History glossary
Stamp Act
a 1765 British tax requiring many colonial printed materials to carry a paid stamp.
- Category
- Law
- Region
- British North America
- Date range
- 1765-1766
What it means
The Stamp Act taxed legal documents, newspapers, pamphlets, licenses, and other printed materials in the American colonies. Colonists resisted it as taxation without representation, making it one of the first major intercolonial protest crises.
