3/22【历史上的今天】Stamp Act的来龙去脉

美国历史上的今天

Stamp Act

每天一篇《美国历史上的今天》，提炼和总结历史在今天发生的重要事件：谁，在哪里，什么时候，做了什么，这件事为什么重要、以及在写关于什么主题的论文的时候可以作为潜在论据引用。

每天半分钟，轻松积累史实

为AP历史拿5分打下坚实基础

When: March 22, 1765

What: In an effort to raise funds to pay off debts and defend the vast new American territories won from the French in the Seven Years’ War (1756-1763), the British government passed the Stamp Act on this day in 1765.

Why significant:  The legislation levied a direct tax on all materials printed for commercial and legal use in the colonies, from newspapers and pamphlets to playing cards and dice.

The Stamp Act stirred a storm of protest in the colonies. The colonists argued that, as British subjects, Parliament could not impose taxes upon them without their consent, as given through the various colonial representative assemblies. Believing this right to be in peril, the colonists rioted and intimidated all the stamp agents responsible for enforcing the act into resignation. Parliament eventually repealed the legislation. However, the fracas over the Stamp Act helped plant seeds for a far larger movement against the British government and the eventual battle for independence.

Three critical political forces came into being during the Stamp Act crisis that would serve to advance the cause of rebellion ten years later. First, the Sons of Liberty—a group of tradesmen who led the riots in Boston and other seaboard cities—was established. Second, the formation of the Stamp Act Congress united politically active gentlemen across colonial boundaries, as the Continental Congress would again do in 1774. Finally, the non-importation agreements developed in response to the Stamp Act gave the colonial population a sense of power as consumers of British goods. Although Parliament repealed the act before they learned of the colonial non-importation pacts, the colonists believed that the Britons had acted out of fear of their own economic collapse. During the coming revolution, non-importation would again serve as a means by which average men and, in particular, women could express their patriotism.

Tags: American Revolution, Stamp Act, the Sons of Liberty, the Stamp Act Congress, the colonial non-importation pacts