Stamp Act

UK act of Parliament in 1765 that sought to raise enough money from the American colonies to cover the cost of their defence. The act taxed (by requiring an official stamp) all publications and legal documents published in British colonies.

The colonists' refusal to use the required tax stamps, and their blockade of British merchant shipping in the American colonies, forced repeal of the act the following year. It helped to precipitate the American Revolution.

The Stamp Act Congress met in October 1765 (the first intercolonial congress) and declared the act unconstitutional, with the slogan ‘No taxation without representation’, because the colonies were not represented in the British Parliament.

Connecticut colonial politician William Pitkin was one of the first to resist when he refused to take the oath to support it. He later defeated Governor Thomas Fitch (c. 1700-1774), one of the Stamp Act's supporters, and served as governor 1766-69.