The Stamp Act Crisis: Prologue to Revolution

by Edmund S. Morgan, Helen M. Morgan

The Stamp Act, the first direct tax on the American colonies, provoked an immediate and violent response. The Stamp Act Crisis, originally published by UNC Press in 1953, identifies the issues that caused the confrontation and explores the ways in which the conflict was a prelude to the American Revolution.

Genres: American Revolution, History, American History, Nonfiction, American Revolutionary War

342 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1953

About the author

Edmund Sears Morgan

Reviews

[Nicholas · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is often written that the American Revolution had several causes, the predominant instigator being the 1765 Stamp Act, a resolution that levied a tax against the colonies that the Americans found so reprehensible that it spawned the drive towards revolution. Edmund and Helen Morgan's The Stamp Act Crisis: Prologue to Revolution is a worthy examination of this critical event that factored so heavily in American history. The Morgans focus the Stamp Act's effects on one specific colony, Massachusetts. Through the events leading to its passage, its aftershocks, and its repeal, we see the journey through the eyes of key men such as Governor Francis Bernard, Pamphleteer Daniel Dulany, and royal stamp customs officers Jared Ingersoll and John Hughes. The book follows a fledging country growing through spasms of confusion, chaos, and violence as it replaces its moderation and humility with a radical level of assertiveness and initiative.

The Stamp Act Crisis serves to tell its story from the city of Boston, the nest egg where much of the conflict revolving around the Stamp Act occurred. Morgan details the fallout from the Stamp Act's passage, from the creation of mobs under the guidance of the political elite, to the character makeup of the mob leaders themselves. The mass chaos and almost complete lack of societal functioning is given its due course. With the Stamp Act's law requiring stamped documents for daily business activities like bills of laden for ships and legal documents for lawyers, the absence of these stamps prevented customs houses from clearing ships or courts from hearing cases. Law and commerce effectively ceased. The building discomfort in Boston, and throughout the colonies, was palpable through Morgan's descriptions.

Morgan dedicates individual chapters to examining key players in Boston. Often, portrayals of unpopular figures of the times are kept to a narrow, unrefined assessment. But, Morgan accepts this challenge by consistently viewing the events of the budding revolution through the eyes of these unfortunate men, giving the reader a more unusually balanced perspective.

Using extensive eyewitness accounts from newspapers, journals, letters, and Parliament and legislative sessions, Morgan's book immerses the reader into the historic events of the 1760s. The book is not for the novice, its narrative quickly jumping into the intrigue and difficulties of colonial America. It does not dwell on exploring the difficulties of the early 1760s other than to briefly discuss the complexities of the Sugar Act. There is no bombast of the Boston Tea party or the coming battles of the Revolution and while the narrative is not engaging like a good novel, there are sparks of intuitive analysis that make you nod your approval as you watch the events of history unfold.

[Jeremy Lucas · Rating 4 out of 5]

For any lover of history, and American history in particular, this is a pretty satisfying, enlightening, and politically frustrating read. However much it might seem tempting to push forward from the nexus of 1765-1766, to talk about the Intolerable Acts, or the Townshend Acts, or the many acts that stirred America’s ultimate revolution, the authors do a wonderful job of drawing out the marrow from a single, foolhardy act that clearly did more than any other move of Parliament to prompt one of the world’s most well-known and heralded wars of any era. Perhaps most notable, for readers in 2021, is the nature and the travel of misinformation as a means for prompting and promoting mobs whose violence is always predictable and frighteningly unstoppable once it begins, until it tires itself out, if at all.

[Cherif Jazra · Rating 5 out of 5]

Extremely fulfilling

[Bob · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good background of the American Revolution

This book goes into, great detail, about the events before, during, and after the stamp act. It is dull in parts but sometimes comical in others. The leaders of the resistance, of the stamp act, gives birth to the more known story of the American Revolution.

[Eric · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this in college 25 years ago and remember being enthralled with the varying perspectives provided and significance of the act.

[Frank Stein · Rating 4 out of 5]

A 1953 book that has been re-issued innummerable times since, and with good reason. Ed and Helen Morgan's work on the stamp act protests of 1764 and 1765 was one of the first in generations to take the ideology of both colonists and British politicians seriously. Rather than tell a typical Progressive tale about conflicting classes and the rise of the bourgeois, Morgan intricately analyzed how people used terms like legislation, representation, and taxation, and what it meant for the crisis. He thus paved the way for other works such as Bernard Bailyn's and Gordon Wood's. Still, Morgan's work is in the old narrative and is a magisterial work of storytelling.

One of his most important insights is that colonists never insisted on a difference between external and internal taxes that could and could not, respectively, be imposed by Parliament. This is a myth concocted by a few presenters to the House of Commons, including Benjamin Franklin, who hoped it would smooth repeal. This misunderstanding led to outrage in England when the Townsend Duties of 1767, which focused on "external" taxes, were opposed. The fact that this British misunderstanding crept into the historiography, and has remained there for 60 years even after the Morgans convincingly refuted it, is somewhat depressing.

The authors were also clearly influenced by the rise of McCarthyism, and though they take the complaints of the colonists seriously, they lament the "demagogury" and "madness" of the mobs that enforced non-compliance with the stamp act. They focus on a few putative "Tories," such as Massachusetts Governor Thomas Hutchinson, who were physically assaulted by the mobs even though they often agreed that the Act should be repealed. There unpardonable sin was asking for compromise. Still, the authors don't explain how compromise could be effected with the uncompromising British and Lord Grenville. As one 20th century revolutionary said, a revolution is not a tea party.

[Anthony · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Spirit of '65! Edmund Morgan's Stamp Act Crisis: Prologue to Revolution delivers a highly detailed and scholarly examination of one of the most volatile and politically-charged episodes of the pre-Revolutionary era. We are treated to an analysis of the key players (Colonial Assemblymen, Royal Governors, Colonial Agents, Parliamentarians, Stamp Officers, merchants, pamphleteers, and mob organizers), the key events (passage, resolutions, boycotts, mob violence, political wrangling, repeal, and aftermath), and the key notions (Constitutional rights as Englishmen, 'virtual' representation, inter-colonial union, internal vs. external taxation, colonial perceptions of Parliament's supremacy, and Parliament's perceptions of colonial designs for independence) surrounding the Stamp Act of 1765, Parliament's mis-conceived first attempt to lay internal taxes on her American colonies. Originally published over 60 years ago, this classic work remains the foremost history of the tempestuous period which represents an important first step toward American independence.

[Karen]

* Understanding Oppression: African American Rights (Then and Now)

Resistance and Rebellion: The Morgans' _The Stamp Act Crisis: Prologue to Revolution_ has, for a half-century, been the best overview of the Stamp Act crisis from the American perspective. I don't see that changing in another half-century. It begs, however, for a British companion or transatlantic synthesis. #revolution

[Mark Singer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Concise history of the Stamp Act of 1765 and its effect on the American colonies. The Morgans use a personal narrative to describe men and events but avoid falling into the oral history trap. There are some sympathetic portrayals of the unfortunates who were chosen to enforce the act, as well as the power of the newly formed "Sons of Liberty", the leading citizens of the American cities who organized resistance to the act.

[Noah]

I read this book over the summer for an American history class and learned a lot. I was expecting the same standard for the subsequent books we read. No one, however, was even able to approach the Morgans.

[Jon]

P G T Thomas offers many important revisions to Morgan's story - especially on the Postponement and whether Grenville invited alternate suggestions from the colonial legislatures : Morgan says he did - Thomas shows that he was misunderstood on that point.

[Karen · Rating 2 out of 5]

A Classic example of 1950s top-down, dead white guy history. Women, minorities, and lower classes (other than the mob perspective) are not represented in this monograph. Still, highly usefull for gaining understanding of the Stamp act crisis.

[Taylor Stoermer · Rating 4 out of 5]

For a half-century this book has been the best overview of the Stamp Act crisis from the American perspective. I don't see that changing in another half-century. It begs, however, for a British companion or transatlantic synthesis.