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== Taxes ==
When Parliament passed the Sugar Act of 1764, the British pride felt by Americans quickly began to wane.<ref>Eric Foner, ''[https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0393920291/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0393920291&linkCode=as2&tag=dailyh0c-20&linkId=830d9faf1c14899644e25151f167242f Give Me Liberty! An American History]'', 2nd ed., vol. 1 (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2009), 171.</ref>Although this act did decrease the taxes paid by colonists on imported molasses, the long established practice of smuggling goods in and out of the country, which violated the Navigation Acts of 1651, was no longer feasible.<ref>Foner, 83.</ref>The Sugar Act, along with the simultaneously enacted Revenue Act, was detrimental to coastal merchants. The Revenue Act mandated that wools, hides, and other items that were not previously subjected to the Navigation Acts, were required to pass through England rather than being shipped directly from America to their destinations. This was another yet attempt by King George to attain money from the colonies in order to reduce England’s war debt. American citizens, already feeling the pangs of post war recession, were feeling their economic security threatened.
The disenchantment with Britain, which was slowly simmering, reached a fevered pitch in 1765 with the passage of the Stamp Act; the first direct tax Parliament had levied on the colonies. Whereas all other duties had been paid through trade regulations, this law constituted direct governmental intervention upon a people who had no representation in Parliament. Colonists were of the mind to be dutiful English citizens when they were treated as such. The Stamp Act, which required a stamp purchased through British authorities to be affixed to all printed materials, threatened both the finances and liberties of colonists.<ref>Foner, 171.</ref>While providing the first major split between England and America, the Stamp Act concurrently began to unite the colonies as a nation.
