The Stamp Act of 1765: A History in Documents: (From the Broadview Sources Series)

About this book

When Parliament sought to raise funds through the passing of the Stamp Act in 1765 they did not anticipate the protests and staunch opposition to the new law that would ensue in the colonies. Though the crisis was eventually resolved the larger questions raised by Parliaments action and colonial resistance remained unanswered. What started as a debate over taxation would end in a struggle for independence. The Stamp Act Crisis 17651766 marks the transition in United States history from the Colonial Era to the Era of the American Revolution. The full narrative of the Stamp Act includes political social economic and cultural histories on both sides of the Atlantic. This volume provides the reader with the opportunity to engage with the pamphlets letters speeches legal documents and other texts and images that people in the colonies and in London were themselves reading debating and reacting to at the time. The introduction incorporates recent scholarship and provides a fresh look at this key moment in American history and the informative headnotes and rich annotations help orient the reader within the historical sources.