Equal Protection and Race........................................................................................................ 1839. Overview..............................................................................................................................
Sugar cane plantations in the colonies of the West Indies. The older Sugar and Molasses tax charged the customer a duty of 6 pence per gallon of molasses. The bribe to customs officials per gallon of smuggled molasses was 1.5p. The new Sugar Act lowered the duty to 3p per gallon.
Despite parliamentary intentions, colonial reaction was adverse and immediate. The Sugar Act of the previous year had been a tax on trade, in effect an indirect and external tax. But in the Stamp Tax the Americans for the first time were faced with a direct, internal tax. This distinction was argued effectively in the writings of John Dickinson, one of the early leaders of the opposition to British policies.