Essays on Stamp Act

1765

British America and the British West Indies

George Grenville

Stamp Act was an Act of the Parliament of Great Britain which imposed a direct tax on the British colonies in America to raise revenue through taxation of all colonial commercial and legal papers, newspapers, pamphlets, cards, almanacs, and dice. The act came at a time when the British Empire was deep in debt from the Seven Years' War (1756-63).

Parliament passed the Stamp Act on March 22, 1765 and repealed it in 1766. The act was passed to help replenish their finances after the costly Seven Years’ War with France. The Stamp Act was very unpopular among colonists.

The Sons of Liberty formed in the summer of 1765 to oppose the act and destroyed the stamps. Determined colonial resistance made it impossible to bring the Stamp Act into effect. In 1766, Parliament repealed it.