The Quartering and Stamp Acts

After the British Parliament decided the colonies should pay more to them. George Grenville was the Prime Minister of Great Britain. Grenville created courts to collect taxes. In 1765, British Parliament passed an unpopular law called The Quartering Act of 1765. This law or act required the colonists to provide housing and supplies to the British soldiers. The soldiers were placed in the colonies to protect the land. This got colonists angry, plus they started to think the British Parliament had the soldiers placed in their houses to spy on them.

Parliament was able to gain power from the king through the Glorious Revolution, which meant Parliament was a governing body representing the people in England. British citizens were given protection from unfair taxes by the Magna Carta. King George said the colonists deserved to be taxed because the British protected them. He had more power then the Parliament. Money was being spent faster than it was brought in. One of these reasons was because the colonists needed money to pay the troops being used to protect their colonies, and because they had to pay the English governors who had been assigned to the colonies.


On March 1765, British Parliament passed a bill that was intended to raise more money from the colonists called Stamp Act. This bill consisted of the colonists paying taxes for everything they printed. It was the first time the colonists made a direct tax. Colonists claimed that threatened their prosperity and liberty. They did not have a representation in the British Parliament. People from the colonies thought the Stamp Act created a conspiracy to destroy American liberties. Parliament saw the colonists selfish and narrow-minded. Parliament had the right to levy taxes on them. The Stamp Act lasted only one year before Parliament repealed it.