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Stamp Act Dbq

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The stamp act was a British tax enacted on the colonies by the parliament in 1765. The act taxed all paper items from important legal documents to playing cards and the stamp prices would vary by a the type and content of paper. People would have to pay the stamp distributor for their paper which was so crucial to the British government that counterfeiting stamps was punishable by death. The act was passed to pay for the French- Indian war. And although the intentions were good there was an uproar of mixed reactions all over America. The general public opposed the act and acted in violent matters and even burned one stamp distributors house down. The richer public would say that they were against those "barbaric ways" and would petition the government instead , but their outcries were ignored. The stamp collector's also …show more content…

But through all these negative reactions the anger wasn't really because of the stamp act but it was more of the way it was placed. Colonial families reacted differently to the stamp act; Poorer families would react more violently to the act while richer families would react in more peaceful ways. The commoners were probably the most violent group when it came to rebelling against the stamp act. Because they only made average income so paying the stamp tax was a big price for them and for something as simple as paper! They would hang effigies of and threaten stamp collectors. They thought that getting stamp collectors to resign would have the stamp act head to a halt. So when threats wouldn't work they turned to more violent ways of getting their way. They began to physically

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