North Carolina played a pivotal role in the American colonies' resistance to the Stamp Act passed by the British Parliament in 1765. Hoping to recoup some of the money spent to retain its possessions in North America, Lord George Grenville's ministry enacted a tax on virtually all printed materials in the colonies. But Grenville and Parliament did not cont on the backlash the tax evoked in the Americans. IN N.C., especially on the Cape Fear, colonials took up arms to prevent what they saw as an unfair assault on their rights as Englishmen, and they did it eight years before the more famous Boston Tea Party. This is that story.