preview

Are You Hearing What Was The Stamp Act Dbq

Decent Essays

“Are you hearing this !”
“Hearing what ?”
“They have passed a new law that requires us to pay a tax for all printed materials like, newspapers, magazines, and legal documents !”
It’s March 23, 1765 and the Adams family is not very happy about the new law that has been put into place. John Adams involvement with the Stamp Act started in August when he published an essay into the Boston Gazette entitled “A Dissertation on Canon and Feudal Law”. When the stamp act was passed it was marked as ”A struggle for freedom”. The Stamp Act was a tax that the british put on the American Colonies in 1765, the colonies had to pay a tax on all kinds of printed materials. It was named the Stamp Act because the colonies had to buy a paper from Britain that had …show more content…

The colonist also didn’t admire that they had no say in how much they are paying or what they are paying for, this wasn’t fair. “ Fundamental principle of the constitution that no free man should be subjected to any tax to which he had not given consent, in person or by proxy “ which is also “ No taxation without representation”. The Americans thought it was necessary to have legislators seated and voting in the London to be taxed. James Otis was the main person to argue for this representation in the Stamp Act Congress. On the other hand the British believed in something called virtual representation, virtual representation is a belief that a member of the Parliament virtually represented every person in the …show more content…

The tax collectors were threatened and forced to quit their jobs. The colonist would burn stamped paper in the streets to make their point clear, some of their actions ended in physical assault . If this wasn't enough the colonies boycotted British products and merchants.Andrew Oliver was a “stamp. man”, his home was burglarized, supplies for the stamp paper was stolen and a effigy (model or sculpture) of himself was hung and burned outside of his home.These threats were too much for Oliver to handle so he eventually resigned from being the “stamp man”.Hutchinson was another victim of the brutal attacks. His home was ransacked, they smashed his windows, burned his books, and helped themselves to his wine cellar.Lower officials were also victims of threats, intimidation, vandalism, arson and beatings. It got to the point where you wouldn’t see anybody selling nor buying tax

Get Access