Stamp Act History Project

This is a test

A package of five laws with the first four being passed as Britain’s response to the Boston Tea Party Protest. The Boston Port Act closed the port of Boston until the East India Tea company was repaid for the destroyed tea. Massachusetts Government Act severely restricted the authority of colonial assemblies, banned committees of correspondence […]

The Tea Act actually placed no new tax on tea (the old tax was still in effect from the Townshend Duties). Instead, it gave the East India Company a virtual monopoly on selling tea in the colonies. Interestingly one of the intentions of the act was to lower the price of tea in the colonies […]

The law was named after Charles Tonshend the Chancellor of the Exchequer. It was designed as a smarter way to raise revenue as opposite to the heavy-handed Stamp Act passed a year earlier. The new law introduced a series of duties on common imports (such as paper, paint, glass, etc.) rather than taxing income. The law […]

The legislative act that was initiated by the British prime minister George Grenville and adopted by the British Parliament with the primary goal to raise money needed for military defences of the colonies. The revenue was created by making American population to purchase stamps that became a legal requirement for all official documents, licenses, contract, […]

The first in the series of Quartering acts passed by the British parliament. The act required colonial assemblies to provide housing, food and drink to British troops stationed in their towns. This practice existed before and usually caused no resentment during war time, but after the war colonists became more reluctant. The new act went […]

The first of the Navigation Acts was passed in 1651 and existed for almost two centuries to be fully repealed in 1849. The laws were designed to protect British economic interests in colonial trade. The law essentially dictated that the British foreign trade to be carried out only by English vessels. Favorably for American colonies, […]

To be written.
George Greenville - the British Prime minister
Lord North
Charles Townshend
James Ottis
Samuel Adams
John Hancock
Sons of Liberty

The boycott of English goods by the colonies forced the British Parliament to repeal the original Stamp Act on March 18, 1766.

The original text of the 1765 Stamp Act from the British Parliamn makes an interesting read despide its lengh. For example it lists some interesting items that have become subject to the tax. “And for and upon every pack of playing cards, and all dice, which shall be sold or used within the said colonies and plantations, the several stamp duties following. For every pack of such cards, the sum of one shilling. And for every pair of such dice, the sum of ten shillings.