Who initiated a series of resolves in virginia in protest of the stamp act?

While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions.

Select Citation Style

Copy Citation

Share

Share

Share to social media

Facebook Twitter

URL

https://www.britannica.com/event/Stamp-Act-Great-Britain-1765

Give Feedback

External Websites

Feedback

Corrections? Updates? Omissions? Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login).

Feedback Type

Your Feedback Submit Feedback

Thank you for your feedback

Our editors will review what you’ve submitted and determine whether to revise the article.

External Websites

  • United States History - Stamp Act 1765
  • The First Amendment Encyclopedia - Stamp Act of 1765 (1765)
  • American Battlefield Trust - What Was the Stamp Act Congress and Why Did It Matter
  • American History Central - Stamp Act Summary and Text

Britannica Websites

Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students.

  • Stamp Act - Children's Encyclopedia (Ages 8-11)
  • Stamp Act - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up)

Print Cite

verifiedCite

While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions.

Select Citation Style

Copy Citation

Share

Share

Share to social media

Facebook Twitter

URL

https://www.britannica.com/event/Stamp-Act-Great-Britain-1765

Feedback

External Websites

Feedback

Corrections? Updates? Omissions? Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login).

Feedback Type

Your Feedback Submit Feedback

Thank you for your feedback

Our editors will review what you’ve submitted and determine whether to revise the article.

External Websites

  • United States History - Stamp Act 1765
  • The First Amendment Encyclopedia - Stamp Act of 1765 (1765)
  • American Battlefield Trust - What Was the Stamp Act Congress and Why Did It Matter
  • American History Central - Stamp Act Summary and Text

Britannica Websites

Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students.

  • Stamp Act - Children's Encyclopedia (Ages 8-11)
  • Stamp Act - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up)

By The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica Last Updated: Dec 9, 2022

Table of Contents

Who initiated a series of resolves in virginia in protest of the stamp act?

Stamp Act warning

See all media

Date:1765...(Show more)Key People:George Grenville...(Show more)

See all related content →

Who initiated a series of resolves in virginia in protest of the stamp act?

See the original Stamp Act of 1765 in the United Kingdom Parliamentary Archives

See all videos for this article

Stamp Act, (1765), in U.S. colonial history, first British parliamentary attempt to raise revenue through direct taxation of all colonial commercial and legal papers, newspapers, pamphlets, cards, almanacs, and dice. The devastating effect of Pontiac’s War (1763–64) on colonial frontier settlements added to the enormous new defense burdens resulting from Great Britain’s victory (1763) in the French and Indian War. The British chancellor of the Exchequer, Sir George Grenville, hoped to meet at least half of these costs by the combined revenues of the Sugar Act (1764) and the Stamp Act, a common revenue device in England.

Who initiated a series of resolves in virginia in protest of the stamp act?

Sons of Liberty

Who initiated a series of resolves in virginia in protest of the stamp act?

colonists reading the Stamp Act

Completely unexpected was the avalanche of protest from the colonists, who effectively nullified the Stamp Act by outright refusal to use the stamps as well as by riots, stamp burning, and intimidation of colonial stamp distributors. The Sons of Liberty formed in the summer of 1765 to oppose the act and destroyed the stamps wherever they encountered them. In addition to tarring and feathering stamp agents, the Sons of Liberty sacked homes and warehouses of the wealthy, whom they presumed were favourites of the royal governors. Colonists passionately upheld their rights as Englishmen to be taxed only by their own consent through their own representative assemblies, as had been the practice for a century and a half. In the set of resolutions against the act that he created for the town of Braintree, Massachusetts, John Adams wrote

Britannica Quiz

On Freedom: A Quiz

We have called this a burdensome tax, because the duties are so numerous and so high, and the embarrassments to business in this infant, sparsely settled country so great, that it would be totally impossible for the people to subsist under it, if we had no controversy at all about the right and authority of imposing it…We further apprehend this tax to be unconstitutional. We have always understood it to be a grand and fundamental principle of the constitution that no freeman should be subject to any tax to which he has not given his own consent, in person or by proxy.

In addition to nonimportation agreements among colonial merchants, the Stamp Act Congress was convened in New York (October 1765) by moderate representatives of nine colonies to frame resolutions of “rights and grievances” and to petition the king and Parliament for repeal of the objectionable measures. Because they were more conservative in their response to the act than colonial legislatures had been, some of the delegates to the congress refused to sign even the moderate petitions that resulted from their gathering, which was the first intercolonial congress to meet in America. In spite of the petitions’ mildness, Parliament rejected them.

Bowing chiefly to pressure (in the form of a flood of petitions to repeal) from British merchants and manufacturers whose colonial exports had been curtailed, Parliament, largely against the wishes of the House of Lords, repealed the act in early 1766. Simultaneously, however, Parliament issued the Declaratory Act, which reasserted its right of direct taxation anywhere within the empire, “in all cases whatsoever.” The protest throughout the colonies against the Stamp Act contributed much to the spirit and organization of unity that was a necessary prelude to the struggle for independence a decade later.

Who initiated a series of resolves in Virginia in protest of the Stamp Act quizlet?

In response to the 1765 Stamp Act, Patrick Henry persuaded the Virginia House of Burgesses to adopt several strongly worded resolutions that denied Parliament's right to tax the colonies.

Who introduced the Virginia Resolves?

Patrick Henry wrote the following five resolutions against the Stamp Act and introduced them to the House of Burgesses on May 29, 1765. The House passed them after a heated debate, but rescinded the fifth resolution the following day.

Who presented the Stamp Act resolutions?

Patrick Henry had written seven resolutions, each more radical than the next. He introduced five resolutions during the debate in the House of Burgesses.

Who drafted the Virginia Resolves?

The Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions, initially drafted by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, respectively, were issued by the Kentucky and Virginia legislatures in response to the federal Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798.