The Stamp Act

The 1700s was a period where Britain was a great leader in the world. This came with lots of triumphs as well as difficulties. By 1764 England had a debt of about £129,586,789 due to wars which cause great expenses. England was spending money irresponsibly on things that could even be considered as unnecessary. They were maintaining expensive lifestyles on Governors living in America, building forts homes and paying salaries and security in the colonies.The British wanted to keep their territories protected so they payed for constant security to guard their colonies safely. This generated lots of debts for the country and a solution had to be found for the colonies and England to survive. From the British point of view, they were the ones who founded the colonies in the first place and they believed they deserved total control over the colonies. This led to the decision that would help England's economy but affect the colonists. Parliament came up with the idea of the Stamp Act. Governor George Grenville was in charge of creating the 55 resolves that the law was based on. This consisted on taxing the colonists for everything that was to be printed. This included newspapers, letters, documents and all types of printed things. Depending on the importance of the document there was a price for the tax that had to be payed. The act was passed on February 17, approved on March 8 and set to take place on November 1 of 1765. This would help England by generating income on an everyday basis. Naturally, people rebelled against this law and did everything they could to stop it. Different types of protests began such as Intellectual Protests, Economic Boycotts and Violent Intimidations. The Intellectual Protests included the Virginia resolves, created by  patrick Henry, where he argued that only the Colonial Assemblies had the right to tax the colonists. The House of Burgesses agreed on most of it but not the radical resolves. The Economic Boycott was one of the strongest types of protests. the colonists had decided to boycott all goods coming from Britain. This affected the British economy greatly since the constant flow of money was beginning to stop. Tarring and feathering was one of the Violent Intimidations where tax collectors where tortured by protesting colonists. Eventually tax collectors ceased to do their job because of fear of torturing on behalf of the angry colonists.    Colonists were extremely upset because they had no representation in Parliament. They argued the fact that they were not being governed by the people that they wanted. The colonists wanted to have control over the land that they lived in and this is one of the reasons that the American Revolution began.