Boston Stamp Act

999 Words4 Pages

After the French and Indian war in 1754 England had Great War debts, to be exact 130 million pounds. In order to pay these debts England decided to tax the colonies on the goods that would presumably not anger the colonists. This tax was known as the stamp act. The goods being taxed consist of anything made of paper, playing cards and envelopes including various other items. Because the British parliament did not consult the colonies about this tax placed on paper products, the colonial families decided that they did not want to pay the tax. England would also have to deal with loads of people resigning as tax collector and when people started to boycott the goods Britain was sending over to the Americas, the trade came to a slow simmer …show more content…

The people of Boston were very angry to say the least as exhibited in the quotation above. Written for people that did not experience the Stamp Act the passage very clearly states how violently the colonists acted toward the Stamp Act. The colonists acted this way to the enforcers of the Stamp Act and tax collectors. The acting out, the break ins... and these events were not at the time just happening in Boston. All up and down the east coast colonists against the Stamp Act acted very similarly. Several accounts of these behaviors from other colonies exist and very clearly state that people more specifically colonial families were not happy about the Stamp Act and the fact that they were not consulted. This I think fueled the fire beneath the colonists. Reminded the colonists that they were not consulted on this tax would have resulted in an uproar from all around. The favored method of torture was to tar and feather tax collectors or other …show more content…

According to a website on the repeal of the Stamp Act the colonists were very pleased with the repeal.“When Britain repealed the Stamp Act in 1766 — only a year after it had been issued — colonists celebrated in the streets, as this satirical cartoon from 1766 depicts.” To the colonists being violent, forcing officials out of their jobs these tactics seemed to