Stamp Act was passed by the British Parliament in March 1765. Its purpose was to raise funds to support the British Army stationed in America after 1763. The act specified that Americans must buy stamps for deeds, mortgages, liquor licenses, law licenses, playing cards, and almanacs. Even newspaper owners and publishers had to buy stamps for their publications. The Stamp Act was unpopular in the colonies. Societies called the Sons of Liberty , which often met under “liberty trees,” protested the stamp sales. The colonists’ slogan became “No Taxation Without Representation.”
The Virginia Assembly declared the Stamp Act illegal and unjust, and it passed the Virginia Resolves, resolutions against taxation by the British Parliament. The Massachusetts House of Representatives invited all of the colonies to send delegates to a general congress. New York, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Connecticut, Maryland, South Carolina, and Massachusetts accepted the invitation. The Stamp Act Congress met in New York in October 1765. It declared that stamp taxes could not be collected without the people’s consent. American resistance forced the British Parliament to repeal the Stamp Act in 1766.
