how did colonist react to the stamp act?

Answer 1

The Stamp Act: The Pot Set to Boiling
The Stamp Act placed stiff excise taxes on all kinds of printed matter-newspapers, legal documents, licenses, even playing cards. Stamp duties were intended to be relatively painless to pay and cheap to collect; in England similar taxes brought in about L100,000 annually. Grenville hoped the Stamp Act would produce L60,000 a year in America, and the law provided that all revenue should be applied to "defraying the necessary expenses of defending, protecting, and securing, the ... colonies."

Hardly a farthing was collected. Virginia was first to act. In late May of 1765, Patrick Henry introduced resolutions asserting redundantly that the burgesses possessed "the only and sole and exclusive right and power to lay taxes" on Virginians and suggesting that Parliament had no legal authority to tax the colonies at all. The more extreme of his resolutions failed of enactment, but the debate they occasioned attracted wide and favorable attention. On June 6, 1765, the Massachusetts assembly proposed an intercolonial Stamp Act Congress, which, when it met in New York City in October, passed another series of resolutions of protest. The Stamp Act was "burthensome and grievous," the delegates declared. People should not be taxed without "their own consent."

During the summer irregular organizations known as Sons of Liberty began to agitate against the act. Far more than anyone realized, this marked the start of the revolution. For the first time extralegal organized resistance was taking place. Although led by men of character and position, the "Liberty Boys" frequently resorted to violence to achieve their aims. In Boston they looted the houses of the stamp master and his brother-in-law, Lieutenant Governor Thomas Hutchinson. In Connecticut, stamp master fared Ingersoll faced an angry mob demanding his resignation.

When threatened with death if he refused, he coolly replied that he was prepared to die "perhaps as well now as another Time." Probably his life was not really in danger, but the crowd convinced him that resistance was useless, and he capitulated.

The fate of most of the other stamp masters was little different. For a time no business requiring stamped paper was transacted; then, gradually, people began to defy the law by issuing and accepting unstamped documents. Threatened by mob action should they resist, British officials stood by helplessly. The law was a dead letter.

The looting associated with this crisis alarmed many colonists, including some prominent opponents of the Stamp Act. "When the pot is set to boil," the lawyer John Adams remarked, "the scum rises to the top." This does not mean that people like Adams disapproved of crowd protests or even the destruction of property. What Adams called "state-quakes" were similar in his opinion to earthquakes, a kind of natural violence.

Answer 2

There are several key factors. The king of England found himself busy making war with France, which was draining the Treasury. Knowing that the colonists were doing well in trade goods with many other affluent countries, exporting tobacco, and whale oil(along with other goods,) the king decided to en state the stamp act. This meant that everything that came into the colonies, as well as out of the colonies, or anything that was bough and sold within the colonies were subject to the tax stamp. Some things ended up being stamped multiple times before reaching the consumer, thus driving the cost of living in the colonies through the ozone. The final straw came when the tea was being stamped so many times that it became a luxury to have tea. This lead to the initial revolt of the civil war. "Np taxation without representation," was what were the cries of the members of what is now known as "The Boston Tea Party." Dressed as Indian's, a group of colonists raided the cargo ships of Boston harbor, throwing crates of imported tea into the harbor. It is said that there was so much tea thrown overboard that the entire harbor turned the color of tea. This let to an escalation of British troops in the colonies. The Troops were given permission by the king to billet the troops anywhere, and provide there own chow from where they bunked. This of coarse means that the the British troops moved right in to peoples homes, took over, and helped them-self to eat drink etc. The next revolt turned into what is now known as "The Boston Massacre." From that point it accelerated into what is now known as The American Revolution."

Answer 3

With severe anger. Tax collectors were tarred and feathered and the govenor of Massachusetts was chased out of town.

Answer 4

They were pissed. They did not like it that England was controlling them from the other side of the ocean and when they taxed them on tea, that was the last straw, "no taxation without representation."

Answer 5

if you were a colonist, how would you feel if you had to pay a tax on EVERYTHING.... and it had to have an official seal on the item to prove you paid the tax? id be pissed.

Answer 6

boycotted British goods

Answer 7

hated, threaten the stamp men, who were trying to enforce it.

Answer 8

For the best answers, search on this site https://shorturl.im/avgD3

ummmmm.... they botcotted. they got mad. not happy.

Answer 9

here's a little help bellow

Answer 10

They were annnngggrrryyyy!