How Did The Stamp Act Contribute To The American Revolution

There were many specific key events that took place that divided Britain from the colonists in the 1760s and 1770s. To name a few, the Sugar Act, Stamp Act, the Tea Act, and the Intolerable Acts all contributed to the Revolution in some capacity. The first act, the Sugar Act, occurred in 1764 and “reduced the existing tax on molasses imported into North America from the French West Indies from six pence to three pence per gallon” (183). However, the act also increased restrictions to reduce smuggling and caused judgment without trial for any smugglers caught. Therefore, colonists did not take kindly to the act, stating that it was “an attempt to get them to pay a levy they would otherwise have evaded (183). The Stamp Act caused similar feelings

Because of the British way of thinking and the inequality in both Britain and the colonies, the Revolution changed American freedom. As the textbook states, “American freedom would be forever linked with the idea of equality – equality before the law, equality in political rights, equality of economic opportunity, and, for some, equality of condition” (217). Indentured servitude ended after the Revolution in 1800, Americans arguing it went against the idea of freedom. In 1784, a shipload of indentured servants was released by New Yorkers, stated that “their status was ‘contrary to. the idea of liberty this country has so happily established’” (228). Previously indentured servants now had more freedom in America than before when Britain was still in control. However, the same freedoms did not extend to some of the slaves. While slavery was being abolished in the North, the South still held onto the idea of slavery. This caused the North to draw “a line across the new nation, creating the dangerous division between free and slave states” (241). While some free slaves were able to receive more liberties than before, the slaves in the South still lacked the freedom other men had. The textbook states, “For many Americans, white as well as Black, the existence of slavery would henceforth be recognized as a

The Constitution outlined the structure of the government, the division and separation of powers, and discussed the topic of slavery. The first thing the Constitution fixed was the structure of government, instituting legislative, executive, and judiciary branches in the government, stating that the “government would represent the people” (261). The Constitution also fixed the problem regarding the separation of powers, otherwise known as the system of checks and balances. “The ‘separation of powers,’ or the system of ‘check and balances,’ refers to the way the Constitution seeks to prevent any branch of the national government from dominating the other two” (263). The separation of powers helps ensure one branch of the government or one person does not have enough power to endanger the liberties of the American people. Finally, the issue of slavery was also discussed in the Constitution; however, it did not free the slaves in every state. Instead, “The Constitution gave the national government no power to interfere with slavery in the states” (265). The issue of slavery, then, was given to the states to be decided upon, which caused divisions between the North and the South. After the Constitution was made, a group called the “Anti-Federalists,” was formed and “insisted that the Constitution shifted the balance between liberty and power too far in the direction of the