If there was an unofficial motto and rallying cry among the citizens and the army of English America, it had to be “no taxation without representation.” The Americans were already seething about treatment as second-class citizens, particularly in the army under British commanders, when Britain added fuel to the fire by passing a tax on stamps required to mark all official documents. It was a grand miscalculation, and the first step towards pushing the colonists into declaring independence.

On this day, March 18, in 1766, faced with massive resistance both legal and popular, the British Parliament cancelled the Stamp Act. Protests sprang up all over the colonies, particularly heavy in in the Northeast, with vigilante justice threatened on anyone who dared pass stamped paper.

It was not just not mob rule that forced Britain to reconsider: an eloquent petition came from a gathering of representatives from the states. The Stamp Act Congress met for twelve days straight, and the final resolution sent to Parliament with several of the delegates. The importance was not lost on any of them: “If I really wished to see America in a state of independence,” remarked one,” I should desire as one of the most effectual means to that end that the stamp act should be enforced.”