From the Sugar Act of 1764 through the Tea Act of 1773, the British Parliament imposed a variety of taxes upon their American colonies in an effort to raise revenue to offset the enormous debts incurred during the Seven Years' (French and Indian) War. Far more efficiently than raising revenue, these duties raised the indignation of the colonits, contributing more than their share to the alienation that fueled the independence movement.

The Stamp Act became the first direct tax on the American colonies in 1765, levying a fee on all official documents, and thus all legal transactions. The response of the Massachusetts House of Representatives was swift and decisive. On June 6, 1765, they agreed to the motion of James Otis to organize an intercolonial meeting to resist the Stamp Act, and two days later, issued a circular letter to the assemblies of the other colonies. The resulting Stamp Act Congress included 9 of the 13 colonies, and their vigorous protest, coupled with effective boycotts of British goods and the all too often violent response in the streets, led Parliament to withdraw the act in 1766.

Yet in a sign of things to come, Parliament issued their withdrawal of the Stamp Act with an no-nonsense Declaratory Act resserting their authority over all colonial affairs, including taxation. Still seeking ways of extracting additonal revenue from the colonies, in 1767 the Chancellor of the Exchequer Charles Townshend proposed a duty on all imports into the colonies of five key commodities -- lead, paint, glass, paper and tea -- reasoning that such indirect taxation would be less odious. Clearly a misjudgment of the mood in the colonies, the Townshend Duties produced results very similar to the Stamp Act: wide spread protests, sporadic violence, and increasing coordination between radical elements in all 13 colonies. The Non-Importation Agreements in 1768 and 1769 were the a series of boycotts of British imports organized in nearly port city in the 13 colonies, accompanied by , eventually led to repeal of four of five of the Townshend duties in 1770.

The sole Townshend Duty to remain in place after 1770 was the duty on tea, and American radicals continued their boycott of that commodity. With declining revenues for the East India Company, Prime Minister Frederick North was led to recraft the scheme of taxation on tea, the most important features of which were to impose the tax at the point of origin, and to sell the tea in America through consignees who were granted exclusive rights to its retail. The results followed the pattern set in the previous decade of agitation, culminating in the Tea Party in Boston, the impoundment of tea in Charleston, and the successful rejection of tea in Philadelphia and elsewhere. Local resistance, in short, made the Tea Act as much a dead letter as any of its predecessors.

The two volumes that comprise the Pennsylvania Stamp Act and Non-Importation Resolutions Collection contain 34 manuscript and printed items relating to the political crisis over taxation on goods imported into the American colonies between 1765 and 1773, with a focus on Philadelphia. The first volume is concerned exclusively with agitation over the Stamp Act of 1765 and its repeal, while the second volume relates more specifically to the Non-Importation agreements of the 1760s, the Townshend Duties, and the Tea Act of 1773.

Volume 1 contains copies of important letters from Gov. John Penn and James Hawker regarding the distribution of stamped paper, and the public . The most dramatic letters are from John Hughes, Stamp Commissioner for Pennsylvania, describing the large public protests and implicit threats that forced him to resign his commission in the fall. A taste of the protest to which Hughes was subjected is provided in two letters from the New York Sons of Liberty, exhorting their Philadelphia brethren to support the cause.

Volume 2 includes similarly valuable material for documenting the intense local pressure exerted on Philadelphia merchants during the period of the Townshend Duties and Tea Act, 1767-1773. Two of the three tea consignees in Philadelphia, Thomas and Isaac Wharton and Jonathan Browne, were quick to disavow their intention to sell East India tea in Philadelphia, and they therefore avoided the wrath of the patriot mob. James and Drinker, however, were more equivocal in their statements, and endured subtle, and not so subtle, threats. In December 1773, however, they followed the better example of John Hughes and stated unequivocally that they would not sell taxed tea, suggesting instead that the tea should be impounded and kept safe while merchants lobbied the East India Company and the crown to repeal the Act.

The collection also provides a perspective on the developing connections between American colonists opposed to British rule. Letters between Merchants Committees and the Sons of Liberty in New York, Boston, and Philadelphia, and possibly Virginia, hint at the development of a unified colonial line.

The last item in the collection is a record of imports into Philadelphia, 1774-1775, with a later series of personal accounts (1780), possibly kept by Thomas Bradford.

Provenance

Unknown provenance; accessioned in 1927.

Preferred citation

Cite as: Pennsylvania Stamp Act and Non-Importation Resolutions Collection, American Philosophical Society.

Processing information

Recatalogued by rsc, April 2003.

Alternate formats available

The Pennsylvania Stamp Act and Non-Importation Resolutions volumes are available on microfilm (Film 1251).

Related material

See also John Hughes, Letter to the Commisioners of the stamp office from the Pennsylvania Collector (Mss.973.31.H87).

Early American History Note

This collection contains a range of documents on the imperial crisis in Philadelphia. Specifically, the documents focus on the Stamp Act and the Non-importation agreements of 1773. For the Stamp Act, there are many letters from John Hughes, the Stamp Tax collector. The letters detail his tribulations. There is also a large, oversize letter from John Hughes to the Commissioners of the Stamp Office in London defending his actions and outlining his experiences during the Stamp Act controversy (first page missing). The documents surrounding the 1773 boycott of tea in Philadelphia include detailed reports from commissioners appointed by residents to negotiate with the East India company officials and the testimony of the firm of James and Drinker who were designated distributors of the tea.

• Accounts.
• Broadsides.
• Legal Records
• Official Government Documents and Records
• Political Correspondence
• Printed Material

• Great Britain -- Commerce -- Pennsylvania
• Pennsylvania -- Commerce -- Great Britain
• Philadelphia (Pa.) -- Commerce -- Colonial period, ca.1600-1775
• Philadelphia (Pa.) -- Politics and government -- Colonial period, ca.1600-1775
• United States -- History -- Revolution, 1775-1783 -- Causes

• American Revolution
• Colonial Politics
• Government Affairs
• Non-importation agreements, 1768-1769
• Pennsylvania History
• Philadelphia History
• Sons of Liberty
• Stamp Act, 1765
• Tea tax (American colonies)