The Stamp

1765

The mob of 40 ravenous men, stomping as they marched to the house of the governor made people lock their doors. Like a hungry dog they broke every piece of glass in the large house, tearing the stuffing from couches and pulling back the floor boards.

Luckily Governor Williams had heard from neighbors of the impending mass and escaped minutes before their arrival. The next morning the Governor wrote to his trusted political friend pleading with him to halt any new legislation that might prove "unpopular". "The risks are dire" he said.

At his desk under the light of a white candle, Mr. Franklin read the letter and then sat back in his chair feeling slightly nervous. He had seen and even led battles against Indians on the border lands of Pennsylvania he thought, but these were Americans. He knew some of these men.

Then his eyes fell back to the letter lit by the candle on his desk. On the outside of the envelop he saw the red mark. A stamp. The new taxation on this basic object of everyday society is why those hungry men had splintered the Governors home. But yet there it was. Its power could reach him inside his home, over 80 miles from Philadelphia.

He began to sweat. The same object that was the Governor's crutch, was the gatekeeper for reaching his allies. Without it, could he even even ask for help? Franklin swallowed deeply. There was not a house in the colonies that didn't use that red object. On every kitchen table it sat. It was how they would do it. It was how those 40 men would enter into every family's home without invitation.

This rebellion was bigger than anyone had ever thought.