American History

--> STAMP ACT RIOTS The English government decided to pass a stamp act. It required the colonists to purchase a stamp to be put on every kind of legal or business document. It was a clever form of taxation. The Stamp Act raised a storm of indignation throughout the colonies, from Massachusetts to South Carolina. It was denounced as an oppressive, unrighteous, tyrannical measure. It was attacked with unsparing severity from the wayside tavern and the pulpit alike. Cadwallader Colden, a Scotchman by birth and a clergyman by profession, was at that time acting governor of New York. To guard against any resort to force on the part of the people when the stamps should arrive, he had Fort George, on the Battery, reinforced by a regiment from Crown Point. He had its magazines replenished, the ramparts strengthened, and its guns trained on the town. The people saw all this. They understood its import. It had the opposite effect from that which was inten