Sugar Act Vs Stamp Act Essay

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The American Revolutionary War was a war fought from 1775-1783, also known as the American War of Independence, between the Kingdom of Great Britain and the thirteen colonies. The colonies wanted independence and free from British rule. In order to gain their independence the colonies had to fight for it. There were many events leading up to the revolutionary war but the Stamp Act and Sugar Act had its impact. These two acts are a part of what got the conflict started between Great Britain and America; The Sugar Act, was a law that imposed taxes on certain imports and the Stamp Act, is a law that levied new excise taxes. The colonist posed such strong opposition against the taxes the British government were implemented that it was …show more content…

This act required that many documents such as licenses, diplomas, contracts and even playing cards to be printed on embossed paper that had a tax on it. This act was the very first attempt to tax the colonists directly for activities that occurred solely with the colonies themselves. After the French and Indian War the British national debt skyrocketed and the Prime Minister was eager to pay it down before the government was bankrupted. So he decided that it was only fair that the colonist pay for at least a portion of their own defense. The Act called for the taxing of 54 separate items. Under the Stamp Act, anyone accused of not having the proper stamp affixed to an item could be tried in an admiralty court. This was alarming to the colonist because they familiar with the “no taxation without representation”. This Act resulted in a strong unified violent response from the colonists. The colonist issue was not with the tax itself, it was the fact that parliament was trying to tax them with no elected representatives in Parliament. After the citizens came together and wrote to newspapers, destroyed officials homes and violence against stamp distributors, and the merchants forming a non-importation agreement stating they would not buy or sell British manufactured goods until the Stamp Act was repealed, the Act was finally repealed on March 18,