Description
Book SynopsisWhen 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 which would ensue in the colonies. Though the crisis was eventually resolved, the larger questions raised by Parliament’s action and colonial resistance remained unanswered. What started as a debate over taxation would end in a struggle for independence. The Stamp Act Crisis, 1765-1766, 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 of American history, and the informative headnotes and rich annotations help orient the reader within the historical sources.
Trade Review“This sharp and concise volume is a vivid resource for students hoping to understand the crisis that roiled the British Empire in 1764–1766 and inspired American arguments on behalf of their own rights. Students can analyze laws, speeches, essays, descriptions of crowd protests, tavern toasts, and a sermon. The volume even offers material objects, political cartoons, and other visual images for students to discuss. The accompanying text provides sure-handed guidance for thinking about the language, ideas, and actions that animated this important political moment in American history.” — Benjamin L. Carp, Brooklyn College, CUNY
“Jonathan Mercantini has provided a valuable resource for all of us who teach the American Revolution. The writing prompts and discussion questions at the end of each section make The Stamp of 1765 unique when compared to similar edited collections on the period. I am already thinking about the best way to use this text in my classroom.” — John Fea, Messiah College
Table of Contents
- Part I: Parliamentary Authority and its Limits
- Revenue Act of 1764
- Garth to SC Committee of Correspondence, April 1764
- The New York Petition to the House of Commons
- Part II: Passage of the Stamp Act
- Virtual Representation: Whately, 1765
- Speech of Isaac Barre, Parliament, February 1765
- Stamp Act 1765
- Image: Deplorable State of America or S(cotc)h Government Cartoon
- Virginia Resolves
- Stamp Act Congress
- Part III: Stamp Act: Resistance
- Francis Bernard to Board Of Trade, August 15, 1765
- Attack on Lt. Governor Thomas Hutchinson’s Home, Hutchinson to Richard Jackson, August 30, 1765
- The Correspondence of Thomas Hutchinson
- Image: Pennsylvania Journal and Weekly Advertiser, October 31, 1765
- Image: No Stamp Act Teapot (Colonial Williamsburg Collection) Smithsonian
- South Carolina Gazette and Country Journal, December 17, 1765
- James Wright to Board of Trade
- Part IV: Stamp Act: Repeal
- Examination of Franklin
- Pitt Speech in favor of Repeal
- Repeal of the Stamp Act Law
- Declaratory Act
- Image: “The Repeal, or The Adoration of Wise Men of the West”, April 22, 1766
- Laurens on Repeal
- John J. Zubly Sermon, The Stamp-Act repealed. A sermon, preached in the meeting at Savannah in Georgia, June 25th, 1766.
- Patriotic Toasts
