On this day in history, British Parliament repealed the Stamp Act: The path to the American Revolution

Madison Selcho
·2 min read
Pigeons fly over the river Thames, with the Westminster Bridge and the Houses of Parliament, left, in the background, in central London, Monday, Feb. 10, 2014. On March 18, 1766, British Parliament repealed “one of the most controversial laws ever passed,” known as the Stamp Act, due to boycotts and protests that took place for several months.

On March 18, 1766, British Parliament repealed “one of the most controversial laws ever passed,” known as the Stamp Act, due to boycotts and protests that took place for several months.

What was the Stamp Act?

The Stamp Act, passed on March 22, 1765, was the first direct tax by the British Parliament on the American colonies to help pay for the British troops stationed in the colonies.

The troops were stationed in the American colonies as they were fighting in the Seven Years’ War, which accumulated a lot of debt for Britain at the time, according to The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History.

The Stamp Act imposed a tax for the people in the American colonies on all paper documents, including:

  • Newspapers.

  • Almanacs.

  • Pamphlets.

  • Broadsides.

  • Legal documents.

  • Dice.

  • Playing cards.

Why did Parliament repeal the Stamp Act?

The U.K. Parliament reported that in response to these taxes imposed on the people in the American colonies, they boycotted paper products in protest against being taxed without someone to speak in Parliament on their behalf.

The boycotts and protests against the act reportedly damaged British trade, which led Parliament to repeal the act.

The Library of Congress reported that the repeal of the act didn’t ease Great Britain’s control over the colonies, but rather, led to more acts put in its place.

The Declaratory Act was actually passed by British Parliament on the same day the Stamp Act was repealed in the American colonies, which “stated that Parliament could make laws binding the American colonies ‘in all cases whatsoever.’”

The U.K. Parliament corroborated this finding by reporting, “The Act’s repeal, however, was followed that same day with the Declaratory Act, which maintained that the British Parliament had the right and authority to legislate for the colonies in all cases whatsoever. The dispute was far from over.”

These continued acts of British Parliament were steps that eventually led to the American Revolution.

“Colonists didn’t just take up arms against the British out of the blue. A series of events escalated tensions that culminated in America’s war for independence,” writer Patrick J. Kiger wrote in History.