Stamp Act Of 1765 Dbq Analysis

Despite the British parliament passing and imposing various laws including The Sugar Act of 1764, they continued to impose The Stamp Act the same year on the Americans in order to make them pay part of the cost of stationing their soldiers on their land. This form of taxation involved

The Stamp Act of 1765 required people to pay taxes for a stamp on court documents, publications, and land. Britain passed this law because they had recently lost all of their money in the French and Indian War. American colonists organized boycotts and protests against this tax to get it repealed, and it took a little bit of time, but eventually the British repealed the tax in 1766. (Doc. 3)

The Stamp Act of 1765 was issued on Match March 22, 1765, by British parliament and Prime Minister George Grenville. After the French and Indian War, Britain had to figure out a way to pay for the debt created from the war. Prime Minister Grenville decided that since the American colonists were the least taxed in the empire, they should increase their taxes.

Comment Powered by Hannah Johns The Stamp Act required that British Colonists pay a tax in the form of a stamp on all printed materials such as; land titles, licenses, playing cards, court documents, newspapers and more. It was the idea of George Grenville in an attempt to raise a revenue from the colonies and it became an incredibly hated tax by the colonists; one in which they would protest in extreme measures such as, tarring and feathering tax collectors, forming mobs and rioting in the streets. Acts such as the Currency Act and Sugar Act were passed by parliament at the request of Grenville and were met with some resistance but not measured by the same degree as the Stamp Act. (power point 4) (pg. 207) In

Patrick Henry had once said, “Is life so dear or peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and Slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty, or give me death!” In the 1760’s the British Parliament created the Stamp Act for the British Colonies.

The French and Indian War in 1754, left the British government in large debts. The war was known as the French and Indian War because thousands of Native Americans fought alongside the French. The British won the war thanks partly to the Americans, while they took over most of France’s northern territory. By 1764 the British had accumulated a national debt of 130 million pounds. The British decided, as a result of the debts, that they will take the people of the British colonies. This occurrence the Stamp Act. The Stamp Act wa a law that required all people that lived in the colonies, to pay a stamp tax on practically everything that was printed on paper including legal documents, bills of sale, contracts, wills, advertising, pamphlets, almanacs,

Parliament decided that the colonies should help pay towards the cost of the recent war debt and for future defense. The first step towards this was the Revenue Act of 1764, generally referred to as the Sugar Act. The Sugar Act was also known as “an Act with Teeth,”(Mass Historical Society) symbolizing that it was an act with depth or of importance. The Act itself was divided into two sections. First, it was intended to raise money from trade between the British colonies in America. It levied import duties on a list of raw materials including: sugar, coffee, indigo, wine, rum, lumber, and various cloths. The Sugar Act made the Molasses Act of 1733 perpetual. Although it cut the tax on molasses in half, from sixpence to threepence per gallon, to discourage smuggling and to make the tax attractive. Second, the Act revamped and reinvigorated the customs service, which managed the collection of these import duties. For the first time, colonists argued that Parliament was depriving them of a fundamental constitutional right to have these goods duty free.

The Townshend Act was passed on 2nd July 1776. The act involved a series of acts that imposed duties on paper, glass, lead, paints and all tea imported into the colonies. The series of measures were introduced by the Exchequer Charles Townshend into the English Parliament. Although many Americans viewed the extra taxation as slavery and abuse of power, its initiator, Mr. Townshend hoped the act would provide money for imperial expenses in the colonies. The act eventually lead to imports from America being limited. After the many complaints and dissatisfaction from the American, the English Parliament finally amended the act in 1770. All duties were scrapped except the tax on tea. This was the last harassment that

One of the acts was the stamp act. This was a way to force the colonies to help pay off the war debt. The British pushed the Stamp Act through Parliament in March 1765. This act required Americans to buy paper, newspapers, playing cards, and legal documents such as wills and a marriage license strictly from

The passing of a series of laws regulating trade and tax, most notably the Sugar Act (1764), the Stamp Act (1765), and the Tea Act (1773) increased tension between Great Britain and its colonies in the period 1763-1776. Near the end of the French and Indian War, Great Britain was in desperate need of money to pay for their war debts. The British Parliament believed that they had a right to tax their colonies. Their legislations placed duties on certain imports that had never been taxed before. By the end of 1764, tensions heightened between colonists and imperial officials as they were disagreeing more and more about how the colonies should be taxed and governed. These feelings of dissatisfaction would soon swell into rebellion, leading to the American Revolution.

Beginning in 1764, Great Britain began passing acts to exert greater control over the American colonies. The Sugar Act was passed to increase duties on foreign sugar imported from the West Indies. A Currency Act was also passed to ban the colonies from issuing paper bills or bills of credit because of the belief that the colonial currency had devalued the British money. Further, in order to continue to support the British soldiers left in America after the war, Great Britain passed the Quartering Act in 1765. This ordered colonists to house and feed British soldiers if there was not enough room for them in the colonist’s homes. An important piece of legislation that really upset the colonists was the Stamp Act passed in 1765. This required stamps to be purchased or included on many different items and documents such as playing cards, legal papers, newspapers, and more. This was the first direct tax that Britain had imposed on the colonists. Events began to escalate with passage of the Townshend Acts in 1767. These taxes were created to help colonial officials become independent of the colonists by providing them with a source of income. This act led to clashes between British troops and colonists, causing the infamous Boston Massacre. These unjust requests and increasing tensions all led up to the colonist’s declaration as well as the Revolutionary War.

The British government’s legislation to increase revenue continued beyond the Revenue and Currency Acts. In 1765 the Quartering Act and Stamp Act were enacted. The Quartering Act required colonists to house troops who were stationed in their vicinity. The British reasoned that this would help with the cost of keeping British troops in America. To further boost England’s suffering economy, the Stamp Act was made effective putting tax on paper goods such as legal documents, newspapers, almanacs, playing cards, college diplomas, etc. Violators of the Stamp Act, like the Revenue Act, were tried in admiralty courts.

To pay for soldiers, which cost about 320,000 pounds a year. They imposed the Sugar Act in the colonies in 1764, to collect taxes on imported molasses. In fact, the Sugar Act lowered the tax on imported sugar from six pence a gallon to three pence. However, the taxes were actually being collected as opposed to when they were not under salutary neglect, which upset the colonists. To get out of paying the taxes, colonists began to smuggle the sugar. And in response to the smuggling, the British gave its Navy more power to capture merchant vessels. To supply the Navy with even more power, the British also passed the Stamp Act. The Stamp Act required that all legal documents in the colonies bear a tax stamp that could only be purchased from official tax collectors. The colonists were furious, however England was open to new ideas and solutions. Prime Minister George Grenville, the author of the Stamp Act said, “I am not set upon this tax, If the Americans dislike it and prefer any other method of raising the money themselves and if they choose any other mode I shall be satisfied, provided the money be raised.” England was more than happy to change the tax, as long as the colonists could come up with another way to pay revenue. After all the taxes were the colonists responsibility as colonies and for their part in the war debts.

Parliament imposed the Townshend Act, which raised taxes on imported goods. According to John Dickinson, Parliament was justified in imposing the Stamp Act on the colonies. “Never did the British parliament, [until the passage of the Stamp Act] think of imposing duties in America for the purpose of raising a revenue” (Doc2).

These acts had been around for a long time and caused little problems. They often benefited from these acts because although they had to buy from England, it was the most advanced industrial country and could often offer the best prices. The first tax to cause trouble in the colonies was the Sugar Act followed closely by the Stamp Act. The Sugar Act was truly just a restatement of old customs laws in an effort to raise money. The Stamp Act was a tax in which anything formally written or printed would have to be on specially stamped paper which was shipped from London. The colonists would soon pay taxes "at every stage of a lawsuit, that diplomas and deeds, almanacs and advertisements, bills and bonds, customs papers and newspapers, even dice and cards, would all be charged," (Morgan 19). The colonists reacted very violently to these taxes. They protested and boycotted throughout the nation and the British Parliament soon repealed the tax. Radicals began to proclaim the fact that there should be no taxation without representation. This meant that colonists should be represented in Parliament if they were going to be taxed by them. The British stated that every member of the Parliament was there to represent the whole Empire, not just the electors he represented. Therefore, the Americans would have no representation in Parliament. In 1773 the British decided to tax tea. They granted the British East India Company to ship their goods