid by the Americans. Estimating the expenses of defending the continental colonies and the West Indies to be approximately £200,000 annually, the British goal after the end of this war was that the colonies would be taxed for £78,000 of this amount.



The point for London was that the tax demonstrated that Parliament was in full control. The issues with the colonists was not that the taxes were high (they were low) but that the colonies had no representation in the Parliament which passed the taxes.

Lord North in 1775 argued for the British position that Englishmen paid on average twenty-five shillings annually in taxes where the Americans paid only sixpence.



The slogan "No taxation without representation" became popular in many American circles. London argued that the colonists were "virtually represented"; but most Americans rejected this.