In May, 1765, during a debate in Parliament about the Stamp Act some members realized that the colonies in America would strongly react to the new tax. Among the debaters was French and Indian War veteran Colonel Issac Barre who called the Americans "sons of liberty" who would not surrender their rights.
After the arrival of the stamps for the Stamp Act the radicals realized they did not have enough support to storm the warehouse where the stamps were stored, so they marched on the Governor's Mansion in early January, 1766. James Wright, Royal Governor of Georgia and a loyalist, confronted these "Liberty Boys" alone, with a musket. The next day stampmaster George Angus landed in Savannah and stayed for one day.
Compared to the other colonies before the American Revolution, Georgia was a unique environment. The rough and rowdy political world was not nearly as refined as the colonies to the north because much of the state was still frontier. Being English, each of the colonies had formed a government similar in structure to England. Men who owned land or payed taxes elected a body of lawmakers, headed by a governor appointed by the king. Although the structure had been in place for many years in the northern colonies, it was relatively new to Georgia, starting in 1754. England and the colonists viewed these lawmakers as subordinate to Parliament.
Reacting to the Stamp Act in 1765, Virginia's House of Burgesses passed 4 of 5 resolutions proposed by Patrick Henry. The Virginia Resolves stated that only Virginians have the authority to tax themselves. The fledgling American newspaper industry picked up the story and spread it across the colonies. Reaction in Georgia to the Virginia Resolves ignited the Radical movement, although there seemed to be extreme differences from county to county.