Teaching with Slides: The History of the Visual Resources Collection at Yale
Item
Circular from Henry Seymour Conway to the Governors of Jamaica, Grenada, and Bahama Islands, Outlining Repeal of the Stamp Act, April 10, 1766
Title
Circular from Henry Seymour Conway to the Governors of Jamaica, Grenada, and Bahama Islands, Outlining Repeal of the Stamp Act, April 10, 1766
Description
The origins of the Stamp Act lay not only in Seven Years' War debt, but above all in the staggering new costs of frontier defense and the devastating impact of Native American warfare on colonial frontier settlements in Pontiac's War (1763 –1764). Despite Prime Minister George Grenville's enthusiastic support, the Stamp Act met with an avalanche of protest from Patriot Whigs in the American colonies and in Britain. This circular, which informed American colonists of the Stamp Act's repeal by Parliament in 1766, shows that Britain's mainland North American colonies were not the only ones expected to finance governance; the Caribbean colonies, too, found themselves facing the Stamp Act, but unlike the reactions in the thirteen colonies further north, these tensions never led them to declare independence from Britain.
Contributor
Lewis Walpole Library, Yale University Library
Relation
Henry Seymour Conway Papers (1743-1784, bulk 1760s)This collection is central to the reconstruction of political thought, military strategy and imperial conceptualization in mid-eighteenth century Britain, providing unique insight into the political debates leading up to the American Revolution from a British politician, diplomat and military officer who was sympathetic to the American cause.Extent: 13 volumesSummary:Henry Seymour Conway (1721-1795) was at the center of British politics in the run-up to the American Revolution as a self-described British patriot and a famous advocate for the American cause. His testimony paints a less familiar portrait of the American Revolution and British-American political conflict. This collection of Henry Seymour Conway Papers consists of three sections: 9 volumes of diplomatic correspondence; 4 volumes of military correspondence; and 61 letters to his brother, Francis Seymour Conway (1718-1794). These letters contain exciting firsthand accounts of contentious debates in British Parliament in the years of conflict with the American colonies. However, Seymour Conway's interests extended outside of the rising conflict in America. He wrote extensively about military campaigns in the Seven Years' War, his own feud with George Grenville, diplomatic relations with Russia, Poland, Prussia, Spain, Germany and Canada and the problems facing the status of Ireland in the Empire.
