The Stamp Act Crisis: Prologue to Revolution (Published for the Omohundro Institute of Early American Hist) [Paperback]

Edmund S. Morgan (Author), Helen M. Morgan (Contributor)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0807845132 | ISBN-13: 978-0807845134 | Publication Date: March 20, 1995

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.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Required reading for anyone interested in those eventful years preceding the American Revolution.
—Political Science Quarterly



A brilliant contribution to the colonial field. Combining great industry, astute scholarship, and a vivid style, the authors have sought 'to recreate two years of American history.' They have succeeded admirably.
—William and Mary Quarterly

Impressive! . . . The authors have given us a searching account of the crisis and provided some memorable portraits of officials in America impaled on the dilemma of having to enforce a measure which they themselves opposed.
—New York Times

About the Author

Edmund S. Morgan is Sterling Professor of History Emeritus at Yale University. His many books include American Slavery, American Freedom: The Ordeal of Colonial Virginia and Inventing the People: The Rise of Popular Sovereignty in England and America.

The late Helen M. Morgan was his wife and collaborator.

Product Details

• Paperback: 342 pages
• Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press (March 20, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0807845132
• ISBN-13: 978-0807845134
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.2 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #218,202 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Informative, but Patriotic Bias, November 11, 2000

By 

J. Hart (Oklahoma) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Stamp Act Crisis: Prologue to Revolution (Published for the Omohundro Institute of Early American Hist) (Paperback)

This work is worth the read simply because of the stature of the author. It remains the most comprehensive treatment of the Stamp Act crisis. Morgan's writing is, as always, highly readable. This interpretation disputes the Progressive interpretation that the colonists were acting merely for economic self-interest. Morgan argues that they genuinely believed in the constitutional principles they advocated, and did not simply use them to "get ahead." The writing has an overly Patriotic slant, however, and would have benefitted from information in Lawrence Gipson's "The Coming of the Revolution," which appeared a year after this publication. Students of the era are better served by Morgan's "Birth of the Republic," which covers a broader period and better explains his anti-Progressive thesis. It contains less of the minute detail relating to the crisis, but maintains his argument. I'm a big fan of Morgan's, by the way.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent treatment, November 5, 2007

By 

N. Smith "castle_stormer" (Virginia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Stamp Act Crisis: Prologue to Revolution (Published for the Omohundro Institute of Early American Hist) (Paperback)

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.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The intellectual argument behind the American Revolution, September 30, 2010

By 

T. J. Graczewski "tgraczewski" (Burlingame, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Stamp Act Crisis: Prologue to Revolution (Published for the Omohundro Institute of Early American Hist) (Paperback)

First published over a half century ago, the Morgans' "The Stamp Act Crisis" is still the most well-rounded and penetrating account of the political upheaval of 1764 to 1766 that essentially put the American Revolution in motion. The authors combine the very best of narrative history, with a strong focus on some of the most prominent participants in the crisis, many now only footnotes in history, figures such as James Otis, Daniel Dulaney and John Hughes, with a deep analytical analysis of the constitutional arguments that turned two relatively minor taxes on molasses and paper into a political cause that shook the world's most dominating empire to its foundations.

The Sugar Act was intended to help close the gaping hole in the British treasury after the long war with France. By lowering the duty on molasses, but strictly enforcing the new law, the crown hoped to increase desperately needed revenue while not interfering with the flow of colonial trade. Colonial resistance was immediate and vigorous, their opposition to the Act bolstered by the effects of a post-war recession and new restrictive monetary policy introduced by Parliament that prohibited the use of paper money, which crippled the colonial economy that was starved of specie. Pamphlets, such as that by James Otis, "The Rights of the British Colonies Asserted and Proved," which denied the right of Parliament to tax the colonies, either internally or by duties on trade, unless they granted the colonies direct representation in Parliament, were generated to defend noncompliance with the Act.

The Morgans pay special attention to the work of Maryland lawyer Daniel Dulany, who, in 1765, after reading pamphlets by Soame Jennings, William Knox and especially Thomas Whitley writing for Lord Grenville, authored an essay, "Considerations on the propriety of imposing Taxes in the British Colonies," which refuted their arguments supporting the rights of Parliament to levy a direct tax on the colonists. Dulany directly challenged the principle of virtual representation the tax proponents in England took as a given. Although such great legal minds as Sydney, Burke and Blackstone supported virtual representation, Dulany argued that it didn't apply to the colonies, because a tax raised in the colonies would lower the tax burden of Englishmen, so there was no shared interest, which was the intellectual basis for virtual representation. But he was careful not to dismiss all Parliamentary authority over the colonies. In fact, he was a champion of Parliamentary authority in legislation, which was different from taxation. The Morgans explain that Dulany simply sought to define Parliamentary authority within a constitutional framework. Thus, representation was only needed for taxation, not legislation. He acknowledged the colonies subservience in matters of economics and trade, and accepted Parliament's right to impose duties and regulate trade in its favor.

Ironically, many of the leading British political leaders of the day on both sides of the Atlantic were sympathetic to the intellectual arguments made by the colonists; Pitt even stood up in Parliament and "rejoiced that America resisted." But British lawmakers also realized that acknowledging their claims put London on a slippery slope that could permanently undermine the sovereignty of Parliament. In the end, the issue wasn't whether or not the Stamp Act would be repealed -- the enormous cost of enforcement and nearly unified resistance of the powerful merchant community in England ensured that the Act would be removed. The issue hinged on the understanding of the colonies claims against taxation, which were fiercely contested. Most agreed that there were some difference between internal taxes (those imposed to raise revenue) and external taxes (those imposed to regulate trade); however, few accepted those made by many colonists, Daniel Dulany especially, that legislation and taxation were two very separate things. The distinction between internal and external taxes limited Parliamentary authority much less than that between taxation and legislation. In his dramatic appearance before Parliament during the crisis, Benjamin Franklin had maintained that the colonists only sought to avoid internal taxes and recognized Parliament's right to tax in general. Those pushing for repeal had to downplay the colonists' arguments against general taxation, which created confusion of what really was at issue. In the end, the powerful merchant class movement against the Act on business terms was given credit for its repeal. The Declaratory Act, which repealed the Stamp Act, was based on the 1719 precedent of authority over the Irish and was left deliberately vague on the issue of taxation. It affirmed Parliament's right to authority over legislation "in all cases whatsoever." Most assumed that included taxes, but an explicit reference to taxation was deliberately left out, thus ensuring ambiguity and getting the repeal through Parliament.

When Pitt was made head of government in 1766, replacing Rockingham, it was believed that the staunch defended of colonial rights would interpret the Declaratory Act they way that the colonists did and that Parliament would never tax them again. However, a few prescient colonists recognized what Parliament had really done with the Declaratory Act: before they claimed Parliament could tax because the colonists were virtually represented; now they were able to claim that Parliament could tax because they officially declared that they could. The stage was set for the final confrontation, one that would determine the political fate of a continent and, ultimately, an empire.

"The Stamp Act Crisis" is likely one of the dozen best, most enduring books on the colonial period and Revolution written in the past century. Not a light, popular history, it is for more serious students of American history rather than the casual crowd, although I would encourage the book to any thoughtful reader.