What was the Stamp Act?

The Stamp Act of 1765 was a notorious piece of legislation imposed by the British government on the American colonists. It stipulated that a tax should be paid on every piece of printed paper used. This would include not just legal documents such as contracts and property deeds, but also newspapers, pamphlets, and even playing cards.
As one can imagine, the Stamp Act was hugely unpopular among the American colonists. As well as imposing an additional tax—still without any political representation to go with it—the Act was widely interpreted as an attack on freedom of speech as it inevitably made the primary means of disseminating ideas, such as books, newspapers, and pamphlets, more expensive.
The actual cost of the tax was relatively small, but there was a much bigger principle at stake. Previously, taxes had been imposed as a means of regulating commerce, and were therefore seen as a necessary evil. But the taxes imposed under the Stamp Act were expressly designed to raise revenue to maintain British troops on American soil. The idea of a British standing army was already seen by Patriots as an affront to American liberty; the fact that Americans would actually have to pay for this affront was simply intolerable.
The massive unpopularity of the Stamp Act led to widespread civil disorder and represented a further step on the road to war between Great Britain and her American colonies.