The Stamp Act was a direct tax imposed by the British Parliament specifically on the colonies of British America. The act required that many printed materials in the colonies be produced on stamped paper produced in London, carrying an embossed revenue stamp. These printed materials were legal documents, magazines, newspapers and many other types of paper used throughout the colonies. Like previous taxes, the stamp tax had to be paid in valid British currency, not in colonial paper money. The primary goal of the Stamp Act was to raise enough money to get military defenses of the colonies. “The tax was payable in scarce silver and gold coins and not in paper money which was the most common method of payment in the colonies.” (“Crisis and Significance”, Crisis and Significance, 2016) The Stamp Act leads to events that soon occurred after that. These events involved the “No Taxation without Representation” and the Declaratory Act. …show more content…
The phrase was not about taxes, it was mainly about rights. It meant if the British government was not going to give Americans equal rights as citizens, they had no right to tax them. The Americans thought it was unfair that they could be taxed without having their say in Parliament, such as asking how these taxes were going to be used, and why they were being taxed in the first place. It showed that the colonists would not stand to be treated so unfairly. That they would need to have representation in Parliament if they were to be taxed. Americans wanted independence and to be treated as citizens not to be ruled