Stamp Act 1765

The Stamp Act 1765, formally the Duties in American Colonies Act 1765, was a law passed by the Parliament of Great Britain that imposed a direct tax on the American colonies, requiring that many categories of printed material used there, including legal documents, newspapers, magazines and playing cards, be produced on special stamped paper carrying an embossed revenue stamp, purchased from London and paid for in British currency rather than colonial paper money. It was intended to help pay for the cost of stationing British troops in North America following the Seven Years' War, but it provoked immediate and widespread resistance across the colonies, including the Stamp Act Congress of October 1765 and the organized boycotts of the Sons of Liberty, on the grounds that Parliament had no right to tax the colonies without their consent, giving rise to the rallying cry "no taxation without representation." Faced with this resistance and pressure from British merchants whose trade with the colonies had suffered, Parliament repealed the act in March 1766, but the controversy it provoked is widely regarded as an early and pivotal step on the path toward the American Revolution.