These printed materials were on every legal document, magazine, and newspaper, plus many other types of paper used throughout the colonies, including playing cards.
(meta data) TITLE: A Summary of the 1765 Stamp Act : The Colonial Williamsburg Official History & Citizenship Site ##### Quick links Week at a GlanceDonate Skip to main content History.org navigation ## Looking to Buy Tickets & Gifts or Book a Vacation? Click Here ##### Page content : Lesson Plans : A Summary of the 1765 Stamp Act # A Summary of the 1765 Stamp Act The Stamp Act was passed by the British Parliament on March 22, 1765. The new tax was imposed on all American colonists and required them to pay a tax on every piece of printed paper they used. Ship's papers, legal documents, licenses, newspapers, other publications, and even playing cards were taxed. The money collected by the Stamp Act was to be used to help pay the costs of defending and protecting the American frontier near the Appalachian Mountains (10,000 troops were to be stationed on the American frontier for this purpose). The actual cost of the Stamp Act was relatively small. What made the law so offensive to the colonists was not so much its immediate cost but the standard it seemed to set. In the past, taxes and duties on colonial trade had always been viewed as measures to regulate commerce, not to raise money. The Stamp Act, however, was viewed as a direct attempt by England to raise money in the colonies without the approval of the colonial legislatures. If this new tax were allowed to pass without resistance, the colonists reasoned, the door would be open for far more troublesome taxation in the future. Few colonists believed that they could do anything more than grumble and buy the stamps until the Virginia House of Burgesses adopted Patrick Henry's Stamp Act Resolves. These resolves declared that Americans possessed the same rights as the English, especially the right to be taxed only by their own representatives; that Virginians should pay no taxes except those voted by the Virginia House of Burgesses; and that anyone supporting the right of Parliament to tax Virginians should be considered an enemy of the colony. The House of Burgesses defeated the most extreme of Henry's resolutions, but four of the resolutions were adopted. Virginia Governor Fauquier did not approve of the resolutions, and he dissolved the House of Burgesses in response to their passage. Jump to Top ##### Section navigation ### Education #### School & Group Tours #### Teacher Institute #### Colonial Williamsburg Education Resource Library Log In to Colonial Williamsburg Education Resource Library #### The Idea of America #### Teaching Resources Catalog #### Advocacy Toolbox ##### Footer
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Stamp act
United States.:Stamp Act 1765.
After Great Britain was victorious over France in the Seven Years' War – which manifested in America as the French and Indian War – a small Stamp Act was enacted that covered of all sorts of documents. The Stamp Act 1765 (short title "Duties in American Colonies Act 1765"; 5 George III, c. 12) was a direct tax imposed by the British Parliament on the colonies of British America. The act required that many printed materials in the colonies be produced on stamped paper produced in London and carrying an embossed revenue stamp.