NEW YORK ]\fAY 7, 1870.. [r,,[C~10c.,Ta. ~;~.i:i,rOc.
. .., ., . _ I~te /> , 'l'.IilI OOlo(l\:.n, ¥i.'f. IIcr.Nt ON TIlE PIER 01' '.I:IlS 1''\01F10 lUlL S1E.liiBBl.P OOW'ANY, SoUl FIl.AN01.SOO-.PASSE."lQEMDlll.EllW ..Wto;a Ul.l .lU:Ci1l BEG".JVU) flY THElR F.B.IE:.'ID$.-.r1~" ... &I:z.."'QIl' n O~ ~ Autn.-$u 1'.... 1111. 62 Goodbye Patrick S. Washburn, Ohio University 63 Stories of Today: Rebecca Harding Davis' Investigative Fiction Mark Canada, University of North Carolina-Pembroke -4 The Colonial Virginia Press and the Stamp Act: An Expansion of Civic Discourse Roger P Mellen, New Mexico State University 86 Popular Chinese Images and "The Coming Man" of 1870: Racial Representations of Chinese Mary MCronin, New Mexico State University, and William E. Huntzicker, Minneapolis 100 When Elm Street Became Treeless: Journalistic Coverage of Dutch Elm Disease, 1939-80 Phillip J Hutchison, University of Kentucky no Standing By: Police Paralysis, Race, and the 1964 Philadelphia Riot Nicole Maurantonio, University of Richmond 122 Book Reviews, Katherine A. Bradshaw, Editor Ed Kennedys Wtzr: V-E Day, Censorship, and the Associated Press, by Julia Kennedy Cochran, ed. Children,War, and Propaganda, by Ross F. Collins Journalism and Realism: Rendering American Lift, by Thomas B. Connery Baldwin of the Times: Hanson W Baldwin, A Military journalists Lift, 1903-1991, by Robert Davies Out on Assignment: Newspaper Women and the Making of Modern Public Space, by Alice Fahs Dangerous Ambition: Rebecca West and Dorothy Thompson, New Women in Search of Love and Power, by Susan Hertog Housework and Housewives in American Advertising: Married to the Mop, by Jessamyn Neuhaus Branding Obamessiah: The Rise of an American Idol by Mark Edward Taylor Deftnding White Democracy: The Making of a Segregationist Movement and the Remaking of Racial Politics, 1936-1965, by Jason Morgan Ward jOlfl71alisllJ History is published four times a year by the E.W Scripps made out to Ohio University, to: Michael S. Sweeney, jOlfmalislJI History ~ of Journalism at Ohio University. Articles and reviews in the jour- E.w. Scripps School of Journalism, Ohio University, Athens, Ohio 45701. n:L apress the opinions of the authors and are not necessarilythose of For permission to use copyrighted material before VoL 16: 3-4, please :De editors. contact the Department of Journalism, California Slate University- North- The annual subscription rate is $20 for individuals, $65 for institutions, ridge, Northridge,Calif. 91330-0001. For permission to use copyrighted :..II!:IC SIS for students. For subscriptions outside North America, please add material from Vol. 16: 3-4 to Vol. 26, please contact the Hank Grecnspun .i'.2 per year. Single copies may be ordered for $10 apiece. ISSNNumber: School of Communication, University of Nevada-Las Vegas, Box 45507, eu..-6-9. Those wishing to subscribe should send a check or money order, 4505 Maryland Parkway, Las Vegas, Nev. 89154-5007. ©2012 E.\V Scripps School of Journalism ROGER P. MELLEN The Colonial Virginia Press and the Stamp Act An Expansion of Civic Discourse The Stamp Act, which was imposed on the American colonies by the British government in 1765, was an essential prefoce to the American Revolution. Historians have observed that it brought about an important transition for colonial printers, politicizing them and turning them into influential purveyors of propaganda. The act had a critical impact on print culture in Virginia, which was the largest of the colonies and one that was crucial to the formation of a new nation. This study helps to clarify an historical debate regarding the colonial printers' supposed unanimous opposition to the tax. Focusing on the print-related cultural shifts of this period, it concludes that a newly critical Virginia press and an accompanying broadening civic discourse led to a new regardfor freedom of the press. he colonial Virginia press rook a dramatic (Urn away from limitations had serious political and social consequences because censorship and toward dissent during the Stamp An crisis. the printer was the sole gatekeeper for information published in This change cannot simply be explained by the evolving the one mass medium based in the colony. I With managemem over T the selection and distribution of messages, me printer-or anyone political situation; it also was the result of an increase in print competition and an overall increasing influence of print at that who controlled him-had a great deal of influence over political time. The hated tax imposed by the English Parliament in 1765 discourse in the colony. marked the beginning of an alteration in the role of all colonial The British ministry appeared to have aimed the Stamp Act newspapers and their printers and was most dramatic in Virginia, directly at those with this influence and the disseminators of such where the controversial stamp tax law polarized political opinion dissidence, and members of a new, more broadly based civic public and led to dissatisfaction with the only printer in the colony. While saw their most important source of information threatened by most of the mid-Atlantic and northern colonies had more than one government action. The ourcry was immediate and the subsequent printer, leading [0 competition for customers and a wider range changes were dramatic. The subordinate relationship of the printer of printed viewpoints, the more rural colony of Virginia did not. to the royal governor in Virginia soon gave way to a much more Contemporaries expressed the opinion that the royal governor kept adversarial role, political dissidence became more evident on the tight control over the only printer and the output of his press. Such printed page, and new radical political ideas eventually led to the Revolution and to the protection of press freedom. Locally printed ROGER P. MELLEN is an associate pro- material, such as pamphlets and newspapers, helped to drive this fessor in the Department of Journalism change, and that same printed material particularly reflected this 6- Mass Communications at New Mexico transformation. State University. Ibis article is an exten- The American Stamp Act of 1765 was a watershed event in sion of a chapter in his book, The Origins the relations between Great Britain and her colonies and was a of a Free Press in Prerevolutionary Virgin- major part of the dispute over taxes and representation that led to ia: Creating a Culture of Political Dissent. the American Revolution. The British ministry designed the tax ro defray the cost of defending the American colonies, but those politicians did not anticipate the intense opposition that ensued. 74 [ournatism History 38:2 (SlIl!1mer2012) In the summer of 1764, new Prime Minister George Grenville society could not afford them.Even low-income farmers usually warned colonial governors that his government was considering could afford an annual almanac," but this tax raised the price by a stamp tax in the colonies. It was one of several taxes imposed two pence or more. Michael \XT...rnertheorized in 1990 that "it was to help pay the debt incurred from fighting the French and the an attempt by authority to curtail civil liberty" by restricting press Indians in the Seven Years' War and the continued posting of freedom." However, evidence from historians, British records, and British soldiers on the frontier to protect colonists.Parliament Grenville's papers do nor support this claim. Whatever the intent, passed an act for "granting and applying certain stamp duties, and by challenging the printers' viability, the tax had the effect of other duties, in the British colonies and plantations in America, strengthening the ties among the printers and among the separate cowards further defraying the expenses of defending, protecting, colonies, thereby increasing printed dissidence." and securing the same," which was to take effect on November Adams observied that reaction from the colonies was sharply 1, 1765. The tax required legal and business documents to be negative: "In every colony, from Georgia to New Hampshire printed or issued only on paper with a inclusively, the stamp distributors and royal stamp. Legal and business forms inspectors have been compelled by were to be taxed from three pence to "The Stamp Act put the unconquerable rage of the people six pounds, paperwork for indentures to renounce their offices... .Our from 2.5 [0 5 percent, almanacs two Virginia printer Joseph Royle, presses have groaned, our pulpits have pence and up, newspapers a halfpenny as well as all colonial printers, thundered, our towns have voted; to a penny per sheet, and advertisements the crown officers have everywhere in newspapers two shillings. College in an untenable political trembled.?" There was no stamped paper students would have to pay two pounds available as popular pressure forced to matriculate and another two pounds and financial bind. the resignation of the stamp officials to graduate while lawyers were to pay and prevented importation of stamped ten pounds for admission to the bar. It forced them to decide paper. II The Maryland Gazette stated that Penalties for paper without the stamps it was being forced to stop publishing were substantial: from forry shillings to whether to stop printing, because of the uncertainry of rhe cost of rwenty pounds.Residents of England stamped paper and asked subscribers to were among the most heavily taxed in publish without stamps and pay more before printing could resume: Europe, and Grenville assumed that the face prosecution, or attempt "Bur even that advanced Price cannot colonists would be willing to pay their yet be known, as the Paper, the -- share of defending American lands. to get expensive stamped paper Stamped Paper, Must be Bought of the The outcry from the colonies and their -- Stamp Master, but what Sort or Size allies in England caught the ministry and risk angering many critics, of Paper, or at what Price, it is impossible 2 unprepared." yet to tell." I Jonas Green and his partner who opposed any payment William Rind filled their Gazette with comments sharply critical of the tax and hough there were precedents of the tax. " jJor such a stamp tax, several notices that they could no longer publish ifferences led to the colonists' the newspaper. The last regular issue on refusal to pay (his levy. In England, a October 10, 1765, had a new statement stamp tax of one penny per sheet of paper, plus an additional tax in the masthead,"The Maryland Gazette, Expiring: In uncertain on advertisements, had been in effect since 1712. While the stated Hopes of a Resurrection to Life again." The newspaper referred to purpose was to raise revenues, it also served to restrict newspaper the scamp deadline as "That Dooms Day" with a special typeface circulation.' Such a stamp tax on the American colonies had to emphasize the morbidity. A story on the same page noted that been suggested as far back as 1722.4 Even the colonies had used while stamps had arrived in Boston, threats of public action against stamp taxes: Massachusetts passed its own stamp tax in 1755, and them led the heavily guarded ship not to bring them into the New York in 1757.Parliament's 1765 act was different, however, port. Instead, the hated stamps remained locked up in a fortress because it was an internal tax rather than a tax on trade (which in the harbor: "Tis said those detestable Stamps are to be lodged colonists had learned to accept), and it was viewed as taxation at the Castle, and there to remain till further Orders from Home, without representation. The local assemblies did not vote on it; there being at present no Demand here for such a superfluous instead it was enacted by a Parliament lacking any delegates from Commodity,"!' Green continued to publish supplemental issues the colonies. Of greater importance for publicity and propaganda, with such names as, "Third and Last Supplement to the Maryland it also hit American printers hard and in the process radicalized Gazette, of the Tenth Instant" and "An Apparition of the Maryland them, which virtually assured that all the colonists would be well- Gazette which is not dead, but only sleeperh.?" On the bottom of informed about why this tax should never be paid." the first page on one issue, Green printed a skull and crossbones Contemporaries saw the tax as intentionally aimed at sources outlined in a thick, black border, with the headline, "The Fatal .of dissidence, and some historians agree. John Adams wrote STAMP." " that the ministry was intentionally trying "to strip us in a great Meanwhile, only one issue of the Virginia Gazette from that measure of the means of knowledge, by loading the press, the year is extant, and while it included much on rhe unpopularity of colleges, and even an almanack and a newspaper, with restraints the tax, it contained none of the theatrics included in the Maryland and dunes." With the price going up, printed material would Gazette. Comparison of these two newspapers from neighboring not be distributed as widely nor as far down the economic ladder. colonies affords a better understanding of political bias of the And if newspapers were more expensive, the poorest members of Virginia press. JournalislJI History 38:2 (SullImer 2012) 75 S,uP'PL~MEN T' 0 ,~T" H, £ VIRGINIA~',,:GA • For (Photographs courtesy of the Library of Congress, Serial and Government Publications Division) The Stamp Act put Virginia printer Joseph Royle, as well as taxes] largely on the printers, lawyers and merchants who, along all colonial printers, in an untenable political and financial bind. with the clergy, formed the most literate and vocal elements of It forced them to decide whether to stop printing, publish without the population." 19 He noted newspaper opposition was unanimous stamps and face prosecution, or attempt to get expensive stamped and concluded that, in response to this tax, the press presented a paper and risk angering many critics, who opposed any payment rare united front." of the tax. For newspapers, the [ax might have added a direct cost Neither Schlesinger's assumption about the printers' influence of only 4 percent. The price of pamphlets would have escalated nor his conclusion regarding the unanimity of printers' opposition even more with a tax of up to one shilling for each four pages on to the Stamp Act can withstand closer examination. While he a document that typically would have cost less than twO shillings. posited a powerful press influence, he had no SUppOf( for causality, The tax on almanacs was 27 percent or more, bur no tax was placed whether the press caused the dissent or rather reflected public on books. Two hidden COStSadded ro the expense beyond the tax: opinion. As Stephen Bocein wrote in 1975, historians had often printers had to purchase imported paper from London that had overstated the role of the press in the radicalization of American been stamped, instead of using cheaper paper made in the colonies, politics." Sociologisr Michael Schudson observed in 2003 that and taxes had to be paid in hard-to-come-by sterling instead of while claims regarding media influence are common, they are colonial currency. 16 Thus, all colonial printers faced tough choices nearly impossible to prove. Critical analysis often reveals that any chat politicized the output of their presses. The newspapers of both effect assumed is indeed not that of the media; rather what is being of the Chesapeake colonies rook a shorr hiatus, perhaps for fear of reported has the actual influence.P Regarding the unanimity of the the penalties for not paying a tax that there was no way of paying.'? primers' reaction, comemporary printer and early historian Isaiah Not all historians have agreed on why the new tax generated Thomas had first-hand knowledge of the stamp tax opposition, its such stiff defiance. The prevalent theory was that the colonists effect on printers, and their reaction to it: "[S]ome of the more united against the Stamp Act because it was a tax on their internal opulent and cautious printers, when the act was to rake place, put affairs, something Parliament had previously lefr to local legislatures. their papers in mourning, and, for a few weeks, omitted to publish In their 1995 definitive history of the Stamp Act crisis, Edmund them; ochers not so timid, but doubtful of the consequences of Morgan and Helen Morgan undermined the internal tax theory publishing newspapers without stamps, omitted the tides, or and concluded what emerged was an important reaffirmation of the altered them as an evasion.Y' He suggested that opposition to principle of taxation only by representative government. Another the tax was not universal, ranging from opposition to neutrality, important aspect of their work was they recognized the Stamp Act with no American printers supporting the act but some rather as uniting the various colonies against the tax and the newspapers weak in their opposition. He reported that in both Virginia and had an important role in spreading information among regions." New Hampshire, some patriots thought the colony's sole press Arthur Schlesinger concluded in 1958 that the Stamp Act's was under the influence of crown officials and brought in a second impact on printed material generated a universal opposition from printer at the time of the Stamp Ace." More recent research on colonial printers and they became a crucial influence on public colonial printers and the Stamp Act has supported Thomas' claims opinion. He suggested the importance of American newspapers in and has concluded that while no American printers supported the rallying opposition to new British taxes and argued the Stamp Act tax, their opposition was not as universal as Schlesinger posited. changed the actual role of printers in colonial America, transforming The research in this study suggests the Maryland printer was more them from merely transmitters of ideas to actual makers of opinion. visibly opposed to the Stamp Act than his Virginia counterpart, He also saw the Stamp Act as an unprecedented internal tax: "as who took a more moderate editorial position. Thus, the printer though deliberately to provoke resistance, it saddled them [the who was more financially dependent on-and therefore more easily 76 [oumatissr 1-£;sIOlJ'38:2 (SlIIlIlJler 2012) controlled by the royal governor-was less firm in his opposition to the stamp tax." 'the MARrLANn GAZETTE, Mayn 1765, firebrand Patrick Henry succeeded in getting suppOrt for some p Istrong declarations against the Stamp E x I R I N G Act, but many in Virginia would nor read about it for some time. After heated debate, the House of Burgesses passed In'"~'"Hopesof a Refurreition to LIFE again. the Virginia Resolves: "That the General Assembly of this Colony, with the Consent of his Majesty, or his Substitute, HAVE the [XXI" Yeac.] THURSDAY, OElober IO, [N° . .066.] Sole Right and Authority to lay Taxes and Impositions upon It's [sic] Inhabitants." It then went on to insinuate strongly that Parliament was destroying American freedom.P These challenging words were never printed in the Virginia newspaper. According to the Morgans, "the resolves were too much for Joseph Royle, the conservative editor of the Virginia Gazette. He failed to print them, and consequently other colonies got news of Virginia's action from the more ardent supporters of the resolutions, instead of obtaining a relatively reliable text from a publication in the colony icself.'?" Meanwhile, the resolves were published in Maryland and in other newspapers throughout the colonies. Several letters appeared in the Maryland Gazette, complaining about the resolves not being printed in Virginia. The demand for civic discourse, including controversial B 0 S TON, S'II ... "" ;1. .NC pt. Hulme from London, i, come about criticism of the British government, ,+ Iiox•• of n.",ptd raper. d.r,gnerl (or Iho Ufe of ,hi. Prov;noo. N~w.H.o>pfbi,e, created tension between the public and .nd !tbode.In.nd i _ ,hor. for (.:Qnnoc· Itic", ·'i. f"d "'er. 10 be forwardedin a the Virginia colony's sole mass-media V"'l bound m Nr.w.York. C.pt. Hulme ..... l''',dod in by ,h. Jam.ie. Sloop of War and 0.(. ,,,CotteT, .nd now retn,i •• "' Aochor in King gatekeeper. Williamsburg printer Royle lo.d •• dor Ih.ir'Prot.lbo~·: 'Ti. (lid tbof. de· complained in August about the accuracy ~:~~ S::~:n'7il;o f~;,~:;g~;.~:h~r~~n~~::. . tIo.. wing" prof,., no Oem.. d kete (CT {"oka of the resolves printed elsewhere: "It is IlIp JournalisllI I-Jistory 38:2 (.)lfllllJJer 2012) 77 "This Paper has never had Occasion to appear in Deep Mourning, no one individual should be punishable for transacting business without stamped paper; none was available because the people as since the Death of our late good King until NOW."33 This criticism, a whole prevented stamps from being Imported. There was a shore disguised as a compliment to the king's late father, appeared along with other notices by the primer and had no dateline or source item on New York's Royal Governor Cadwallader Colden greeting listed, so the printer was the likely author. 1his was powerful representatives to the Stamp Act Congress: "He received them very anti-royalist sentiment, the likes of which had certainly not coldly, and wid them that the Meeting of the Commissioners was been seen in any Virginia Gazette. The few extant issues of the unconstitutional, unprecedented, and unlawful." Several items Williamsburg newspaper from before 1766 displayed a remarkably regarding what took place at the Congress and who attended conservative and apologetic framing, defensive of Parliament's followed. One noted the Virginia governor prorogued the assembly, position. In general, the Maryland Gazette of this period had not allowing members to meet as scheduled." Several items from England ridiculed the parry in power for bringing back a disgraced much greater emphasis on opposition (0 the Stamp Act while the minister and praised the "Great Patriot Virginia Gazette focused more on the Mr. [William] Pitt," the former prime governmental viewpoint. This is nor to minister now in great favor with the insinuate rhac dissent never appeared in "Two issues of the two Americans." Overall, the Maryland the Virginia press, but Royle appeared newspaper contained a great deal of to make editorial choices thar would newspapers from 1765afford politically dissenting material with few not anger me governor. The newspaper articles appearing royalist in nature. published by Green (and earlier with a direct comparison supporting In contrast, Royle's Virginia Gazette Rind) in Annapolis showed much less contained warnings against opposition evidence of royal influence (han did the postulation of differing to the British action. A speech by Royle's newspaper. The Maryland printer biases. Ibe Annapolis paper Massachusetts' royal governor, Francis rook risks that the lone Virginia primer Bernard, taking up most of the first page, did not, perhaps because Maryland was put out an October 24, admonished and threatened legislators a proprietary colony where the king for refusing to obey British law.He called granted the territory to George Calvert, 1765, supplement, and the upon the assembly to help enforce the Lord Baltimore, rather than a royal Stamp Act, decried recent acts of violence colony such as VirginiaY Thus, without Williamsburg paper against public officials, and declared a royal governor appointed by the king, the colony on the precipice of disaster, political pressure from London was less published a supplement warning of "the consequences if you direct in Maryland. While Virginia's on the next day. Tbe contrast should suffer a confirmed disobedience of governor complained about "the lawless this act of Parliament to take place." This and riotous State of this Colony" and between the two supports long article was supportive of the royal prorogued the assembly so they could position."? The second page reported not elect representatives to the Stamp Act the conclusion that Green's apologies for instances of mob violence Congress, Maryland's Governor Horatio against court justices in smaller cities Sharpe, appointed by the proprietor, newspaper was more whiggish in Massachusetts. The identical story asked his assembly what action he should about the New York governor meeting take when the stamped paper arrived in or patriot in its leanings, and the Stamp Act Congress delegates ran as the colony.35 Royle's was more royalist or in the Maryland paper, noting the same letter from Rhode Island as the source. wo issues of the two newspapers conservative politically. " One story from London indicated hope from 1765 afford a direcr that the Stamp Act would be repealed comparison supporting me T and another noted that the appointed postulation of differing biases. The Annapolis paper pur out an October 24, 1765, supplement, and Stamp Act discrlburor for North Carolina resigned following the Williamsburg paper published a supplement on the next day. public pressure. However, the Williamsburg paper did not mention The contrast between the two supportS the conclusion that Green's proroguing of the Virginia assembly.A story on page three detailed newspaper was more whiggish or patriot in its leanings, and Royle's the unfriendly reception that the appointed distributor of stamps for was more royalist or conservative politically." Virginia received when he arrived in Williamsbutg from England. The Annapolis newspaper featured a full-page copy of the George Mercer "was accosted by a concourse of Gentlemen "Remonstrance of the Freeholders and Freemen of Anne-Arundel assembled from all pafts of the colony, the General Court sitting at County" that was sent to the colony's assemblymen. This was a sharp this time. They insisted he should immediately satisfy the company protest of the Stamp Act, arguing it was a tax passed by Parliament (which constantly increased) whether he intended to act as a without their representation: "How then in Point of Natural or Commissioner under the Stamp Act."40 This first-hand report of the incident was highly negative of the crowd's reaction to Mercer, Civil Law, are we rightly chargeable, or liable (0 be burdened, by the Stamp-An, attempted to be imposed upon us by the Mother demonstrating bias toward the official British position and being Country? Have we assented to it personally or representatively?" the opposite of the Maryland paper with the similar date. Clearly, This radical political protest argued against the claim of "virtual Royle was politically allied with the royal governor, a situation that representation," alleged the tax was a violation of Maryland's was generating unrest among those Virginians who were critical of charter, and requested that delegates be sent to the Scamp Act the British government. Congress. On the next page, a short letrer to the printer argued that This new tax placed the Virginia printer in the middle of a [onrnalism History 38:2 (Sull//lJer2012) 78 power struggle, but exploring the few financial records available determined, his daybooks show that he received £1,742.19.00 in reveals much about potential political restrictions on the content credit sales of non-book items for the last two years (1764,-65) of while at the same time uncovering an expansion of viewpoints his life with part of this income from the newspaper, stationery being disseminated. As a printer, Royle was at both the center sales, and post office revenues." As the almanac sales are known of growing commercial activity and the intellectual heart of the to have been quite profitable, it can be assumed that figure also colony. Williamsburg was the market hub for a region without must have been considerable.f'' fu David Rawson suggested, the an urban center, and his shop was a retail cutler for the entire role of the printer at this time began to shift from "a dispenser colony. His printing office journals, or daybooks, exist only for of privileged and controlled information, whose success was part of 1750-52 and 1764-66, but they indicate a substantial tied to government contracts," to one more tightly bound to trade in books, stationery, business forms, legal blanks, almanacs, the commercial marketplace, which sought a wider variety of newspapers, postal services, and other miscellaneous items. A informacion." Thus, while Royle still received £375 per year from particularly important income source the colony's government, the importance for this Virginia tradesman came from of this subsidy lessened as the retail printing official documents." The business increased. colony's governmem paid him and his "Pamphlets of this period TI,e types of books sold and the predecessors to print laws and the Journal helped broaden the range demography of the customers had shifted of the House of Burgesses. The House of by this time as welL While a majority of Burgesses voted on this appointment, of people involved in political sales was to the gentry-planters and which then had (0 be approved by other members of the wealthy elite-an the Governor's Council as well as the conversations in Virginia. increasing amount of business was with royal governor. The annual salary was the middling classes, craftsmen, tavern increased from 200 ro 350 pounds a year Thepolitical pamphlet was an keepers, and merchants, but there is no in 1762, and again to 375 pounds a year evidence that sales were made to those in 1764, and printers also sometimes got important aspect lower in the social scale, such as wage additional personal and governmental workers, subsistence farmers, servants, work from the governor for additional of the dramatic rise or slaves. The types of books sold shifted pay." The Williamsburg primers also ran of the political press as well in this period. The number of a post office, so Royle received income religious works dropped dramatically, as the local postmaster, but this lucrative in the colonies political tracts increased, and there was position was subject to the whims of the even a trend toward the new novels. British governmem and anyone invoking by the mid-eighteenth century, Controversial works began to appear, the wrath of the royal governor was starting with dissenting religious tracts likely to lose this job. As colonists began and this encouraged and eventually pamphlets on politically to take divergent positions over the divisive subjects such as the Parson's Stamp Act dispute, printers had difficult wider political debate. " Cause and the Stamp Acc.48 The editorial decisions to make, any of which demand for politically oriented books could subject them to possible financial and pamphlets increased by 1765 while disaster.v Anger the governor, who supported the official British demand for religious and classical works noticeably decreased." position, and the Virginia printer could lose royal support and Pamphlets of this period helped broaden the range of people his governmem salary. Anger the burgesses, a majority of whom involved in political conversations in Virginia. The political opposed the Stamp Act, and Royle also could lose his government pamphlet was an important aspect of the dramatic rise of the salary. Anger potential customers, who were on both sides of the political press in the colonies by the mid-eighteenth century, and issue, and he could lose considerable retail business. Printers had this encouraged wider political debate." Iconoclastic thought first no stamps or stamped paper to allow them to print legally, but appeared in pamphlets printed in Williamsburg as part of the if they stopped priming altogether, they would lose income and Great Awakening, when a dissenter paid primer William Hunter to anger the patriots by not defying the tax. On the other hand, if print several works. Writings from both sides in the Parson's Cause, they primed without stamps, they risked an expensive prosecution. beginning in 1758, were the first apparent political pamphlets Sources of revenue were shifting for the Williamsburg printer. from the Virginia press. Even in that controversy over pay between Retail products were becoming more important, and the major political and religious leaders, some voices could not get printed source of printing income was no longer government work but in Williamsburg and were forced to turn to Annapolis." In 1765, rather the private output of the press: primarily newspapers, the Burgess Landon Carter sent a pamphlet against the Stamp Act to yearly "almanack," printed forms, handbills, lottery tickets, and Royle, asking the printer to make public his threat to resign from the occasional pamphlet or book. While the office printed its own public office in reaction to the move to tax Americans without their books, bound books, and even had a papermaking facility, most approval. He referred to Great Britain's Parliament as "submitted of the books sold there were printed in England." The printer's to anticonstitutional measures" and to the Stamp Act as a "blow. records indicate a growth in customers faster than the rate of the . fatal to American Freedom .... [T)o be a Representative of a colony's population increase, an expanding range of the social People divested of Liberty is to be a real Slave."? Royle apparently class of his customers, and a shift in the content of books between refused to print this, perhaps because of the governor's infiuence.v 1752 and 1766. Royle made an estimated profit of £240 per year His office records indicate that pamphlets were typically produced on book sales alone, more than double what his predecessor had only when the author or another sponsor paid for the whole lot, made just fifteen years earlier. While his total profits cannot be but (he primers would share the responsibility for selling them [ourna/ism History' 38:2 (SulJlmer 2012) 79 and they also would sell pamphlets produced outside the region. of power.v' Instead of having to send all mail through England, Royle's successor, Alexander Purdie, ran an advertisement in the the official post now could deliver directly between colonies with Virginia Gazette for Richard Bland's pamphlet denouncing the overland couriers from Philadelphia through the southern colonies Stamp Act, ''An Inquiry into the Rights of rhe British Colonies," to Charleston, and by 1775, there was a weekly courier south from which sold for 1 shilling, 3 pence." Bland argued forcefully against Philadelphia through the Chesapeake region to South Carolina. (;5 taxing the colonies without their approval and against the concept Private letters and public news were traveling much faster than just that the colonists were "virtually, represented in Parliament," and a half-century earlier with newspapers being exchanged between accused those favoring the tax of attempting rc "to fix Shackles colonies and printers for free and at greater speeds.s' By 1765, the upon the American Colonies."? One of rhe best known pamphlets, Virginia newspaper was reporting what happened in Philadelphia, Daniel Dulany's Considerations on the Propriety of Imposing Taxes Boston, and New York just two to four weeks earlier without the on the British Coloniesfor the purpose of raising a Revenue by Act news having first to travel through England.67 of Parliament, was printed in Maryland The shift driven by postal changes in 1765 but sold in Virginia by the next was visible in the source of the stories. year" These pamphlets, along with "By the time of the Stamp Act Just a few decades earlier, there were the newspapers, were an increasingly few articles in the Virginia newspaper important parr of a widening public and increasing political dissent from other colonies except two close debate of political issues in Virginia. neighbors, Maryland and North in the mid-eighteenth century, Carolina." TIle emphasis by the 1760s y the time of the Stamp Act shifted to local and inter-colonial news and increasing political dissent several cultural shifts were and away from England, which was B in the mid-eighteenth century, evident within Virginia society. indicative of major shifts of loyalty and several cultural shifts were evident politics. Both the Virginia and Maryland within Virginia society, First, what was First, what was primarily papers included more stories from primarily an oral culture began to shift the other British-American colonies to one that was primarily print based an oral culture began to shift and fewer from Britain or Europe, as reading and writing became more although items on ministry matters and common." Records portrayed a wider to one that was primarily print Parliamentary debates on the colonies range of reading customers, and clearly did appear regularly. Even the trivial literacy in Virginia had increased; after based as reading and writing items, which once came from England, originally being the exclusive province became more common. " were more likely now to come from of the elite, print culture had spread to New England or the middle colonies. include at least a majority of the white For example, in 1768 there were reports men in the colony." Historian Richard of the latest ships that had arrived in the D.Brown suggested in 1989 that more than half of the white Boston and a lightning strike in Charles-Town, Sourh Carolina, male population of the British-American colonies could read by that had demolished a house although no one was hurt."? There the eighteenth century, but literacy in the Chesapeake colonies was was no obvious reason for including these stories except that considerably lower than in New England, where the predominant all these places were now considered part of the same region as Puritan religion required all of the faithful to read so that they Virginia, and the mails now brought these stories to the printers. could interpret rhe Bible for themselves.>? "In both regions [north Writers were beginning to refer to the colonists as "Americans" and souch] literacy was more frequent among propertied men, instead of Virginians or British-Americans.In 1766, one article bur even the poor were often literate," wrote Brown.s" These criticized unfair raxation on "Americans," and referred to anyone statistics showing that the colonies had a higher reading rate than who supported the Stamp Act as "an enemy to this country," in England helps to alter the view of reading being the exclusive referring to America and not to Britain." Until direct and speedy domain of the Virginia elite in the mid-eighteenth century. Warner communication was established, there could have been no shared found it worth noting that by the end of the century, "more people sense of crisis and no American unity or nation could have been could read than statistics suggest."?' Rawson estimated that by imagined. As Benedict Anderson posited in 1991, a common this period,Virginia was heading toward universal literacy with language and shared primed material, especially newspapers, it permeating the middling sorts, and illiteracy was becoming a helped Virginians (0 shift their views; they saw themselves for (he characteristic only of the lower classes." Newspaper reading had first time not as British but as parr of a new nation." become widespread, and as Schlesinger suggested, these prints were The third cultural shift evident in this period was an increasing an integral part of the move toward independence.f emphasis on consumption and a growing market economy that A second cultural shift was evident in the way that the colonists helped to tie the separate colonies together. Expanded emphasis were becoming more Virginians and Americans and less focused on on consumption was visible in the advertising in the Virginia England. This change was reflected in the popular prints and was newspapet. The percemage of ads in the papers grew over the years. partly driven by the media. By 1765, newspapers in the Chesapeake By the 1760s, advertisements commonly took lip more than a full colonies had changed in several ways. Improvements in the postal page, and often there were more {han two pages. Most common service strengthened the connections between the various British- were advertisements for land to sell, slaves to sell, or runaways American colonies. fu Brown noted, an information revolution was whom their masters wanted returned. One twenty-one-year-old happening at this time, and it was changing society, Transportation man, about six feet tall, was "in want of a young Lady, of a good changes and postal developments, combined with increased family" for marriage." The breadth of what could be found in the education and printing, drove what eventually led to a major shift newspaper advertisements was extolled in verse: 80 [onrnatissr Hissory 38:2 (Jmlllmr 2012) established across space, impersonally, a product of a print culture," If any gentleman wants a wife, Breen wrote.'? Increased consumer marketing, visible on the pages (A partner, as 'tis rerm'd, for life) of the Virginia colony's prints, helped to preface revolutionary An advertisement does the thing, changes. That consumer growth was visible in both of the And quickly brings the pretty thing. Chesapeake colonies' prints, and the newspapers were recognizable If you want health, consult our pages, as one important driver of that growth." You shall be well, and live for ages; This increased personal consumption also was evident in the Our empiricks." to get them bread, Do every thing but raise the dead. growing popularity of taverns and coffeehouses that developed Lands may be had, if they are wanted, into hotbeds of political dissent. In a cultural center such as Annuities of all sorts granred, Williamsburg, which many Virginians visited for court appearances Places, preferments, bought and sold, or other business, people in the taverns and coffeehouses read the Houses to purchase, new and old, newspapers and discussed what was in Ships, shops, of every shape and form, them. Virginians wrote letters, played Carriages, horses, servants swarm, "[AJdvertisements cards, gambled with dice, and joined No matter whether good or bad, in conversations even if they could not We tell you where they may be had. and the popular prints read. for example, Charlton's "Coffee- OUf services you can't express, House" opened for business as early as TIle good we do you hardly guess; in which they appeared There's not a want of human kind, 1755, and newspapers were available for But we a remedy can find." were an important part customers to read." By 1765, Governor Francis Fauquier wrote of sitting there These advertisements and (he of an increasing market with members of the council and popular prints in which they appeared almost being accosted by a Stamp Act were an important parr of an increasing economy and expanding mcb" There were as many as four market economy and expanding or five coffeehouses in Williamsburg, consumer culture that led CO social and consumer culture that led to although not necessarily all at once, political changes, creating a "consumer according to a 1956 research report revolution" in the colonies chat was social and political changes, based on archeological and documentary a critical development prefacing the creating a 'consumer revolution' evidence." The coffeehouses sometimes Revolution.In colonial Virginia, this served liquor, and were often the site of evolution was evident in the public prints in the colonies that was gambling, but the main entertainment of the 1760s. Extending TH. Breen's typically was political discussion because recognition of newspapers as an essential a critical development coffeehouses, as well as taverns, were parr of new marketing techniques, this places to read and discuss the news. study also sees evidence of consumer prefacing the Revolution. " As David Waldstreicher wrote in growth in the Chesapeake colonies' 1997, "Men repaired there (0 read the prints and finds that the newspapers newspapers and discuss politics: they were an important impetus behind that expansion. The printing were ideal sites for these public acts of process, which was the first form of mass production," was an affiliation," such as toasts against importation or for Revolution. integral parr of, and intrinsic to, the beginnings of an important fn brief, they were important locations for the development of a consumer revolution that helped bring competition and new press critical political culture.F freedom to Virginia. As items to buy or sell, the newspapers, plus The movement of religious dissidence was the fourth cultural the increasing number of advertisements within their pages, helped shift observed in the Virginia prints. "New Light" evangelical to expand the economy. Thus, they were a crucial vehicle for the beliefs, practiced by Baptists and Methodists in colonial Virginia, new marketing techniques that drove business and also helped to were a form of dissent against the established church and faith, propel social changes. The relevance was that the increasing market empowering the poor and uneducated and questioning the power economy led to a commonaliry now referred (0 as "a consumer of the religious elites." Such religious dissent was evident in the public sphere," which brought together residents rhroughour the public prints prior to the appearance of political dissent. Some of British-American colonies, which was a key (0 the Revolutionary the earliest issues of the Williamsburg newspaper followed George political changes in the period. Breen noted, "advertising copy Whitefield's preaching both in England and in the colonies, noting might best be seen as fragments of cultural conversations linking the popular response to his message. As early as 1738 in the Virginia ordinary colonists to a larger Atlantic economy."?" This economy Gazette, among the stories of pending war with Spain and details of of consumption connected the Chesapeake residents through trade the lives of royalry, was an observation of Whitefield's popularity: and merchandise and brought a sense of commonality with the "Several Hundred Persons stood in the street during his preaching other British colonies. In a larger sense, the rise of priming and his Sermon, endeavoring to force themselves into the [London] its influence in Virginia was parr of a wider trans-Atlantic rise Church, which was incredibly full early in the Morning."84 By of mercantile capitalism and the consumer revolution. The large 1767, the Gazette included a poem critical of the Methodist style and politically influential colony of Virginia was a critical part of of preaching and an article claimed a Methodist preacher became this evolution and without print competition and the commercial so emotional during a service that he tore up a Bible, and the next and civic discourse it spurred, this development could not have issue had a reader suggesting that perhaps it was a Deist, rather than happened. 111is commercial marketplace was a necessary precedent a Methodist, ripping the religious rexr." Religious debate became for a new American national unity and the Revolution: "trust [was] visible in these popular prints, and this was an important preface to jOlfma/isllI History 38:2 (}lIl1JllIer 2012) 81 critical political discourse. Challenges to the power structure began forced to take the more popular patriots' position. However, he with the Great Awakening, as those non-elites with less education said printers for the most part did not become partisan until we began to insist on being involved in civic conversations." As Rhys decade after the Stamp Act, when the Revolutionary controversy Isaac suggested in 1999, the American Revolution was prefaced in was well developed. That was clearly not the case in the Chesapeake Virginia by this religious and social transformation." colonies.By 1766 in Virginia and Maryland-after Royle had died A fifth cultural shift evident in Virginia was the increased and two printers had competed in Williamsburg-the press became participation in political discourse in the press and increased clearly supportive of the patriot position.Borein and many other debate in public gatherings.Jurgen Habermas viewed such civic historians viewed colonial American newspapers as being driven discourse spurred by printed materials in Europe as a crucial by the marketplace. Commercial concerns, not political ideas, aspect of the transition from monarchy to democracy. Warner drove Franklin's concept of press liberty: "printers were attracted emphasized the relevance of print in this development and saw to the principle because it suited their business interests (0 serve this transition taking place in the British- all customers."?' Thus, in Virginia as in American colonies. The disputes over other colonies, the idea of a press open to taxation by Parliament became a major "Opposition to the Stamp Act all who would pay to express their ideas subject in the newspapers of this period in the commercial marketplace helped and of the discourse that people had in was initially not universal to both expand the reading world and create the foundation for a new concept public spaces.Printed material generated in the colonial press. Virginia's discussions centered on this subject in of liberty of the press." coffeehouses and taverns. Participants printer was cautious and Opposition to the Stamp Act was in civic discourse were initially the initially not universal in the colonial elites, but by 1765, the discussion largely controlled by the royal press. Virginia's printer was cautious and had expanded ro include a larger, largely controlled by the royal governor. middling group, encompassing smaller governor. Civic discourse did Civic discourse did not flower on the farmers, craftsmen, and tradesmen. pages of (he Virginia Gazette prior to This broadening of civic discourse was not flower on the pages 1765, and the political crisis over the essential to the development of political new tax-combined with an expanding Virginia Gazette to dissent, operating for the first time of the prior consumer marketplace-led a demand for an unfettered press. fu a result, print outside of the government. One key to to 1765, and the political crisis understanding what happened in pre- competition came to the colony for revolutionary Virginia is to recognize over the new tax-combined the first time. The Virginia press had that printed material combined with finally broken free from the informal public discussions to create a civic with an expanding consumer censorship by the royal governor. A new public that was independently critical of public discourse critical of government government.ss A growing and changing marketplace-led to a demand began to emerge at the time of the print culture, and the public discourse Stamp Act, due in part to this newly it spawned, played an important role in for an unfettered press." competitive and uncensored print social and political transformations. medium. A simultaneously emerging prim culture not only reflecred this hus, the expanding market nature of colonial society dissidence but, in fact, was a precedent for it, although it was not was a force for expansion of the reading world as well the entire cause of this new dissent. The expanding economy of as a force that made printers tend to avoid anything consumption was an important force behind borh the increasing T importance of books, newspapers, and pamphlets as well as the controversial that might lose them business. Borein noted that colonial printers were more of a working-class "meer mechanic," increasing discourse in public places of consumption. Driven by interested primarily in making money rather than ideologically commercially burgeoning print media, critical political debates driven revolutionaries. But he also noted that the political dispute continued in taverns and coffeehouses, allowing both dissident over the Stamp Act dramatically changed their business and their lawmakers and their constituents to take part in political decisions political outlook: the threatened loss of income brought a dramatic for the first time. Because Virginia was one of the most populist end to printers' usual tendencies to stay out of controversies. The and politically important states in the revolutionary new nation, standard viewpoint had been that a free press meant presenting understanding how this new civic discourse developed is helpful in varied opinions while staying our of extreme disputes that might better understanding how this new nation came about. alienate any business." Benjamin Franklin had suggested in 1731 Cultural change was both reflected in, and driven by, the that commercial pragmatism encouraged neutrality: "Printers are Virginia press of the 1760s. It was the market commodity of print educated in the Belief that when Men differ in Opinion, both that allowed the colonists to relate together in new ways and imagine Sides ought equally to have the Advantage of being heard by the a new community: a nation. In the British-American colonies, it Publick."?" The Stamp Act directly threatened (he printers' business was the new distribution of political pamphlets and newspaper by raising the prices of their products, encouraging many of chern stories among colonies, especially during the Stamp Act crisis, (0 abandon impartiality. In addition, political writing became which helped (Q bring about public support for a new nation." In more popular with an increasingly important consumer marker, contrast to Habermas' public sphere, this colonial discourse began making it financially worthwhile (0 take a more radical stand with the gentry because nobility was virtually nonexistent in the with their printed products. Botein suggested that most printers colonies. It started with a literary focus as in Europe, expanded chen abandoned their normally neutral position, being virtually to include debate on religion, and then matured to incorporate 82 j01lnw/islII Hislo~Jl38:2 (SulJlmer 2012) political debate and dissent.\Xlhile Habermas suggested the civic 1765, I. discourse devolved in later centuries as the capitalistic profit motive "See Morgan and Morgan, The Stamp Act Crisis, 72; and Schlesinger, Prelude consumed it, what occurred in Virginia was that such discourse was to Independence, 68. Illt is not certain if that is the reason rharrhe Virginia newspaper went on hiatus spurred by the beginnings of capitalism, which was an expanding or if it was because of the death of printer Royle.See Isaiah Thomas, The History of market economy. The burgeoning drive for consumption actually Printing in America, With a Biography of Printers 6- an Account of Newspapers, 2nd helped [0 create a broader civic discourse that sharply turned cd., Marcus A. McCorison (1810; reprint, New York: \X!eathervane Books, 1970), rewards dissent, which was influenced by an unpopular new tax 558; and Douglas C. McMurrrie, A History o/Printing in the United Statts; TheStory that hit printers especially hard. The royal governor's control over of the Introduction of the Press and of Its History and Influence During the Pioneer the one press in Virginia led to dissatisfaction, the beginning of Period in Each State of the Union (New York: R.R. Bowker Co., 1936),288. prim competition, and ideas of press freedom that were a crucial IS Morgan and Morgan, The Stamp Act Crisis. Printers would freely reprint precedent to the new nation's First Amendment guarantee of press from other newspapers sent ro them (rom England and other colonies. freedom. 19 Schlesinger, Prelude to Independence. 68. 20 lbid., 68, 82. 11 Stephen Borcin, "Meer Mechanics' and an Open Press: the Business and NOTES Political Strategies of Colonial American Printers," in Perspectives in American History, vol. 9 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1975), 128-29. 1 The importance and power of gatekeepers who control the flow of 12 Michael Schudson, The SOciologyof News (New York: Norton, 2003), 63, information is widely recognized. A censor or editor of the newspaper influences 19-20. See also Ben Bagdikian, The Media Monopoly (Boston: Beacon Press, 1983), public debate by selecting what is included in the public prints and what is xvi. omitted. The printers in the eighteenth-century Chesapeake region functioned !J"nlomas, The History of Prinring in America, 16-17. Thomas' contemporary, as the editors-or gatekeepers-with some control or influence by government David Ramsey, in The History of the American Revolution (Philadelphia: R. Aitken authorities. In a society with few mass media, a limited number of gatekeepers & Son, 1789), 1:61-62, claimed the tax generated printers' "united zealous controlled the messages transmitted [Q large numbers of people.According to opposition." Thomas' more reserved observation appeared more accurate as he Jean Folkerts and Stephen Lacy, The Media in YOllrLift: An Introduction to Mass presented more evidence and a specific breakdown of printers. Communication, 2nd cd. (Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 2001), 6, 28-29, 475 (no 4), NThoma5, The History oftrintmg in /[meriCtl, 332, 556. the term "gatekeepers" was first applied (0 journalism by David Manning \'{fhite, 25 Susan Macall Allen, in "The Impact of the Stamp Act of 1765 on Colonial "The 'Gatekeeper': A Case Study in the Selection of Ncws," Journalism Quarterly 27 American Printers: Threat or Bonanza?" (Ph.D. diss., University of California-Los (M 1950), 383-90. Angeles, 1996), 1-6,24,67, suggested that Scblesioger erred by [fearing printers as 2 See British Parliament, The Stamp Act (London: March 22, 1765); Edmund a monolithic group. She took a quantitative approach and suggested that printers in Morgan and Helen Morgan, The Stamp Act Crisis: Prologue to Revolution (1953; strong financial positions tended ro oppose the tax while those on less solid financial revision, Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1995); and Arthur ground were more often neutral. With no extensive financial records or newspaper Schlesinger, Prelude to Independence: The Newspaper \.Varon britain, 1764-1776 circulation numbers available, she based her financial estimates only on the amount (New York: Knopf, 1958), 10, 14,68. In eighteenth-century Brirish currency, one of paper used for books, broadsides, and pamphlets printed in 1765. She caregorbes pound (£) equaled 20 shillings (s), which equaled 240 pence (d); thus, there were Maryland's Green as very strong financially, and Virginia's Royle as merely strong twelve pence to the shilling. See Jeremy Black, The English Press in the EiglJteenth but nor as financially solid as Green. TIlis would tend to suppOrt the idea that Green Cenney (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1987), introduction. was in a better position to oppose the British government in this dispute than was 3 Newspapers in England were taxed until 1855. See Hannah Barker, Royle. Neuspapers, Politics and English Society, 1695-1855 (Harlow, England: Longman, 26 Maryland Gazette, July 4, 1765. Another version of Henry's Resoilleswas 2000), 1,65-68. printed first in the Newport Mercury in Rhode Island by Samuel Hall on June 4 Charles R, Ritcheson,"The Preparation of the Stamp Act," William dud 24, 1765, according to Francis Walett. See "The Impact of the Stamp Act on The Mary Quarterly 3d ser., 10 (October 1953): 546-47. Colonial Press," in Bond, Newsletters to Newspapers, 263-69; and Schlesinger, ~See Schlesinger, Prelude to Independence, 68; and Morgan and Morgan, The Prelude to Independence, 71. There were several conflicting versions of these Stamp Act Crisis, 307. resolutions passed by the burgesses on May 31. See Edmund Morgan, Prologue 6 John Adams, "A Dissertation on the Canon and Feudal L1W," Boston Gazette, to Revolution: Sources and Documents on the Stamp Act Crisis, 1764-1766 (Chapel Aug. 26, 1765. It can be found in Charles Francis Adams, ed., The \.Vorks0/John Hill: Untverslry of North Carolina Press, 1959),44-50, for the disagreement over Adams (Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 1851-65),3:464; and in Schlesinger, Prelude what the precise resolves were. According to Governor Fauquier, Henry wrote seven to Independence, 70. specific resolves, but only five were debated and passed and one was later rescinded. 7 Roger P. Mellen,"Almanacs of the Chesapeake Colonies: Revolutionary Henry left a copy of five resolves, the Maryland newspaper printed seven, and the 'Agent of Change'," Explorations in Media Ecology 9 (Winter 2010): 212-13. Rhode Island newspaper printed six. This Rhode Island version gOt the greatest S Michael \'{farner, the Letters of the Republic: Publication and the Public colonial circulation and inspired most other colonies to approve similar resolves Sphere in Eighteenth-CenturyAmerica (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, against the Stamp Act. 1990),69. rrMorgan and Morgan, Ihe Stdmp Act Crisis, 102. 9 Morgan and Morgan, The Stamp Act Crisis. !8 Virginia Gazette, Aug. 30, 1765. This issue is no longer extant, but the 10 John Adams, diary ently, Dec. 18, 1765, in Adams, The Works of John quotation was republished in the Maryland Gazette on Oct. 3, 1765). Adams. It also is quoted in Schlesinger, Prelude to Independence, 20-21. 29 Maryland Gazette (Green and Rind), Oct. 3, 1765. II See Schlesinger, Prelude to Independence, 76; and Schlesinger, "The Colonial }(I Any assessment of [he Virginia press requires comparison with the nearby Newspapers and the Stamp Act," New England Quarterly 8 (March 1935): 1:63-83. colony of Maryland. Several printers moved from one colony to the other, and See also Maryland Gazette (Annapolis: Jonas Green), Ocr. 31, 1765; and Virginia rhe Maryland Gazette clearly had some circulation in Virginia. Advertisements Gazette (Williamsburg: Royle), Oct. 25, 1765. from Fairfax and Alexandria in northern Virginia often appeared in rhe newspaper IZ Maryland Gazette (Annapolis: Jonas Green and William Rind), Aug. 22, from Annapolis, and with transportation by water being faster rhan by land in 1765. the eighteenth-century, parts of the southern colony were served faster by the u Maryland Gazette (Annapolis: Jonas Green and William Rind), Ocr. 10, northern printer. There were notices for home sales in Alexandria, and George 1765. Washington and George William Fairfax solicited for a builder for a new church I.. See Maryland Gazette (Annapolis: Jonas Green),Ocr. 31, 1765, and Dec. in Fairfax County's Truro Parish in the Maryland Gazette. See, for example, house 10,1765.William Rind was no longer listed as a partner. sale advertisements for Alexandria, Va., in the Mar)4and Gazette on Feb. 2, Feb. 23, I~ Maryland Gazette (Annapolis: Jonas Green and William Rind),Ocr. 10, and Ocr. 2,1764; the church builder advertisement on May 17,1764; and a May [oumalism HistOJ)l38:2 (StllJlmer 20 12) 83 26, 1768, advertisement in the Maryland Gazette from William Rind, now printing buying increased by 54 percent between 1752 and 1765, compared wirh a local in Virginia, for a revised edition of the L"lWS of Virginia, price 40 shillings. See also population growrh rate of 18 percenL However, colony-wide population records Edith Moore Sprouse, Along the POt01ntlCRiver: Extracts ftom the Maryland Gazette, indicated a population growth similar to the book-buying increase.See Historical 1728-1799 (Westminster, Md.: Willow Bend Books, 2001), introduction. Statistics of the United States, 2: 1168. For titles, see also Berg, Eighteenth-Century .11 The nearly complete online collection at Colonial Williamsburg WiLliamsburg imprints . Foundation's Digital Library (the Rockefeller Library) contains only three copies 4~ Paul Hoffman, ed., Guide to the Microfilm Edition of the Virginia Gazette of Royle's Virginia Gazette. Six issues were located and examined for this article. Daybooks: 1750-1751 & 1764-1766(Charlottesville: University of Virginia Library, 3~ "The Sentinel no. IlL" reprinted from the New-York Gazette and the 1967), 5-8. Maryland Gazette (Green and Rind), May 23, 1765 . soGary Nash,"The Transformation of Urban Politics," journal of American .13 Maryland Gazette (Green), Oct. 31, 1765, special supplement. History 6 (December 1973): 617-18. "Virginia originally was a land grant to the Virginia Company, but following SITlre pay of Virginia ministers had been written into law in pounds of the bankruptcy of that joint stock corporation,[he territory became a royal colony tobacco rather than in rare currency. When tobacco prices tripled, the Virginia in 1624. legislature passed a law allowing tobacco debts to be paid in currency at the former lSSee Francis Fauquier to the Board of Trade, Williamsburg, April 7, 1766, equivalency, which in essence Cut back what would have been a pay raise for me in George Reese, ed., The Official Papers of Francis Fauquier, Lieutenant Governor clergy. See Berg, "Agenr of Change or Trusted Servant;" and John Camm, Single ofVirgillia, 1758-1168 (Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1980-83), and Distinct View of the Act, Vulgarly Entitled, The Two Penny Act (Annapolis, Md.: 3:1352-55; and Maryland Gazette (Green and Rind), Oct. 3, 1765. Fauquier is Green, l763). referred to here and in comemporary writings as "governor," when, in facr, the S2Landon Carter, "Address to the Freeholders of the COUnty of Richmond," acting governor in colonial Virginia was typically a lieutenant governor; the actual sent to Joseph Royle, June 3, 1765, Fairfax Proprietary papers, Brock Collection royal governor was a figurehead, who remained in England. (BR box 229), Huntington Library, San Marino, Calif. 3(, Second Supplement to the Maryland Gazette (Green), Oct. 24, 1765. Green's S5Greene, Quest for Power, 158-62, 289. partner, \' 3~Second Supplement to the Maryland Gazette (Green), Oct. 24, 1765. He is j7 Ian K. Steele, The English Atlantic, 1675-1740: An Exploration ill known now as "\'(lilliam Pin, the Elder." Communication and Community (New York:Oxford University Press, 1986), which 39 It is important to recognize that colonial newspapers did not order their is quoted in Hugh Amory and David Hall, eds., The Colonial Book in the Atlantic stories in regard to importance, so the page placement is not directly relevant. See World (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000), 526 (n. 26). Steele referred Barker, Neuspapen, Politics and English Society, 1695-1855,44. to the entire British-American colonies. Many theorists have noted that such oral, 40 Virginia Gazette (Royle), Oct. 25, 1765. This newspaper report was written, and print-based influences overlap, never entirely eliminating the influence remarkably similar to the detailed account sent by the governor to his superiors of the others. in London despite the fact that separate eyewitness accounts of any event are S8While estimated numbers arc subject to many questions, it is believed that rarely consistent. Although the two accounts are not exact enough to suggest the 60-70 percent of white men in Virginia and as many as 30 percent of white women same author, neither report is supportive of the crowd's action. The newspaper were able to read by 1765. See Darren B. Rutman and Anita H. Rutman, A Place in account was neutral enough rhar Governor Francis Fauquier included a copy of the Time: Exl'limtld (New York: Norton, 1984), 165-70; and Philip Alexander Bruce, newsp,lper in his letter. See Fauquier to Board of Trade, Nov. 3, 1765, handwritten institutional History of Virginia in the Seventeenth Century (New York: Putnam, rranscripr in Great Britain PRO CO 5, Container v. 1331 [Public Record Office] 1910), I: 450-59, who is quoted in Rawson, "Contextual History of Print Culture 97- 106 [137-148], Manuscript Reading Room, Library of Congress. in Virginia Society," 54. 11 Sec William Hunter, Printing Office journal, vol. 1, 1750-1752; and Joseph S9David Hall, "Readers and Writers in Early New England," in Amory and Royle and Alexander Purdie, Printing Office journal, vol. 2, 1764-1766. Both Hall, the Colonial Book in the Atlantic World, 119. are in the Department of Special Collections, University of Virginia Libraries, 6(1 Richard D. Brown, Knowledge Is Power: -I/;eDijfi,sion oftnformotion in l:,arly Charlottesville. America. 1700-1865 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1989), 11-12. 42 John Pendleton Kennedy, cd., journals of (he House of Burgesses ofVirginitl 61 Warner 1he Letters of the Repllblic, 14,31. (Richmond: Colonial Press, E. WaddcyCo., 1906), 10: 11, 22, 38,158-59, 164-66, 6.: Rawson, "Virginia Print Culture," 53. and 221. See, for example, William Hunter's will, in which his estate was valued in 63 Schlesinger, Prelude to Independence, 53-55.On circulation, see also Charles excess of 8,614 pounds, and information about Joseph Royle leaving four separate E. Clark, The Public Prints: The Newspaper in Anglo-American Culture, 1665-1740 Williamsburg properties. They are in "Old Virginia Editors," William and Milry (New York: Oxford Universiry Press, 1994),259. College Quarterly Historical Magazine 7 (July 1898); 1O. M Brown, Knowledge Is Power, 3-5. 43 Susan Srromei Berg, comp., Eighteenth-Century Willitllmburg Imprints (New 6Sjournal kept by Hllgh hnlElJ. Surveyor of the Post Roads (if! she Continent of York: Clearwater Publishing Co., 1986),49. North America, 1773-1774 (Brooklyn: Norton, 1867), which is quoted in William -\oj Sec Hunter, Printing Office journal; Royle and Purdie, Printing Office Smith, "The Colonial POStOffice," American Historical Review 21 (January 1916): journal; Mary Goodwin, "Printing Office: Its Activities, Furnishings, and Articles 273. for Sale," Research Report Series, #238, 1952, 1-36, Colonial Williamsburg 66 Jerald E. Brown, "It Facilitated Correspondence: The POSt, Postmasters, Foundation Library; "Old Virginia Editors;" and Thomas, The History of Printing and Newspaper Publishing in Colonial America," Retrospection: The New England in America, 558 . Graduate Review in American History and American Studies 2 (1989): 1-15. •s See Royle and Purdie, Printing Office [aurnai; and Stiverson, "Colonial (,7 Virginia Gazette (Royle), July 6, 1764. This recently recovered issue (from Retail Book Trade," 165. the Rockefeller Library in Williamsburg) had a story from Philadelphia datelined _6 Royle and Purdie, in Printing Office journal, listed £75 credit-only almanac JUStsixteen days earlier but none datelined from Europe. The Gazette on Nov. 4, sales for 1764. They did not indicate any cash sales, including for almanacs or 1763, had a srory from Philadelphia JUSttwo weeks old, but on Oct. 25, 1765, newspapers. it had European stories nearly four months old because shipping speeds from H Rawson, "Virginia Print Culture," 72. London did not change substantially. See Arthur Pierce Middleton, Tobacco Coast· _8 See Royle and Purdie, Printing Office [aurnals: Susan Srromei Berg, "Agent of A Maritime History of Chesapeake Bay in the Colonial Era (Newport News, Va.: TIle Change or Trusted Servant: The Eighteenth-Century Williamsburg Press" (Master's Mariners' Museum, 1953); and Virginia Gazette (Royle), March 16, 1764. thesis, College of William and Mary, 1993), vi. Her analysis indicated that book (,H See Virginia Gazette (Williamsburg), 1751-1766; and Paul David Nord, 84 jOllrlia/islJI f-hrI01)138:2 (SlIlJlmer 2012) Communities of journalism: A History of American Newspapers and Their Readers 80 Francis Fauquier to Board of Trade, Nov. 3, 1765, in Reese, The Official (Urbana: University of Illinois, 2001),50-52. Regarding rhc English model, see also Papers of Francis Fauquier, Lieutenant Governor of Virginia, 1758-1768, 97-106; and Barker, Newspapers. Politics and English Society, 1695-1855,44; Clark, the Public Virginia Gaeeue (Royle), Oct. 25, 1765. Prints, 3-5, and Thomas, The History of Printing in ilmeriCtl, 2- ](;4. 81 Goodwin, "The Coffee-House of (he 17th and 18th Centuries," 30. 69See Virginifl Gazette (Purdie and Dixon), Aug. 4, 1768; and Virginia Gazette 82 David Waldstreicher, In The Midst Of Perpetual Fetes: The Making of (Rind), May 12, 1768. There were still many stories of British or European origin, American Nationalism, 1776-1820 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina but the mix had now shifted to a greater number of American stories. Press, 1997), 26. 70 "Norrhamproniensis," Virgillia Gazette (Purdie), Aptil4, 1766. 8.3 Christine Leigh Heyrman, Southern CroJ5."The Beginnings of the Bible Belt 71 Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1997), 11-14, 270 (fn. 14). Spread of Nationalism, rev. ed. (New York:Verso, 1991), 24-37. He understood 84 Virginia Gazette (Parks), jan. 6, 1738. how "print as commodity" (newspapers and novels) was essential to tying people 85 Virginia Gazette (Purdie and Dixon),jan. 1, 1767, and Jan. 8, 1767. together with a shared common language, but he did not note how an efficient MChristopher Grasso, A Speaking Aristocracy: Transforming Public Discourse in POStoffice also would bring that sense of commonality and community, making it EiglJleenth-Century Connecticut (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, crucial to the functioning of a newspaper. 1999),4. n Virginia Gazette (Purdie and Dixon), March 16, 1769. 87 Rhys Isaac, The Transformation of Virginia, 1740-1790 (Chapel Hill: 7.1 This was a variant spelling of empiric, who is a charlatan or one who believes University of North Carolina Press, 1999), 1-6. that practical experience is the source of knowledge. S!I See jurgen Habermas, Structural Transformation 0/ the Public Sphere, 74 Virginia Gazette (Purdie and Dixon), Jan. 18, 1770. introduction; and Warnet, The Letters of the Republic. 75 See Anderson, Imagined Communities, 34; Marshall McLuhan, The s~See Borein, "'Meer Mechanics' and an Open Press," 127-225; and Stephen Gutenbe/g Galaxy: The Making of Typographic Mall (Toronto: University of Toronto Botein, "Printers and the American Revolution" in Bernard Bailyn and John B. Press, 1962), 125; and Walter J. Ong, Orality and Literacy: The Technologizingofthe Hench, eds., the Press and the American Revolution (Worcester, Mass.: American Word (New York: Methuen, 1982), 118-19. Antiquarian Society, 1980), 12-42. 76T.H. Breen, Marketplace of Revolution, 133. 90 Benjamin Franklin, from "Apology for Printers," which was first printed in n lhid., 252. the Pennsylvania Gazette on june 10, 1731, and was quoted in Borcin, "Printers and 78 See ibid., xvi, 133-58, 248; and Amory and Hall, lhe Colonial Book in the rhc American Revolution," 20. Atlantic World, 6-7. 91 Botein, "Printers and the American Revolution," 19. 79 See Mary Goodwin,"The Coffee-House of the 17th and l grh Centuries," n In 1776, Virginia was the first of the newly declared American states to Research Report, 1956, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation Library; Michael write a new constitution, and it included a Declaration of Rights, which contained Olmert, "Coffeehouses: the Penny Universities," JoumaLofthe Colonia/Williamsburg for (he first time a guarantee of press freedom. This was an important precedent Foundation (Spring 2001): 68-73; David Conroy, In Public Howes: Drink and to the federal Bill of Riglns. See Roger P. Mellen, The Origins of a Free Press in the Revolution of Authority in Colonial Massachusetts (Chapel Hill: University of Prerevolutionary Virginia: Creat;'lg a Culture of Political Dissent (Lewiston,N.Y.: North Carolina Press, 1995), 233; and Peter Thompson, Rum Punch & Reioiution: Edwin Mellen Press, 2009), 225-78. Taverngoing & Public Life in Eighteenth-Century Philadelphia (Philadelphia: 93 Anderson, Imagined Communities. A common language was an important University of Pennsylvania Press, 1999), 1-13. preface to the shared print commodity. Journalism History 38:2 (.)/(fl/tller 2012) 85