# data[].attributes.body
The Stamp Act, enacted by the British Parliament in 1765, was the first direct internal tax levied on the American colonies. The Act placed a tax on all paper documents and required the use of stamped paper for various items, including newspapers, legal documents, playing cards, and diplomas. The British ministry, under George Grenville, sought to raise revenue to help pay down debt from seven years in the French and Indian War, and to fund the cost of stationing British troops in the American colonies for their defense.

Riots happened when most colonists, and groups of people including merchants, lawyers, and newspaper editors, could not afford the cost of stamped paper and the associated taxes related to their professions. They began operating without stamped paper, and several newspapers continued publication without stamps, even with anonymous publishers actively resisting the Stamp Act, despite regulations that defined a double penalty: £20 for failing to include a name and publication details, and £10 for using unstamped paper. In 1765, during the Stamp Act Congress in New York, delegates from nine colonies – Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and South Carolina – denied Parliament’s power to tax the colonies and argued that “self-taxation was a right” and that they must “tax themselves via their own representatives.”

Colonial resistance manifested in protests, boycotts of British goods, and local groups such as the Sons of Liberty, using riots and forceful coercion to prevent stamp commissioners from collecting taxes and compelling officials who supported the act to resign from their positions. Although the colonists achieved the repeal of the Stamp Act in 1766, the British imposed the Declaratory Act, which asserted Parliament’s full legislative authority over the colonies, and a variety of taxes on colonies again. However, the Stamp Act highlighted the power of colonial resistance and unity, and revealed their increasing awareness of their rights and liberty, as well as the limits of Parliament’s authority.

# data[].attributes.headline
The 1765 Tax on Paper Goods: Playing Cards

# data[].attributes.subject
The 1765 Tax on Paper Goods: Playing Cards

# data[].attributes.body
In the late eighteenth century, various manufacturers produced playing cards by printing them on paper sheets and wrapping them in labeled paper. Some included their name on a card or the wrapper. This was a set made by Gibson, he printed his name on the wrapper along with a warning of fines for selling unlabeled or reused cards. There was a £10 penalty for selling any Playing Cards unlabeled and a £20 penalty for selling or buying a label or wrapper that had been used.

# data[].attributes.headline
Symbolic Resistance: Burning the Effigy of Andrew Oliver

# data[].attributes.subject
Symbolic Resistance: Burning the Effigy of Andrew Oliver

# data[].attributes.body
Protesters hung Stamp Commissioner Andrew Oliver’s effigy from the Liberty Tree on Newbury Street—a prominent spot in town—and later burned it as a form of protest against stamp distributors and officials who supported the Act. They ultimately pressured Oliver to resign from his position.

# data[].attributes.body
The Stamp Act required American colonies to pay a one-penny tax for each sheet of paper used in newspapers and other paper documents, including newspapers, legal papers, playing cards, diplomas, and licenses. if a document required to be stamped under the Stamp Act was used on unstamped paper, it was considered not legally binding and void. There were penalties for Using Unstamped Paper and violations could be prosecuted in admiralty courts without a jury.

# data[].attributes.headline
Printing in Protest: from Pennsylvania Journal

# data[].attributes.subject
Printing in Protest: from Pennsylvania Journal

# data[].attributes.body
Pennsylvania Journal protested the Stamp Act by presenting its front page as a tombstone, bearing the inscription: “EXPIRING: In Hopes of a Resurrection to LIFE again,” along with the message, “Adieu, Adieu to the LIBERTY of the PRESS.” The Act severely impacted the journal's revenue and freedom of the press. In resistance, the paper refused to publish anything that might reduce public opposition to the Act—demonstrating its active role in the broader colonial protest.

# data[].attributes.body
Two months after the Stamp Act passed, at a meeting of Virginia’s House of Burgesses, Patrick Henry argued that colonists had the same rights as British citizens, especially the right to be taxed only by their own representatives, and accused the British government of violating colonies’ rights. He was accused of treason by doing that. Then, he presented seven resolutions of his opposition to the tax, and four of those were accepted by the House of Burgesses.

# data[].attributes.body
George Grenville, the First Lord of the Treasury in Parliament, implemented the Sugar Act of 1764, which taxed sugar to raise funds for colonial protection and curb smuggling. He also introduced the Currency Act to regulate paper money and, the Stamp Act on paper documents.