The Political Basis of the American Revolution Essay

The political basis of the American Revolution relied on three major congresses formed prior and during the revolution. These congresses were the Stamp Act Congress, the First Continental Congress and the Second Continental Congress. The main reason the colonists revolted against the British was in response to the Stamp Act. The Stamp Act was a tax stamp which appeared on every newspaper, legal document, on every customs and shipping document, and on other documents such as tavern licenses and college diplomas. The tax largely affected the middle and lower classes. The act was passed by Parliament on May 22, 1765, but was not going to go into effect until November 1st of that year. This time period of six months gave†¦show more content†¦The congress proposed that without consent by the colonists or their representatives in Parliament, Britain could not impose taxes. Unfortunately, since the congress only met a few weeks before the act was to be passed, the appeals wou ld not be acted upon by Britain or its Parliament therefore making the gathering useless. However, before the congress met, the colonists had already decided that the act would not be followed even if they had to resort to violence. Beginning August 14, 1765, mobs in all of the colonies began to â€Å"relieve† the stamp distributors of their position, hence by November 1st there were no distributors to enforce the act. Between the time of the Stamp Act and the Declaration of Independence, Britain passed many more taxes which became known as the Intolerable Acts. The Intolerable Acts were directed to the American colonists and were mostly taxes on all imported goods from Britain. Britain also began to send British troops over to help enforce the acts and taxes passed by Parliament. 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