Definition
Parliament passed the Stamp Act on March 22, 1765, at George Grenville's urging, and it was to take effect on November 1. It required revenue stamps on almost every kind of printed paper, including newspapers, pamphlets, wills, licenses, and college diplomas, and even on playing cards and dice. It was the first direct tax Parliament laid on the colonists, and the money was meant to help pay for British troops in America. Colonists answered with the Virginia Resolves, crowd actions by the Sons of Liberty, the Stamp Act Congress in October 1765, and boycotts of British goods, and Parliament repealed the act on March 18, 1766, passing the Declaratory Act the same day.
Why it matters on the AP exam
The Stamp Act turned scattered complaints into organized resistance, built on the claim that only colonists' own assemblies could tax them. The tax fell hardest on printers, lawyers, and merchants, the colonists best placed to spread protest, and crowds forced stamp distributors to resign, so the act could not be enforced in most colonies. Nine colonies met in the Stamp Act Congress, their first joint stand against Parliament, and the boycotts turned British merchants into lobbyists for repeal. Prompts ask students to explain the colonial response, to compare it with reactions to the Sugar Act and the Townshend duties, and to explain why Parliament repealed the tax yet kept its claim to power in the Declaratory Act.
In the sources
“They will not find a rebellion; they may indeed make one.”
Connections
- Sugar Act: Parliament's earlier revenue law, passed in 1764
- Sons of Liberty: their crowds forced stamp distributors to resign
- Virtual representation: Britain used this argument to defend the tax
- Townshend Acts: Parliament's next revenue measure in 1767 taxed imports instead of printed paper