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Causes Of The Stamp Act Of 1765

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The British enforced the 1765 Stamp Act on March 22, 1765. They did this because they were hoping to raise enough funds to defend the big new American territories won from the French in the Seven Years’ War. It said they were forced to pay a tax on every single piece of printed material such as newspapers, magazines, legal documents, playing cards, diplomas, and legal documents. It was called the Stamp Act because the colonies were supposed to buy paper from Britain that had an official stamp on it that showed they had paid the tax. The French and Indian War was fought between the British American colonies and the French, who had allied with the American Indians. It lasted from 1754 to 1763. The American colonies eventually won the war, but …show more content…
They called this "taxation without representation". The colonies reacted in protest. They refused to pay the tax. The tax collectors were threatened or made to quit their jobs. They even burned the stamped paper in the streets. The colonies also boycotted British products and merchants. The American colonies felt so strongly against the Stamp Act that they called a meeting of all the colonies. It was called the Stamp Act Congress. Representatives from the colonies gathered together in New York City from October 7 to October 25 in 1765. They prepared a unified protest of the Stamp Act to Britain. In 1764, the British ministry announced plans to institute a stamp tax, to go into effect on November 1, 1765, to make the colonists pay part of the cost of stationing British troops in America. In December 1765, John Adams (1735-1826), who would later become the second president of the United States, wrote that this had "been the most remarkable year of my life." The Stamp Act, "that enormous engine...for battering down all the rights and liberties of America," had raised a spirit of resistance throughout mainland British North America. The Stamp Act was repelled in 1766. The Parliament repealed the Stamp

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