The Stamp Act was the 1765 British law that placed a direct tax on printed materials in the American colonies.
Parliament passed the act to raise revenue from the colonies after the expensive Seven Years’ War. It required many newspapers, legal documents, licenses, pamphlets, and other printed items to carry a tax stamp purchased from authorized distributors.
Colonial opponents objected that Parliament was taxing them without their consent because the colonies had no elected representatives in Parliament. Protests, boycotts, and intimidation of stamp distributors spread across the colonies.
Parliament repealed the Stamp Act in 1766, but it simultaneously passed the Declaratory Act, asserting its authority to legislate for the colonies. The dispute therefore continued and contributed to later resistance measures, including opposition to the Townshend duties and the tea tax.