The Stamp Act of 1765 taxed all legal papers, licenses, newspapers, and leases. The Stamp Act united the colonists in an organized resistance. The main problem was that they weren't allowed to participate in the government that taxed them. In October 1765, 27 delegates from nine colonies met in New York. They passed resolutions saying that the individual colonies should have the right to impose their own taxes. This satisfied most of the delegates, but a small number of radicals wanted independence from Britain. One of those people was Samuel Adams of Massachusetts. He wrote newspaper articles and made speeches. The groups he helped to organize became a big part of the revolutionary movement. By 1773, colonial traders, who were angry with British regulation of the tea trade, were interested in Sam Adams’s ideas. In December 1773, a group of men sneaked on three British ships in Boston harbor and threw the cargo of tea overboard. This event became known as the Boston Tea Party.