Stamp Act 1765

The Stamp Act of 1765 was a bill passed by the British parliament imposing a new tax upon the American colonies. It met with great displeasure in the colonies and was one of the aggravating factors that promoted colonial speratism.

The British government was severely in debt after fighting the Seven Years War. Since much of this war had been fought in North America to protect the colonists there, the British leaders decided to force the colonials, who paid virually no taxes, to pay for a share of their own defence. The Stamp Act mandated that all official or published papers had to have a government stamp upon them, the stamps would be sold at a profit by the colonial governors. The act was widely opposed and disregarded however. The leaders in the fight gainst the stamp act were the newspapers who were advesly affected by it and had a great deal of power in the colonies. They were quickly successful and the British Parliament removed the Stamp Act on March 18, 1766, but it was only the first of many squables over the right of the British parliament to tax the American colonies.