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If you're behind a web filter, please make sure that the domains *.kastatic.org and *.kasandbox.org are unblocked. On November 1, 1765, the hated Stamp Act authorized by King George III went into effect in the colonies, despite months of protests. The act would be quickly repealed, but it started a series of events that led to the American Revolution. The British government sought ways to raise money to support a standing army in the American colonies after the French and Indian War concluded. Nearly 10,000 British troops remained stationed on American soil after the conflict ended in 1763. In 1764, Parliament had passed the Sugar Act, which cut import taxes in half on molasses (which was used to make rum) but also contained strict measures to collect taxes that most colonists had avoided paying. There was also a draft measure circulating about a second tax that could be coming from Parliament. The debate over the Stamp Tax in early 1765 in Parliament was contentious. On the floor of Parliament, an Irishman, John Barre, deeply opposed the proposed tax on the American colonies and questioned Parliament’s motives. “As soon as you began to care about them, that care was exercised in sending persons to rule over them, in one department and another… sent to spy out their liberty, to misrepresent their actions and to prey upon them; men whose behavior on many occasions has caused the blood of these sons of liberty to recoil within them,” Barre said, coining the phrase that would be used back in the Colonies by a group of protesters. The Sons of Liberty were formed in early 1765 in Boston and New York as concerns grew among colonists about more taxes and more control by the British government. On March 22, 1765, British Parliament finally passed the Stamp Act or Duties in American Colonies Act. It required colonists to pay taxes on every page of printed paper they used. The tax also included fees for playing cards, dice, and newspapers. The reaction in the colonies was immediate. The protests were based on the legal principle that the colonial legislatures only had the power to tax residents who had representatives in those legislatures. That summer, Massachusetts called for a meeting of all the colonies – a Stamp Act Congress – to be held in New York in October 1765. Committees of Correspondence were also formed in the colonies to coordinate protests against the Stamp Act. And on August 14, 1765, outrage boiled over in Boston. Protesters organized as the “Sons of Liberty” took to the streets in a defiant act against British rule. The Sons of Liberty met under what was known as the Liberty Tree near Boston Common. Hoisted on the tree was an effigy of Andrew Oliver, the city’s stamp tax agent. Soon, a mob of several thousand people attacked Oliver’s office and his home, and the effigy was stomped, decapitated, and burned. News of the protests, the actions of the Stamp Congress, and the publication of Patrick Henry’s Virginia Resolves fueled anger across the colonies, and many colonies created their own versions of the Sons of Liberty. The Sons of Liberty would eventually include Samuel Adams, Paul Revere, Benedict Arnold, Benjamin Edes, John Hancock, Patrick Henry, James Otis, Benjamin Rush, and Oliver Wolcott. The tax did go into effect on November 1 with a general boycott underway in the Colonies against British goods. The Parliament repealed the Stamp Act the following year, facing additional pressure from British merchants who saw their sales to the Colonies plummet. But Parliament then passed the Declaratory Act, which stated its right in principle to tax the colonies as it saw fit. The conflict with the British government continued to heat up, with the Tea Party protests of 1773, the passage of the Coercive Acts in 1774, and, finally, the outbreak of fighting in Massachusetts the following year. 3. 1765-66: Stamp Act CrisisQ. If the act is not repealed, what do you think will be the consequences? A. A total loss of the respect and affection the people of America bear to this country, and of all the commerce that depends on that respect and affection. Benjamin Franklin, testimony to Parliament on the Stamp Act, February 1766 One month after Benjamin Franklin's testimony to Parliament, the Stamp Act was repealed. Exultant Americans celebrated across the colonies—church bells were rung, days of public rejoicing were held, thanksgiving sermons were delivered and widely published. Just three years earlier Americans were celebrating victory with Britain, not against Britain. Although their opposition to the Sugar and Currency Acts in 1764 had been sincere, the Stamp Act sparked the first widespread eruption of anti-British resistance. What had happened? Why had Parliament passed the tax? Why did so many Americans vociferously oppose it? How did opponents of American resistance state their positions? Where was America headed? "Until the British began to tighten the empire in the 1760s," states historian Alan Taylor, "the colonists had a very good deal—and they knew it. They resisted the new taxes in the hope that the British would back down, preserving their loose relationship with the mother country. But, of course, the British would not back down, which brought on a long and bloody war that no one really wanted."1 In these readings we view the colonists' first widespread resistance to British authority, and how they responded to their first "victory" in the revolutionary era. Why did they fail to object as sternly to the Declaratory Act, passed the same day as the Stamp Act's repeal, that reasserted Parliament's authority to "make laws . . . to bind the colonies and people of America . . . in all cases whatsoever"?
Discussion Questions
Framing Questions
PrintingParliamentary debate on the Stamp Act Supplemental SitesA Summary of the 1765 Stamp Act (Colonial Williamsburg) "The Colonies Reduced," 1767 British engraving (History Matters) The American Revolution: A Documentary History: see 1765-66 (Avalon Project, Yale Law Library)
The Coming of the American Revolution, 1764-1776 (Massachusetts Historical Society)
The American Revolution, overviews and primary sources (American Memory, Library of Congress)
AMERICAN, Pt: V of Becoming American: The British Atlantic Colonies, 1690-1763 (primary source collection, National Humanities Center)
The American Revolution, in John Bull and Uncle Sam: Four Centuries of British-American Relations (Library of Congress) The Road to Revolution (American Revolution, Digital History, Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History et al.) The Revolutionary War, primary documents (Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History) "Was the American Revolution Inevitable?," not-to-miss teachable essay by Prof. Francis D. Cogliano, University of Edinburgh (BBC) Teaching the Revolution, valuable overview essay by Prof. Carol Berkin, Baruch College (CUNY) General Online Resources 1Alan Taylor, American Colonies: The Settling of North America
(Viking/Penguin, 2001), p. 442. Images: Banner image: Americans Throwing the Cargoes of the Tea Ships into the River, at Boston, engraving (detail), in W. D. Rev. Mr. Cooper, The History of North America (London: E. Newbery, 1789). Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, LC-USZC4-538 (also Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Digital ID us0012_01). Courtesy of the Library of Congress. *PDF file - You will need software on your computer that allows you to read and print Portable Document Format (PDF) files, such as Adobe Acrobat Reader. If you do not have this software, you may download it FREE from Adobe's Web site. How did the Stamp Act lead to the American Revolution quizlet?Terms in this set (2)
How did the Stamp Act lead to the American Revolution? The issues of "taxation without representation" raised by the Stamp Act caused strain and problems in the relationships between colonies. It was so bad that ten years later the colonists rose in resistance, and went to war.
How did the Stamp Act Congress contribute to the American Revolution?The Stamp Act Congress passed a "Declaration of Rights and Grievances," which claimed that American colonists were equal to all other British citizens, protested taxation without representation, and stated that, without colonial representation in Parliament, Parliament could not tax colonists.
How did the Stamp Act and intolerable acts lead to the American Revolution?Unlike previous controversial legislation, such as the Stamp Act of 1765 and the Townshend Acts of 1767, Parliament did not repeal the Coercive Acts. Hence, Parliament's intolerable policies sowed the seeds of American rebellion and led to the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War in April 1775.
Why was the Stamp Act important to American history?The new tax required all legal documents including commercial contracts, newspapers, wills, marriage licenses, diplomas, pamphlets, and playing cards in the American colonies to carry a tax stamp. The Stamp Act was the first direct tax used by the British government to collect revenues from the colonies.
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