The protests began with petitions, led to refusals to pay the tax, and eventually to property damage and harassment of officials.

The colonists, who had convened the Stamp Act Congress in October 1765 to vocalize their opposition to the impending enactment, greeted the arrival of the stamps with outrage and violence. Most Americans called for a boycott of British goods, and some organized attacks on the customhouses and homes of tax collectors.

The American colonists were angered by the Stamp Act and quickly acted to oppose it. Because of the colonies’ sheer distance from London, the epicenter of British politics, a direct appeal to Parliament was almost impossible. Instead, the colonists made clear their opposition by simply refusing to pay the tax.

In Boston, opposition moved from fiery rhetoric to inflamed violence, fanned by a secret organization known as the Loyall Nine. The clandestine group of artisans and shopkeepers printed pamphlets and signs protesting the tax and incited the mob that ransacked Oliver’s house.

All of the colonists were mad because they thought the British Parliament shouldn’t have the right to tax them. The colonists believed that the only people that should tax them should be their own legislature. They wanted them to take back the law to pay taxes on stamps.

Two groups, the Sons of Liberty and the Daughters of Liberty, led the popular resistance to the Stamp Act. Both groups considered themselves British patriots defending their liberty, just as their forebears had done in the time of James II.

The disgust with the tax peaked on August 14, 1765, when an angry mob in Boston reacted to the first incident of “taxation without representation” in the colonies, an event that foreshadowed open rebellion 10 years later.

The Stamp Act. The American colonies were upset with the British because they put a tax on stamps in the colonies so the British can get out of debt from the French and Indian War and still provide the army with weapons and tools. So to help them get their money back they charged a tax on all of the American colonists.

On August 14, 1765, outrage boiled over in the city. Protesters organized as the “Sons of Liberty” took to the streets in a very defiant act against British rule. The protests were based on legal principles that only the colonial legislatures had the power to tax residents who had representatives in those legislatures.

“The major effort of official protest was the Stamp Act Congress, called in June by the Massachusetts House at the behest of James Otis and the Boston Town Meeting.

Unable to do so, Parliament repealed the Stamp Act just one year later, on March 18, 1766. The colonists may well have accepted the stamp tax had it been imposed by their own representatives and with their consent.

Many American colonists refused to pay Stamp Act tax The American colonists were angered by the Stamp Act and quickly acted to oppose it. Because of the colonies’ sheer distance from London, the epicenter of British politics, a direct appeal to Parliament was almost impossible.

Lord Rockingham, who replaced Grenville in the summer of 1765, had opposed the Stamp Act, not because he believed Parliament lacked authority to tax the colonies, but because he thought the law unwise and divisive.