The Stamp Act
by Jeremy

 The British government wanted to get money off of the colonists. So they decide that papers and legal documents needed to be stamped. This stamp would cost additional money that the colonists would be expected to pay. The Americans knew it wouldn't be a huge financial burden but they were angry because they thought the British were pushing them around. Patrick Henry was one of first radicals in Virginia to brind these problems to the public. He said that taxes levied from England without American consent would ruin American freedom.
 The Americans decided to fight the Stamp Act. So, villages from the Carolinas to New Hampshire formed bands they called the Sons of Liberty. On the night of August 14 the Sons of Liberty hung a life-sized dummy of Andrew Oliver from a tree. Later on, thhhe Sons of liberty in Rhode Island made three effigies and ran away on a British ship. Another mob broke into governor Hutchinson's house and seriously damaged it. An unruly group of people in Newport broke into the houses of three men who supported the Stamp Act. They sliced up valuable paintings, crushed fragile scientific instuments, and threw a lot of books down a well. All of these fights and mobs scared the people that stood up for the Stamp Act. Some of these scared people stopped being supportive of the Stamp Act. November 1, 1765 was the day the Stamp act was supposed to go inot effect. It was a sad day for the colonists. Effigies were hung and burnt in many places. To fight the Stamp Act to a further extent some of the merchants boycotted British goods. This meant would not buy imported goods from Britian until the Stamp Act was repealed. Even though only a portion of the merchants did the boycott, it was very successful. The British were preplexed they knew the Stamp Act could not be enforce but if they gave into mobs they might as well just stop trying to govern the colonies. The British merchants were in trouble. And to top it all of William Pitts, a famous British statesman, gave a speech in favor of the repeal of the Stamp Act.
 Around 1776 Parliament repealed the Stamp Act buat at the same time they made the Declaroatory Act which gave Parliament the right to tax the colonists if they wanted to. After the Stamp Act was repealed tempers cooled trades resumed between England and the colonists.

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