On March 22, 1765, the British Parliament passed the controversial Stamp Act, hoping to raise the funds from the North American colonies to defend the vast new American territories won from the French in the Seven Years’ War. The legislation levied a direct tax on all materials printed for commercial and legal use in the colonies, including everything from broadsides and insurance policies to playing cards and dice, infuriating the colonists, who argued that, as British subjects, Parliament could not impose taxes upon them without their consent, through the various colonial assemblies. Even though Parliament eventually repealed the legislation, the quarrel moved many colonists against the British government, setting the stage for the eventual break and war for independence.
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