How Did The Stamp Act, And Tea Act Affect Colonists?

During the mid-seventeenth century, the Parliament put upon acts on the colonists, that caused distraught throughout. Due to the Seven Years’ War, it created a huge debt for the British that needed to be taken care of quickly. In order to pay off the debt, the Parliament brought in the Sugar Act, Stamp Act, and Tea Act that impacted many colonists’ daily lives negatively. The Molasses Act of 1733 imposed a tax of six pence per gallon on molasses imported from non-British sources to British colonies. As Americans were using bribery and smuggling, the act was hard to enforce. For decades, many of them ignored the tax law, which inspired George Grenville to create the Revenue Act of 1764. Also known as the Sugar Act, it reduced the tax price

The act applied a tax on all paper used for official documents, which caused a conflict between Britain and the colonies over the Parliament’s right to tax. Newspapers, pamphlets, court documents, licenses, wills, and ships’ cargo lists required a stamp to prove that the tax has been paid.”Unlike the Sugar Act, which regulated trade, the Stamp Act was designed plainly and simply to raise money” (141). A huge majority of the people were affected by this act, especially professions in the business and legal communities that used official documents. In April 1765, seven months before the Stamp Act was to take effect, eight colonial assemblies held discussions concerning the act. A number of resolutions were being discussed by the House of Burgesses. Patrick Henry thought of a series of resolutions to the Stamp Act that were debated and passed. Seven of them passed, known as the Virginia Resolves, and were printed. The first resolve stated that Virginians were considered as British citizens. The second resolve stated that they have the same rights and privileges as Britons. The third resolve was that self-taxation was one of the rights. The fourth resolution discussed about how Virginians were always taxed through their House of Burgesses representatives. The fifth and sixth resolve explained that the right of Virginia assembly had the right to tax the Virginians. The last resolve stated that those who oppose the

Britain was finally receiving a moderate revenue from the colonies after putting this act in effect. The act helped decrease the amount of smuggling from American shippers and they were assumed to enjoy the external taxes. There were two types of taxes known as the internal and external taxes. The internal taxes meant that goods within the colonies and the property, such as the Stamp Act, were being taxed on. The external taxes meant that goods being brought into the colonies, like the Sugar Act, were being taxed on. Americans presumably agreed with the external taxes because they thought that external taxes were meant to regulate trade. Colonists did not liked the idea of the external taxes after finding out the real reason was to raise money and not to maintain trading. This led to a Philadelphia lawyer named John Dickinson to write an essay about his viewpoints of the Townshend Act. He strongly opposed of the act and said that the act made them no different from slaves, as they were being taxed without their approval. He highly believed Parliament did not have any rights to tax the colonists without permission. Also, the fact that the taxes were part of the salaries of royal governors. Massachusetts protesters led the protest upon Townshend taxes. A member of the provincial assembly, Samuel Adams, was against Parliament