The Stamp Act

The Stamp Act was proposed in...

March 1764

PM that introduced the Act

Grenville

British MPs voting for/against the Act

205 - 49

The Stamp Act was...

a tax that required a stamp to be affixed to anything formally written or printed in the colonies

The Stamp Act was introduced in...

February 1765

The Stamp Act took effect on...

1st November 1765

Expected revenue in first year

£60,000

Ideological debate (British view)

- equal treatment with Englishmen (UK already taxed)
- virtual representation means that colonists are represented in parliament by others
- protection for colonists should be paid for by colonists
- Englishmen also virtually represented (1/2 and all women)

Ideological debate (colonists)

- ability to tax colonists because they tax other Englishmen who cannot vote is false (Englishmen can become voters by moving or buying property unlike colonists)
- already paying mercantalist laws
- did not ask for an army (seen as oppressive)
- British fought FIW for self-interest reasoning
- no taxation without reprentation, precedent for future taxes?
- no such thing as a colonial MP, all MPs have diff interests as do not live the colonial experience
- notion of virtual representation is flawed for Englishmen

Who proposed the Virginia Resolves?

Patrick Henry

How many resolves did the House of Burgesses pass?

5 out of 7

When did the Virginian resolves happen?

30 May 1765

Resolves passed...

-colonists possessed the rights of Englishmen
-rights were guaranteed by royal charter
-colonists could only be taxed if they had proper representation
-colonists had the rights to consent to their own laws
-the House of Burgesses had the sole right to tax the Virginians

Significance of the resolves being printed in their entirety

-gave the impression that Virginia had rejected the Stamp Act and sanctioned open resistance if Britain tried to enforce it
-educated people on why the Act was problematic and turned the issue into an ideological debate, not just economic
-gave the masses the courage to take action

How many other colonial assemblies adopted their own resolutions?

8
RI called the act 'unconstitutional' and authorised the colony's officials to ignore it

Who suggested an inter-colonial meeting was needed, when and why?

Massachusetts Assembly, June 1765, to draft a set of resolutions which expressed a common colonial position

When was the Stamp Act Congress?

October 1765

How many delegates attended the Stamp Act Congress?

27 from 9 colonies

3 delegates at the Stamp Act Congress...

James Otis, John Dickinson and John Rutledge

What did the Stamp Act Congress do?

sent a petition to the King and Parliament, denouncing the stamp act as 'a manifest tendancy to subvert the rights and liberties of the colonies', the vice-admiralty courts and any Acts that restrict American commerce

Which group masterminded most of the mob action?

Sons of Liberty - led by Samuel Adams

14 August 1765

effigies of Andrew Oliver and Bute were hung from Liberty Tree
when Thomas Hutchinson ordered them to be cut down, a crowd prevented him
a mob tore down Oliver's office and home - he quickly resigned

26 August 1765

another Boston crowd damaged the house of two British individuals and Hutchinson's mansion

Success of mob action...

nullified the Act as no stamp distributors wiling to do their job meant no stamp duty
crowd action spread throughout the colonies
BUT element of class resentment and property destruction meant some of the elites disapproved

Who first agreed to the Non-Importation of British goods and when?

200 wealthy merchants in New York, October 1765

2 British MPs who spoke in Parliament against the Act

Pitt and Edmund Burke

PM that repealed the Act

Rockingham

Key ideological phrases

"no taxation without representation" "virtual representation" "rights as Englishmen"

When was Grenville replaced?

July 1765

January 1766

Commons debate

What did Benjamin Franklin suggest to Parliament?

that the colonists will pay indirect taxes not direct

March 1766

Stamp Act repealed 275 to 147
Declaratory Act - asserted that all colonies were subordinate to parliament (parliamentary sovereignity) and that Palriament had full authority to make laws 'to bind the colonies and people of America .. IN ALL CASES WHATSOEVER'

Consequences

- Americans believed that they must remain vigilant in defence of their liberties
- Crisis suggested that British authority could be defied if there was united colonial action
- Many British politicians believed they must reassert their authority over the colonies or they would become independent by default
- Turned the problems into not just economic issues but ideological too (much harder to resolve)
- BUT by 1765, the majority of Americans see the issue to be the SA not British rule (e.g. most assemblies sent letters of gratitude to the King for the repeal)

William Smith Jr. quote

'This single stroke has lost GB the affection of all her colonies'

Importance in the SA lies...

in the fact that it was a blanket tax that affected everyone, thus forcing people to confront the nature of British rule as never before.

How did historian Carol Berkin describe the SA?

'one of the dumbest political acts in the history of government'