THE ROAD TO REVOLUTION 1700 1774
SONS OF LIBERTY RESISTANCE TO THE STAMP ACT AND BRITISH RULE
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Question
[CLICK ON ANY CHOICE TO KNOW THE RIGHT ANSWER]
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They felt the taxes were too expensive
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They had to pay the taxes even though they had no voice or say in the government that was creating them
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They felt the taxes were put onto too many items
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They felt it was not fair because the British citizens did not have to pay the taxes
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Detailed explanation-1: -The protests were based on a legal principle that the colonial legislatures only had the power to tax residents who had representatives in those legislatures. And even though some colonies had official agents to Parliament, like Benjamin Franklin, no colonies had sitting representatives in the British Parliament.
Detailed explanation-2: -American colonists responded to the Sugar Act and the Currency Act with protest. In Massachusetts, participants in a town meeting cried out against taxation without proper representation in Parliament, and suggested some form of united protest throughout the colonies.
Detailed explanation-3: -American colonists were outraged over the tea tax. They believed the Tea Act was a tactic to gain colonial support for the tax already enforced. The direct sale of tea by agents of the British East India Company to the American colonies undercut the business of colonial merchants.
Detailed explanation-4: -Many American colonists refused to pay Stamp Act tax Prominent individuals such as Benjamin Franklin and members of the independence-minded group known as the Sons of Liberty argued that the British parliament did not have the authority to impose an internal tax.
Detailed explanation-5: -In short, many colonists believed that as they were not represented in the distant British parliament, any taxes it imposed on the colonists (such as the Stamp Act and the Townshend Acts) were unconstitutional, and were a denial of the colonists’ rights as Englishmen.