The Stamp Act was the 1765 British law that taxed printed materials in Britain’s American colonies. It required newspapers, legal documents, magazines, playing cards, and other paper products to carry an embossed revenue stamp.
Parliament passed the measure on March 22, 1765, and it was scheduled to take effect on November 1. Britain intended the revenue to help pay for troops stationed in North America after the French and Indian War. Colonists objected that Parliament was taxing them without their consent or elected representation.
Resistance included petitions, boycotts, demonstrations, and pressure on appointed stamp distributors. The Stamp Act Congress met in New York in October 1765 and issued a declaration of colonial rights. Parliament repealed the law on March 18, 1766, but asserted its authority over the colonies in the accompanying Declaratory Act. The controversy helped build intercolonial cooperation before the American Revolution.