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Blake's Works
The Stamp Act of Colonial America
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With the British empire in a large amount of debt, due to the seven year war and troop deployments in the colonies, the British came up with the Stamp Act to get some money from the colonies to help pay for some of the debt (The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation's). The Stamp Act was inacted in 1756 and was a tax on any printed good; all the way from deeds to cards were taxed and all coloniest were required to pay the tax(Stamp Act History.com). This Act mostly affected the wealthy in the colonies because they were the ones writting the deeds, wills, contracts, panphlets, and other printed items. It did not affect the lower class as much because they were only, if any, printing small amounts of stuff(Stamp Act Infoplease.com).
Colonists Reaction
Colonists from all walks of life hated the Stamp Act, and many politicans weighed in the biggest being Patrick Henry, who was a major player in colonial politics. Patrick Henry gave some resolutions to the Stamp Act and proposed them to the Virginia House of Burgesses. The lower class colonist, however, were not so peaceful; they protested and rioted agaisnt the Stamp Act and harrased the tax collecters; often beating them up and being dumbies of them. The boycotting and rioting finally made leyway with the Stamp Act being repealed a couple year later in 1766(The Stamp Act Crisis).
Insult to Injury
The Stamp Act lead was one of the biggest grievences, of a long list of grievences, that the colonies had listed to the English parlamint. The Stamp Act reinforced the idea to the colonists that the english didnt view them as real englishmen because they had no say in the goverment. The lack of repersentation in parlamint led a long lasting resentment till in boiled over with the American Revolution 10 years later(The Unfinished Nation).
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photo credit: http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h567.html
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