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~~·~=J:l~:r~--:u~~~ i~~ot~m%'r:'f=t'<!;:~:':ll:~i.hohu: .u!:o~1~i,,:r7.:!r:=;:'~~rdd::~A::r.:I;"::':;:'~'''~;:~~:~~:'''~Ootmty (CbL) .bill. ....poct;I),Q .. 1>.kh Ibm! ."ima!. Dr., n:<><~ ili.""",red. III the 0...,;. tho etU>tion. =In..i.,,, th~t tboy "'" of .u~h .. nl<d hy En,opeo.n ""Ii,""ri.... nul 11•.bu ~ """do doubt. W nG li,tl. dio<1lf.1VAllo),.of 1II~." tMl ... "",'","010 WI.IOnI~ ...till<> "Ibat .... dolo bo.ok th.• ~""'''."'ISqU''''goo. furtb .. th" tb.ia; ho .bo ...& c..tIIicG. of Ih.m .. tool"". ",Wol> ~O"fonn. '0 ..",_ "'"'" in th ... rth, on,) """'ob"" lbo "';tn_of =1 of tho lI.tn""-<i ,"~Ii>obbota",,,bd 1m.

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.lU:Ci1l BEG".JVU) flY THElR F.B.IE:.'ID$.-.r1~" ... &I:z.."'QIl' n O~ ~ Autn.-$u 1'.... 1111.

62 GoodbyePatrick S. Washburn, Ohio University

63 Stories of Today: Rebecca Harding Davis' Investigative FictionMark Canada, University of North Carolina-Pembroke

-4 The Colonial Virginia Press and the Stamp Act: An Expansion of Civic DiscourseRoger P Mellen, New Mexico State University

86 Popular Chinese Images and "The Coming Man" of 1870: Racial Representationsof ChineseMary M Cronin, New Mexico State University, and William E. Huntzicker, Minneapolis

100 When Elm Street Became Treeless: Journalistic Coverage of Dutch Elm Disease,1939-80Phillip J Hutchison, University of Kentucky

no Standing By: Police Paralysis, Race, and the 1964 Philadelphia RiotNicole Maurantonio, University of Richmond

122 Book Reviews, Katherine A. Bradshaw, EditorEd Kennedys Wtzr: V-E Day, Censorship, and the Associated Press, by Julia Kennedy Cochran, ed.Children, War, and Propaganda, by Ross F. CollinsJournalism and Realism: Rendering American Lift, by Thomas B. ConneryBaldwin of the Times: Hanson W Baldwin, A Military journalists Lift, 1903-1991, by Robert DaviesOut on Assignment: Newspaper Women and the Making of Modern Public Space, by Alice FahsDangerous Ambition: Rebecca West and Dorothy Thompson, New Women in Search of Love and Power,

by Susan HertogHousework and Housewives in American Advertising: Married to the Mop, by Jessamyn NeuhausBranding Obamessiah: The Rise of an American Idol by Mark Edward TaylorDeftnding White Democracy: The Making of a Segregationist Movement and the Remaking

of Racial Politics, 1936-1965, by Jason Morgan Ward

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limitations had serious political and social consequences becausethe printer was the sole gatekeeper for information published inthe one mass medium based in the colony. I With managemem overthe selection and distribution of messages, me printer-or anyonewho controlled him-had a great deal of influence over politicaldiscourse in the colony.

The British ministry appeared to have aimed the Stamp Actdirectly at those with this influence and the disseminators of suchdissidence, and members of a new, more broadly based civic publicsaw their most important source of information threatened bygovernment action. The ourcry was immediate and the subsequentchanges were dramatic. The subordinate relationship of the printerto the royal governor in Virginia soon gave way to a much moreadversarial role, political dissidence became more evident on theprinted page, and new radical political ideas eventually led to theRevolution and to the protection of press freedom. Locally printedmaterial, such as pamphlets and newspapers, helped to drive thischange, and that same printed material particularly reflected thistransformation.

The American Stamp Act of 1765 was a watershed event inthe relations between Great Britain and her colonies and was amajor part of the dispute over taxes and representation that led tothe American Revolution. The British ministry designed the taxro defray the cost of defending the American colonies, but thosepoliticians did not anticipate the intense opposition that ensued.

ROGER P. MELLEN

The Colonial Virginia Press and the Stamp ActAn Expansion of Civic Discourse

The Stamp Act, which was imposed on the American colonies by the British government in 1765, was an essential prefoceto 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 culturein Virginia, which was the largest of the colonies and one that was crucial to the formation of a new nation. This studyhelps to clarify an historical debate regarding the colonial printers' supposed unanimous opposition to the tax. Focusingon the print-related cultural shifts of this period, it concludes that a newly critical Virginia press and an accompanyingbroadening civic discourse led to a new regard for freedom of the press.

The colonial Virginia press rook a dramatic (Urn away fromcensorship and toward dissent during the Stamp An crisis.This change cannot simply be explained by the evolving

political situation; it also was the result of an increase in printcompetition and an overall increasing influence of print at thattime. The hated tax imposed by the English Parliament in 1765marked the beginning of an alteration in the role of all colonialnewspapers and their printers and was most dramatic in Virginia,where the controversial stamp tax law polarized political opinionand led to dissatisfaction with the only printer in the colony. Whilemost of the mid-Atlantic and northern colonies had more than oneprinter, leading [0 competition for customers and a wider rangeof printed viewpoints, the more rural colony of Virginia did not.Contemporaries expressed the opinion that the royal governor kepttight control over the only printer and the output of his press. Such

ROGER P. MELLEN is an associate pro-fessor in the Department of Journalism6-Mass Communications at New MexicoState University. Ibis article is an exten-sion of a chapter in his book, The Originsof a Free Press in Prerevolutionary Virgin-ia: Creating a Culture of Political Dissent.

74 [ournatism History 38:2 (SlIl!1mer2012)

In the summer of 1764, new Prime Minister George Grenvillewarned colonial governors that his government was consideringa stamp tax in the colonies. It was one of several taxes imposedto help pay the debt incurred from fighting the French and theIndians in the Seven Years' War and the continued posting ofBritish soldiers on the frontier to protect colonists. Parliamentpassed an act for "granting and applying certain stamp duties, andother duties, in the British colonies and plantations in America,cowards further defraying the expenses of defending, protecting,and securing the same," which was to take effect on November1, 1765. The tax required legal and business documents to beprinted or issued only on paper with aroyal stamp. Legal and business formswere to be taxed from three pence tosix pounds, paperwork for indenturesfrom 2.5 [0 5 percent, almanacs twopence and up, newspapers a halfpennyto a penny per sheet, and advertisementsin newspapers two shillings. Collegestudents would have to pay two poundsto matriculate and another two poundsto graduate while lawyers were to payten pounds for admission to the bar.Penalties for paper without the stampswere substantial: from forry shillings torwenty pounds. Residents of Englandwere among the most heavily taxed inEurope, and Grenville assumed that thecolonists would be willing to pay theirshare of defending American lands.The outcry from the colonies and theirallies in England caught the ministryunprepared."

"The Stamp Act putVirginia printer Joseph Royle,as well as all colonial printers,

in an untenable politicaland financial bind.

It forced them to decidewhether to stop printing,

publish without stamps andface prosecution, or attemptto get expensive stamped paperand risk angering many critics,

who opposed any payment

jJhough there were precedentsor such a stamp tax, severalifferences led to the colonists'

refusal to pay (his levy. In England, astamp tax of one penny per sheet of paper, plus an additional taxon advertisements, had been in effect since 1712. While the statedpurpose was to raise revenues, it also served to restrict newspapercirculation.' Such a stamp tax on the American colonies hadbeen suggested as far back as 1722.4 Even the colonies had usedstamp taxes: Massachusetts passed its own stamp tax in 1755, andNew York in 1757. Parliament's 1765 act was different, however,because it was an internal tax rather than a tax on trade (whichcolonists had learned to accept), and it was viewed as taxationwithout representation. The local assemblies did not vote on it;instead it was enacted by a Parliament lacking any delegates fromthe colonies. Of greater importance for publicity and propaganda,it also hit American printers hard and in the process radicalizedthem, which virtually assured that all the colonists would be well-informed about why this tax should never be paid."

Contemporaries saw the tax as intentionally aimed at sources.of dissidence, and some historians agree. John Adams wrotethat the ministry was intentionally trying "to strip us in a greatmeasure of the means of knowledge, by loading the press, thecolleges, and even an almanack and a newspaper, with restraintsand dunes." With the price going up, printed material wouldnot be distributed as widely nor as far down the economic ladder.And if newspapers were more expensive, the poorest members of

JournalislJI History 38:2 (SullImer 2012)

of the tax. "

society could not afford them. Even low-income farmers usuallycould afford an annual almanac," but this tax raised the price bytwo pence or more. Michael \XT...rnertheorized in 1990 that "it wasan attempt by authority to curtail civil liberty" by restricting pressfreedom." However, evidence from historians, British records, andGrenville's papers do nor support this claim. Whatever the intent,by challenging the printers' viability, the tax had the effect ofstrengthening the ties among the printers and among the separatecolonies, thereby increasing printed dissidence."

Adams observied that reaction from the colonies was sharplynegative: "In every colony, from Georgia to New Hampshire

inclusively, the stamp distributors andinspectors have been compelled bythe unconquerable rage of the peopleto renounce their offices. . . . Ourpresses have groaned, our pulpits havethundered, our towns have voted;the crown officers have everywheretrembled.?" There was no stamped paperavailable as popular pressure forcedthe resignation of the stamp officialsand prevented importation of stampedpaper. II The Maryland Gazette stated thatit was being forced to stop publishingbecause of the uncertainry of rhe cost ofstamped paper and asked subscribers topay more before printing could resume:"Bur even that advanced Price cannotyet be known, as the Paper, the --Stamped Paper, Must be Bought of the-- Stamp Master, but what Sort or Sizeof Paper, or at what Price, it is impossibleyet to tell." I

2 Jonas Green and his partnerWilliam Rind filled their Gazette withcomments sharply critical of the tax andnotices that they could no longer publishthe newspaper. The last regular issue onOctober 10, 1765, had a new statement

in the masthead, "The Maryland Gazette, Expiring: In uncertainHopes of a Resurrection to Life again." The newspaper referred tothe scamp deadline as "That Dooms Day" with a special typefaceto emphasize the morbidity. A story on the same page noted thatwhile stamps had arrived in Boston, threats of public action againstthem led the heavily guarded ship not to bring them into theport. Instead, the hated stamps remained locked up in a fortressin the harbor: "Tis said those detestable Stamps are to be lodgedat the Castle, and there to remain till further Orders from Home,there being at present no Demand here for such a superfluousCommodity,"!' Green continued to publish supplemental issueswith such names as, "Third and Last Supplement to the MarylandGazette, of the Tenth Instant" and "AnApparition of the MarylandGazette which is not dead, but only sleeperh.?" On the bottom ofthe first page on one issue, Green printed a skull and crossbonesoutlined in a thick, black border, with the headline, "The FatalSTAMP." "

Meanwhile, only one issue of the Virginia Gazette from thatyear is extant, and while it included much on rhe unpopularity ofthe tax, it contained none of the theatrics included in the MarylandGazette. Comparison of these two newspapers from neighboringcolonies affords a better understanding of political bias of theVirginia press.

75

S,uP'PL~MENT' 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 asall colonial printers, in an untenable political and financial bind.It forced them to decide whether to stop printing, publish withoutstamps and face prosecution, or attempt to get expensive stampedpaper and risk angering many critics, who opposed any paymentof the tax. For newspapers, the [ax might have added a direct costof only 4 percent. The price of pamphlets would have escalatedeven more with a tax of up to one shilling for each four pages ona document that typically would have cost less than twO shillings.The tax on almanacs was 27 percent or more, bur no tax was placedon books. Two hidden COStSadded ro the expense beyond the tax:printers had to purchase imported paper from London that hadbeen stamped, instead of using cheaper paper made in the colonies,and taxes had to be paid in hard-to-come-by sterling instead ofcolonial currency. 16 Thus, all colonial printers faced tough choiceschat politicized the output of their presses. The newspapers of bothof the Chesapeake colonies rook a shorr hiatus, perhaps for fear ofthe penalties for not paying a tax that there was no way of paying.'?

Not all historians have agreed on why the new tax generatedsuch stiff defiance. The prevalent theory was that the colonistsunited against the Stamp Act because it was a tax on their internalaffairs, something Parliament had previously lefr to local legislatures.In their 1995 definitive history of the Stamp Act crisis, EdmundMorgan and Helen Morgan undermined the internal tax theoryand concluded what emerged was an important reaffirmation of theprinciple of taxation only by representative government. Anotherimportant aspect of their work was they recognized the Stamp Actas uniting the various colonies against the tax and the newspapershad an important role in spreading information among regions."

Arthur Schlesinger concluded in 1958 that the Stamp Act'simpact on printed material generated a universal opposition fromcolonial printers and they became a crucial influence on publicopinion. He suggested the importance of American newspapers inrallying opposition to new British taxes and argued the Stamp Actchanged the actual role of printers in colonial America, transformingthem from merely transmitters of ideas to actual makers of opinion.He also saw the Stamp Act as an unprecedented internal tax: "asthough deliberately to provoke resistance, it saddled them [the

76

taxes] largely on the printers, lawyers and merchants who, alongwith the clergy, formed the most literate and vocal elements ofthe population." 19 He noted newspaper opposition was unanimousand concluded that, in response to this tax, the press presented arare united front."

Neither Schlesinger's assumption about the printers' influencenor his conclusion regarding the unanimity of printers' oppositionto the Stamp Act can withstand closer examination. While heposited a powerful press influence, he had no SUppOf( for causality,whether the press caused the dissent or rather reflected publicopinion. As Stephen Bocein wrote in 1975, historians had oftenoverstated the role of the press in the radicalization of Americanpolitics." Sociologisr Michael Schudson observed in 2003 thatwhile claims regarding media influence are common, they arenearly impossible to prove. Critical analysis often reveals that anyeffect assumed is indeed not that of the media; rather what is beingreported has the actual influence.P Regarding the unanimity of theprimers' reaction, comemporary printer and early historian IsaiahThomas had first-hand knowledge of the stamp tax opposition, itseffect on printers, and their reaction to it: "[S]ome of the moreopulent and cautious printers, when the act was to rake place, puttheir papers in mourning, and, for a few weeks, omitted to publishthem; ochers not so timid, but doubtful of the consequences ofpublishing newspapers without stamps, omitted the tides, oraltered them as an evasion.Y' He suggested that opposition tothe tax was not universal, ranging from opposition to neutrality,with no American printers supporting the act but some ratherweak in their opposition. He reported that in both Virginia andNew Hampshire, some patriots thought the colony's sole presswas under the influence of crown officials and brought in a secondprinter at the time of the Stamp Ace." More recent research oncolonial printers and the Stamp Act has supported Thomas' claimsand has concluded that while no American printers supported thetax, their opposition was not as universal as Schlesinger posited.The research in this study suggests the Maryland printer was morevisibly opposed to the Stamp Act than his Virginia counterpart,who took a more moderate editorial position. Thus, the printerwho was more financially dependent on-and therefore more easily

[oumatissr 1-£;sIOlJ'38:2 (SlIIlIlJler 2012)

controlled by the royal governor-was lessfirm in his opposition to the stamp tax." 'the MARrLANn GAZETTE,

InMay 1765, firebrand Patrick Henrysucceeded in getting suppOrt for somestrong declarations against the Stamp

Act, but many in Virginia would norread about it for some time. After heateddebate, the House of Burgesses passedthe Virginia Resolves: "That the GeneralAssembly of this Colony, with the Consentof his Majesty, or his Substitute, HAVE theSole Right and Authority to lay Taxes andImpositions upon It's [sic] Inhabitants."It then went on to insinuate stronglythat Parliament was destroying Americanfreedom.P These challenging words werenever printed in the Virginia newspaper.According to the Morgans, "the resolveswere too much for Joseph Royle, theconservative editor of the Virginia Gazette.He failed to print them, and consequentlyother colonies got news of Virginia'saction from the more ardent supportersof the resolutions, instead of obtaining arelatively reliable text from a publicationin the colony icself.'?" Meanwhile, theresolves were published in Maryland and inother newspapers throughout the colonies.Several letters appeared in the MarylandGazette, complaining about the resolvesnot being printed in Virginia. The demandfor civic discourse, including controversialcriticism of the British government,created tension between the public andthe Virginia colony's sole mass-mediagatekeeper. Williamsburg printer Roylecomplained in August about the accuracyof the resolves printed elsewhere: "It iswith no small Degree of Suprize [sic] thatwe have of late observed several NorthernNewspapers stuffed with Paragraphs ofIntelligence, Extracts of Letters, &c.respecting Virginia, 'which are as destituteof Truth, as they ate of right Reason.'?"This elicited a response in the MarylandGazette in October: "If Mr. Royle hadbeen pleased to publish those Resolves,the Authenticity of his Intelligence, wouldhave been undisputed, and he would nothave had any Reason of Complaint onthat Story: But ifMr. Royle is under such Influence as to be obligedto Print what he is directed, and nothing else, he may very truly besaid not to be the most Independent and Self-Sufficient Man in theWorld."29 Virginia's printer was clearly reluctant to fan the flamesof dissent. Royle's refusal to publish more radical sentiments, eventhose passed by an act of the lower house, clearly clashed with thegrowing culture of political dissidence and the public desire forcivic discourse in the newspaper.

A direct comparison of the reactions to the Stamp Act in theVirginia Gazette and the Maryland Gazette reveals a great deal about

x p IE R I N GIn'"~'"Hopesof a Refurreition to LIFE again.

THURSDAY,[XXI" Yeac.] OElober IO, [N° . .066.]

B 0 S TON, S'II ... "" ;1.

INC.pt. Hulme from London, i, come about,+ Iiox•• of n.",ptd raper. d.r,gnerl (orIho Ufe of ,hi. Prov;noo. N~w.H.o>pfbi,e,.nd !tbode.In.nd i _ ,hor. for (.:Qnnoc·tic", ·'i. f"d "'er. 10 be forwardedin a

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 Kinglo.d •• dor Ih.ir'Prot.lbo~·: 'Ti. (lid tbof. de·

~:~~ S::~:n'7il;o f~;,~:;g~;.~:h~r~~n~~::.. tIo.. wing" prof,., no Oem.. d kete (CT {"okaIlIp<lfinou,Commodity.0 •• Mo,ion mule "nd (<<cnd,d, i' ...... "an:·

:~r~:~T:r~:;~~:o~~~'m~:~~~;::~%~me HonoQ"ble .H."ifon Gr~y, E(<ji ,h. Ho·""".. ble ·Roy.!! Tyler, Ef'l.; Jofbua Henlhlw,!fot; Joho Ro.... , Ef'l; a»<l Mr. Satnuel Ad.rn, •.. • Commit"'. to draw op .od "'nfmi', by the6:10ppon,...;,y, to ,h. Righllloo ...... bl. G~oe'~ CONWAY. n(>w Qnr o( IIi. M.jril,·, P,i.nci·r,18«'.l>ri~ of State, and to Colomel I$AACARRE, • M~mber of P.. li~'D', {en .. J Ad.

• d~8"«, h:tmbl, ... pumnz ,6. 'neer. Thanb of~ .. ~.trnpoli, of tJi. M.jrily" ancient and loyal"'''oteofthc M.li"ocho(e,,,.Ba,; ror cheir oobl.,C"""" and truly p>lriOtic Speech.... , .h. I.n

'Oo' 00~f.Parliamenl, in Favour of Ihe Colonie"': R'gh .. and Privilezc.; A»<I ,bat coma

~'" of ,h. fun. be de6'ed, thottbe,,,,o, b./l.51td """'ng OUT mtrll p.. ciotl. Archive ••

~OIcd. Th •• lhok GeatlClllcn. l'iEhrc ....

political bias and the two newspapers' perspectives on contemporarypolitics.t" Unfortunately, few of Royle's Williamsburg newspapersare extant;" bur the issues that do exist demonstrate that by 1765,the Maryland newspaper was much more likely to run articlescritical of the government in Britain than its Virginia counterpart.For example. the Annapolis newspaper had printed a sharp criticismearlier in the year of British attempts to undermine the system oftrial by jury: "Withol!( Liberty, no Man can be a Subject. He is aSlave."J2 After passage of the Stamp Act, the Maryland newspaperpublished a remarkably disparaging comment on King George TIT:

JournalisllI I-Jistory 38:2 (.)lfllllJJer 2012) 77

"This Paper has never had Occasion to appear in Deep Mourning,since the Death of our late good King until NOW."33 This criticism,disguised as a compliment to the king's late father, appeared alongwith other notices by the primer and had no dateline or sourcelisted, so the printer was the likely author. 1his was powerfulanti-royalist sentiment, the likes of which had certainly notbeen seen in any Virginia Gazette. The few extant issues of theWilliamsburg newspaper from before 1766 displayed a remarkablyconservative and apologetic framing, defensive of Parliament'sposition. In general, the Maryland Gazette of this period hadmuch greater emphasis on opposition (0 the Stamp Act while theVirginia Gazette focused more on thegovernmental viewpoint. This is nor toinsinuate rhac dissent never appeared inthe Virginia press, but Royle appearedto make editorial choices thar wouldnot anger me governor. The newspaperpublished by Green (and earlier withRind) in Annapolis showed much lessevidence of royal influence (han didRoyle's newspaper. The Maryland printerrook risks that the lone Virginia primerdid not, perhaps because Maryland wasa proprietary colony where the kinggranted the territory to George Calvert,Lord Baltimore, rather than a royalcolony such as VirginiaY Thus, withouta royal governor appointed by the king,political pressure from London was lessdirect in Maryland. While Virginia'sgovernor complained about "the lawlessand riotous State of this Colony" andprorogued the assembly so they couldnot elect representatives to the Stamp ActCongress, Maryland's Governor HoratioSharpe, appointed by the proprietor,asked his assembly what action he shouldtake when the stamped paper arrived inthe colony.35

no one individual should be punishable for transacting businesswithout stamped paper; none was available because the people asa whole prevented stamps from being Imported. There was a shoreitem on New York's Royal Governor Cadwallader Colden greetingrepresentatives to the Stamp Act Congress: "He received them verycoldly, and wid them that the Meeting of the Commissioners wasunconstitutional, unprecedented, and unlawful." Several itemsregarding what took place at the Congress and who attendedfollowed. One noted the Virginia governor prorogued the assembly,not allowing members to meet as scheduled." Several items fromEngland ridiculed the parry in power for bringing back a disgraced

minister and praised the "Great PatriotMr. [William] Pitt," the former primeminister now in great favor with theAmericans." Overall, the Marylandnewspaper contained a great deal ofpolitically dissenting material with fewarticles appearing royalist in nature.

In contrast, Royle's Virginia Gazettecontained warnings against oppositionto the British action. A speech byMassachusetts' royal governor, FrancisBernard, taking up most of the first page,admonished and threatened legislatorsfor refusing to obey British law. He calledupon the assembly to help enforce theStamp Act, decried recent acts of violenceagainst public officials, and declaredthe colony on the precipice of disaster,warning of "the consequences if youshould suffer a confirmed disobedience ofthis act of Parliament to take place." Thislong article was supportive of the royalposition."? The second page reportedapologies for instances of mob violenceagainst court justices in smaller citiesin Massachusetts. The identical storyabout the New York governor meetingthe Stamp Act Congress delegates ran asin the Maryland paper, noting the sameletter from Rhode Island as the source.One story from London indicated hopethat the Stamp Act would be repealedand another noted that the appointed

Stamp Act discrlburor for North Carolina resigned followingpublic pressure. However, the Williamsburg paper did not mentionproroguing of the Virginia assembly. A story on page three detailedthe unfriendly reception that the appointed distributor of stamps forVirginia received when he arrived in Williamsbutg from England.George Mercer "was accosted by a concourse of Gentlemenassembled from all pafts of the colony, the General Court sitting atthis time. They insisted he should immediately satisfy the company(which constantly increased) whether he intended to act as aCommissioner under the Stamp Act."40 This first-hand report ofthe incident was highly negative of the crowd's reaction to Mercer,demonstrating bias toward the official British position and beingthe opposite of the Maryland paper with the similar date. Clearly,Royle was politically allied with the royal governor, a situation thatwas generating unrest among those Virginians who were critical ofthe British government.

This new tax placed the Virginia printer in the middle of a

"Two issues of the twonewspapers from 1765afforda direct comparison supporting

the postulation of differingbiases. Ibe Annapolis paperput out an October 24,

1765, supplement, and theWilliamsburg paper

published a supplementon the next day. Tbe contrastbetween the two supportsthe conclusion that Green's

newspaper was more whiggishorpatriot in its leanings, andRoyle's was more royalist or

Two issues of the two newspapersfrom 1765 afford a direcrcomparison supporting me

postulation of differing biases. TheAnnapolis paper pur out an October 24, 1765, supplement, andthe Williamsburg paper published a supplement on the next day.The contrast between the two supportS the conclusion that Green'snewspaper was more whiggish or patriot in its leanings, and Royle'swas more royalist or conservative politically."

The Annapolis newspaper featured a full-page copy of the"Remonstrance of the Freeholders and Freemen of Anne-ArundelCounty" that was sent to the colony's assemblymen. This was a sharpprotest of the Stamp Act, arguing it was a tax passed by Parliamentwithout their representation: "How then in Point of Natural orCivil Law, are we rightly chargeable, or liable (0 be burdened, bythe Stamp-An, attempted to be imposed upon us by the MotherCountry? Have we assented to it personally or representatively?"This radical political protest argued against the claim of "virtualrepresentation," alleged the tax was a violation of Maryland'scharter, and requested that delegates be sent to the Scamp ActCongress. On the next page, a short letrer to the printer argued that

78

conservative politically. "

[onrnalism History 38:2 (Sull//lJer2012)

"Pamphlets of this periodhelped broaden the range

of people involved in politicalconversations in Virginia.

Thepolitical pamphlet was animportant aspect

of the dramatic riseof the political press

in the coloniesby the mid-eighteenth century,

and this encouragedwider political debate. "

power struggle, but exploring the few financial records availablereveals much about potential political restrictions on the contentwhile at the same time uncovering an expansion of viewpointsbeing disseminated. As a printer, Royle was at both the centerof growing commercial activity and the intellectual heart of thecolony. Williamsburg was the market hub for a region withoutan urban center, and his shop was a retail cutler for the entirecolony. His printing office journals, or daybooks, exist only forpart of 1750-52 and 1764-66, but they indicate a substantialtrade in books, stationery, business forms, legal blanks, almanacs,newspapers, postal services, and other miscellaneous items. Aparticularly important income sourcefor this Virginia tradesman came fromprinting official documents." Thecolony's governmem paid him and hispredecessors to print laws and the Journalof the House of Burgesses. The House ofBurgesses voted on this appointment,which then had (0 be approved bythe Governor's Council as well as theroyal governor. The annual salary wasincreased from 200 ro 350 pounds a yearin 1762, and again to 375 pounds a yearin 1764, and printers also sometimes gotadditional personal and governmentalwork from the governor for additionalpay." The Williamsburg primers also rana post office, so Royle received incomeas the local postmaster, but this lucrativeposition was subject to the whims of theBritish governmem and anyone invokingthe wrath of the royal governor waslikely to lose this job. As colonists beganto take divergent positions over theStamp Act dispute, printers had difficulteditorial decisions to make, any of whichcould subject them to possible financialdisaster.v Anger the governor, who supported the official Britishposition, and the Virginia printer could lose royal support andhis governmem salary. Anger the burgesses, a majority of whomopposed the Stamp Act, and Royle also could lose his governmentsalary. Anger potential customers, who were on both sides of theissue, and he could lose considerable retail business. Printers hadno stamps or stamped paper to allow them to print legally, butif they stopped priming altogether, they would lose income andanger the patriots by not defying the tax. On the other hand, ifthey primed without stamps, they risked an expensive prosecution.

Sources of revenue were shifting for the Williamsburg printer.Retail products were becoming more important, and the majorsource of printing income was no longer government work butrather the private output of the press: primarily newspapers, theyearly "almanack," printed forms, handbills, lottery tickets, andthe occasional pamphlet or book. While the office printed its ownbooks, bound books, and even had a papermaking facility, mostof the books sold there were printed in England." The printer'srecords indicate a growth in customers faster than the rate of thecolony's population increase, an expanding range of the socialclass of his customers, and a shift in the content of books between1752 and 1766. Royle made an estimated profit of £240 per yearon book sales alone, more than double what his predecessor hadmade just fifteen years earlier. While his total profits cannot be

[ourna/ism History' 38:2 (SulJlmer 2012)

determined, his daybooks show that he received £1,742.19.00 incredit sales of non-book items for the last two years (1764,-65) ofhis life with part of this income from the newspaper, stationerysales, and post office revenues." As the almanac sales are knownto have been quite profitable, it can be assumed that figure alsomust have been considerable.f'' fu David Rawson suggested, therole of the printer at this time began to shift from "a dispenserof privileged and controlled information, whose success wastied to government contracts," to one more tightly bound tothe commercial marketplace, which sought a wider variety ofinformacion." Thus, while Royle still received £375 per year from

the colony's government, the importanceof this subsidy lessened as the retailbusiness increased.

TI,e types of books sold and thedemography of the customers had shiftedby this time as welL While a majority ofsales was to the gentry-planters andother members of the wealthy elite-anincreasing amount of business was withthe middling classes, craftsmen, tavernkeepers, and merchants, but there is noevidence that sales were made to thoselower in the social scale, such as wageworkers, subsistence farmers, servants,or slaves. The types of books sold shiftedas well in this period. The number ofreligious works dropped dramatically,political tracts increased, and there waseven a trend toward the new novels.Controversial works began to appear,starting with dissenting religious tractsand eventually pamphlets on politicallydivisive subjects such as the Parson'sCause and the Stamp Acc.48 Thedemand for politically oriented booksand pamphlets increased by 1765 while

demand for religious and classical works noticeably decreased."Pamphlets of this period helped broaden the range of people

involved in political conversations in Virginia. The politicalpamphlet was an important aspect of the dramatic rise of thepolitical press in the colonies by the mid-eighteenth century, andthis encouraged wider political debate." Iconoclastic thought firstappeared in pamphlets printed in Williamsburg as part of theGreat Awakening, when a dissenter paid primer William Hunter toprint several works. Writings from both sides in the Parson's Cause,beginning in 1758, were the first apparent political pamphletsfrom the Virginia press. Even in that controversy over pay betweenpolitical and religious leaders, some voices could not get printedin Williamsburg and were forced to turn to Annapolis." In 1765,Burgess Landon Carter sent a pamphlet against the Stamp Act toRoyle, asking the printer to make public his threat to resign frompublic office in reaction to the move to tax Americans without theirapproval. He referred to Great Britain's Parliament as "submittedto anticonstitutional measures" and to the Stamp Act as a "blow.. fatal to American Freedom .... [T)o be a Representative of a

People divested of Liberty is to be a real Slave."? Royle apparentlyrefused to print this, perhaps because of the governor's infiuence.vHis office records indicate that pamphlets were typically producedonly when the author or another sponsor paid for the whole lot,but (he primers would share the responsibility for selling them

79

"By the time of the Stamp Actand increasing political dissentin the mid-eighteenth century,several cultural shifts were

evident within Virginia society.First, what was primarily

an oral culture began to shiftto one that was primarily printbased as reading and writing

became more common. "

and they also would sell pamphlets produced outside the region.Royle's successor, Alexander Purdie, ran an advertisement in theVirginia Gazette for Richard Bland's pamphlet denouncing theStamp Act, ''An Inquiry into the Rights of rhe British Colonies,"which sold for 1 shilling, 3 pence." Bland argued forcefully againsttaxing the colonies without their approval and against the conceptthat the colonists were "virtually, represented in Parliament," andaccused those favoring the tax of attempting rc "to fix Shacklesupon the American Colonies."? One of rhe best known pamphlets,Daniel Dulany's Considerations on the Propriety of Imposing Taxeson the British Coloniesfor the purpose of raising a Revenue by Actof Parliament, was printed in Marylandin 1765 but sold in Virginia by the nextyear" These pamphlets, along withthe newspapers, were an increasinglyimportant parr of a widening publicdebate of political issues in Virginia.

By the time of the Stamp Actand increasing political dissentin the mid-eighteenth century,

several cultural shifts were evidentwithin Virginia society, First, what wasprimarily an oral culture began to shiftto one that was primarily print basedas reading and writing became morecommon." Records portrayed a widerrange of reading customers, and clearlyliteracy in Virginia had increased; afteroriginally being the exclusive provinceof the elite, print culture had spread toinclude at least a majority of the whitemen in the colony." Historian RichardD. Brown suggested in 1989 that more than half of the whitemale population of the British-American colonies could read bythe eighteenth century, but literacy in the Chesapeake colonies wasconsiderably lower than in New England, where the predominantPuritan religion required all of the faithful to read so that theycould interpret rhe Bible for themselves.>? "In both regions [northand souch] literacy was more frequent among propertied men,bur even the poor were often literate," wrote Brown.s" Thesestatistics showing that the colonies had a higher reading rate thanin England helps to alter the view of reading being the exclusivedomain of the Virginia elite in the mid-eighteenth century. Warnerfound it worth noting that by the end of the century, "more peoplecould read than statistics suggest."?' Rawson estimated that bythis period, Virginia was heading toward universal literacy withit permeating the middling sorts, and illiteracy was becoming acharacteristic only of the lower classes." Newspaper reading hadbecome widespread, and as Schlesinger suggested, these prints werean integral part of the move toward independence.f

A second cultural shift was evident in the way that the colonistswere becoming more Virginians and Americans and less focused onEngland. This change was reflected in the popular prints and waspartly driven by the media. By 1765, newspapers in the Chesapeakecolonies had changed in several ways. Improvements in the postalservice strengthened the connections between the various British-American colonies. fu Brown noted, an information revolution washappening at this time, and it was changing society, Transportationchanges and postal developments, combined with increasededucation and printing, drove what eventually led to a major shift

80

of power.v' Instead of having to send all mail through England,the official post now could deliver directly between colonies withoverland couriers from Philadelphia through the southern coloniesto Charleston, and by 1775, there was a weekly courier south fromPhiladelphia through the Chesapeake region to South Carolina. (;5

Private letters and public news were traveling much faster than justa half-century earlier with newspapers being exchanged betweencolonies and printers for free and at greater speeds.s' By 1765, theVirginia newspaper was reporting what happened in Philadelphia,Boston, and New York just two to four weeks earlier without thenews having first to travel through England.67

The shift driven by postal changeswas visible in the source of the stories.Just a few decades earlier, there werefew articles in the Virginia newspaperfrom other colonies except two closeneighbors, Maryland and NorthCarolina." TIle emphasis by the 1760sshifted to local and inter-colonial newsand away from England, which wasindicative of major shifts of loyalty andpolitics. Both the Virginia and Marylandpapers included more stories fromthe other British-American coloniesand fewer from Britain or Europe,although items on ministry matters andParliamentary debates on the coloniesdid appear regularly. Even the trivialitems, which once came from England,were more likely now to come fromNew England or the middle colonies.For example, in 1768 there were reportsof the latest ships that had arrived in the

Boston and a lightning strike in Charles-Town, Sourh Carolina,that had demolished a house although no one was hurt."? Therewas no obvious reason for including these stories except thatall these places were now considered part of the same region asVirginia, and the mails now brought these stories to the printers.Writers were beginning to refer to the colonists as "Americans"instead of Virginians or British-Americans. In 1766, one articlecriticized unfair raxation on "Americans," and referred to anyonewho supported the Stamp Act as "an enemy to this country,"referring to America and not to Britain." Until direct and speedycommunication was established, there could have been no sharedsense of crisis and no American unity or nation could have beenimagined. As Benedict Anderson posited in 1991, a commonlanguage and shared primed material, especially newspapers,helped Virginians (0 shift their views; they saw themselves for (hefirst time not as British but as parr of a new nation."

The third cultural shift evident in this period was an increasingemphasis on consumption and a growing market economy thathelped to tie the separate colonies together. Expanded emphasison consumption was visible in the advertising in the Virginianewspapet. The percemage of ads in the papers grew over the years.By the 1760s, advertisements commonly took lip more than a fullpage, and often there were more {han two pages. Most commonwere advertisements for land to sell, slaves to sell, or runawayswhom their masters wanted returned. One twenty-one-year-oldman, about six feet tall, was "in want of a young Lady, of a goodfamily" for marriage." The breadth of what could be found in thenewspaper advertisements was extolled in verse:

[onrnatissr Hissory 38:2 (Jmlllmr 2012)

"[AJdvertisementsand the popular printsin which they appearedwere an important partof an increasing marketeconomy and expanding

consumer culture that led tosocial and political changes,

creating a 'consumer revolution'in the colonies that wasa critical development

prefacing the Revolution. "

If any gentleman wants a wife,(A partner, as 'tis rerm'd, for life)An advertisement does the thing,And quickly brings the pretty thing.If you want health, consult our pages,You shall be well, and live for ages;

Our empiricks." to get them bread,Do every thing but raise the dead.Lands may be had, if they are wanted,Annuities of all sorts granred,

Places, preferments, bought and sold,Houses to purchase, new and old,Ships, shops, of every shape and form,Carriages, horses, servants swarm,

No matter whether good or bad,We tell you where they may be had.OUf services you can't express,

TIle good we do you hardly guess;There's not a want of human kind,

But we a remedy can find."

These advertisements and (hepopular prints in which they appearedwere an important parr of an increasingmarket economy and expandingconsumer culture that led CO social andpolitical changes, creating a "consumerrevolution" in the colonies chat wasa critical development prefacing theRevolution. In colonial Virginia, thisevolution was evident in the public printsof the 1760s. Extending TH. Breen'srecognition of newspapers as an essentialparr of new marketing techniques, thisstudy also sees evidence of consumergrowth in the Chesapeake colonies'prints and finds that the newspaperswere an important impetus behind that expansion. The printingprocess, which was the first form of mass production," was anintegral parr of, and intrinsic to, the beginnings of an importantconsumer revolution that helped bring competition and new pressfreedom to Virginia. As items to buy or sell, the newspapers, plusthe increasing number of advertisements within their pages, helpedto expand the economy. Thus, they were a crucial vehicle for thenew marketing techniques that drove business and also helped topropel social changes. The relevance was that the increasing marketeconomy led to a commonaliry now referred (0 as "a consumerpublic sphere," which brought together residents rhroughour theBritish-American colonies, which was a key (0 the Revolutionarypolitical changes in the period. Breen noted, "advertising copymight best be seen as fragments of cultural conversations linkingordinary colonists to a larger Atlantic economy."?" This economyof consumption connected the Chesapeake residents through tradeand merchandise and brought a sense of commonality with theother British colonies. In a larger sense, the rise of priming andits influence in Virginia was parr of a wider trans-Atlantic riseof mercantile capitalism and the consumer revolution. The largeand politically influential colony of Virginia was a critical part ofthis evolution and without print competition and the commercialand civic discourse it spurred, this development could not havehappened. 111 is commercial marketplace was a necessary precedentfor a new American national unity and the Revolution: "trust [was]

jOlfma/isllI History 38:2 (}lIl1JllIer 2012)

established across space, impersonally, a product of a print culture,"Breen wrote.'? Increased consumer marketing, visible on the pagesof the Virginia colony's prints, helped to preface revolutionarychanges. That consumer growth was visible in both of theChesapeake colonies' prints, and the newspapers were recognizableas one important driver of that growth."

This increased personal consumption also was evident in thegrowing popularity of taverns and coffeehouses that developedinto hotbeds of political dissent. In a cultural center such asWilliamsburg, which many Virginians visited for court appearancesor other business, people in the taverns and coffeehouses read the

newspapers and discussed what was inthem. Virginians wrote letters, playedcards, gambled with dice, and joinedin conversations even if they could notread. for example, Charlton's "Coffee-House" opened for business as early as1755, and newspapers were available forcustomers to read." By 1765, GovernorFrancis Fauquier wrote of sitting therewith members of the council andalmost being accosted by a Stamp Actmcb" There were as many as fouror five coffeehouses in Williamsburg,although not necessarily all at once,according to a 1956 research reportbased on archeological and documentaryevidence." The coffeehouses sometimesserved liquor, and were often the site ofgambling, but the main entertainmenttypically was political discussion becausecoffeehouses, as well as taverns, wereplaces to read and discuss the news.As David Waldstreicher wrote in1997, "Men repaired there (0 read thenewspapers and discuss politics: theywere ideal sites for these public acts of

affiliation," such as toasts against importation or for Revolution.fn brief, they were important locations for the development of acritical political culture.F

The movement of religious dissidence was the fourth culturalshift observed in the Virginia prints. "New Light" evangelicalbeliefs, practiced by Baptists and Methodists in colonial Virginia,were a form of dissent against the established church and faith,empowering the poor and uneducated and questioning the powerof the religious elites." Such religious dissent was evident in thepublic prints prior to the appearance of political dissent. Some ofthe earliest issues of the Williamsburg newspaper followed GeorgeWhitefield's preaching both in England and in the colonies, notingthe popular response to his message. As early as 1738 in the VirginiaGazette, among the stories of pending war with Spain and details ofthe lives of royalry, was an observation of Whitefield's popularity:"Several Hundred Persons stood in the street during his preachinghis Sermon, endeavoring to force themselves into the [London]Church, which was incredibly full early in the Morning."84 By1767, the Gazette included a poem critical of the Methodist styleof preaching and an article claimed a Methodist preacher becameso emotional during a service that he tore up a Bible, and the nextissue had a reader suggesting that perhaps it was a Deist, rather thana Methodist, ripping the religious rexr." Religious debate becamevisible in these popular prints, and this was an important preface to

81

critical political discourse. Challenges to the power structure beganwith the Great Awakening, as those non-elites with less educationbegan to insist on being involved in civic conversations." As RhysIsaac suggested in 1999, the American Revolution was prefaced inVirginia by this religious and social transformation."

A fifth cultural shift evident in Virginia was the increasedparticipation in political discourse in the press and increaseddebate in public gatherings. Jurgen Habermas viewed such civicdiscourse spurred by printed materials in Europe as a crucialaspect of the transition from monarchy to democracy. Warneremphasized the relevance of print in this development and sawthis transition taking place in the British-American colonies. The disputes overtaxation by Parliament became a majorsubject in the newspapers of this periodand of the discourse that people had inpublic spaces. Printed material generateddiscussions centered on this subject incoffeehouses and taverns. Participantsin civic discourse were initially theelites, but by 1765, the discussionhad expanded ro include a larger,middling group, encompassing smallerfarmers, craftsmen, and tradesmen.This broadening of civic discourse wasessential to the development of politicaldissent, operating for the first timeoutside of the government. One key to

understanding what happened in pre-revolutionary Virginia is to recognizethat printed material combined withpublic discussions to create a civicpublic that was independently critical ofgovernment.ss A growing and changingprint culture, and the public discourseit spawned, played an important role insocial and political transformations.

forced to take the more popular patriots' position. However, hesaid printers for the most part did not become partisan until wedecade after the Stamp Act, when the Revolutionary controversywas well developed. That was clearly not the case in the Chesapeakecolonies. By 1766 in Virginia and Maryland-after Royle had diedand two printers had competed in Williamsburg-the press becameclearly supportive of the patriot position. Borein and many otherhistorians viewed colonial American newspapers as being drivenby the marketplace. Commercial concerns, not political ideas,drove Franklin's concept of press liberty: "printers were attractedto the principle because it suited their business interests (0 serve

all customers."?' Thus, in Virginia as inother colonies, the idea of a press open to

all who would pay to express their ideasin the commercial marketplace helpedto both expand the reading world andcreate the foundation for a new conceptof liberty of the press."

Opposition to the Stamp Act wasinitially not universal in the colonialpress. Virginia's printer was cautious andlargely controlled by the royal governor.Civic discourse did not flower on thepages of (he Virginia Gazette prior to1765, and the political crisis over thenew tax-combined with an expandingconsumer marketplace-led to a demandfor an unfettered press. fu a result, printcompetition came to the colony forthe first time. The Virginia press hadfinally broken free from the informalcensorship by the royal governor. A newpublic discourse critical of governmentbegan to emerge at the time of theStamp Act, due in part to this newlycompetitive and uncensored printmedium. A simultaneously emergingprim culture not only reflecred this

dissidence but, in fact, was a precedent for it, although it was notthe entire cause of this new dissent. The expanding economy ofconsumption was an important force behind borh the increasingimportance of books, newspapers, and pamphlets as well as theincreasing discourse in public places of consumption. Driven bycommercially burgeoning print media, critical political debatescontinued in taverns and coffeehouses, allowing both dissidentlawmakers and their constituents to take part in political decisionsfor the first time. Because Virginia was one of the most populistand politically important states in the revolutionary new nation,understanding how this new civic discourse developed is helpful inbetter understanding how this new nation came about.

Cultural change was both reflected in, and driven by, theVirginia press of the 1760s. It was the market commodity of printthat allowed the colonists to relate together in new ways and imaginea new community: a nation. In the British-American colonies, itwas the new distribution of political pamphlets and newspaperstories among colonies, especially during the Stamp Act crisis,which helped (Q bring about public support for a new nation." Incontrast to Habermas' public sphere, this colonial discourse beganwith the gentry because nobility was virtually nonexistent in thecolonies. It started with a literary focus as in Europe, expandedto include debate on religion, and then matured to incorporate

"Opposition to the Stamp Actwas initially not universal

in the colonial press. Virginia'sprinter was cautious and

largely controlled by the royalgovernor. Civic discourse did

not flower on the pagesof the Virginia Gazette prior

to 1765, and the political crisisover the new tax-combinedwith an expanding consumermarketplace-led to a demand

for an unfettered press. "

Thus, the expanding market nature of colonial societywas a force for expansion of the reading world as wellas a force that made printers tend to avoid anything

controversial that might lose them business. Borein noted thatcolonial printers were more of a working-class "meer mechanic,"interested primarily in making money rather than ideologicallydriven revolutionaries. But he also noted that the political disputeover the Stamp Act dramatically changed their business and theirpolitical outlook: the threatened loss of income brought a dramaticend to printers' usual tendencies to stay out of controversies. Thestandard viewpoint had been that a free press meant presentingvaried opinions while staying our of extreme disputes that mightalienate any business." Benjamin Franklin had suggested in 1731that commercial pragmatism encouraged neutrality: "Printers areeducated in the Belief that when Men differ in Opinion, bothSides ought equally to have the Advantage of being heard by thePublick."?" The Stamp Act directly threatened (he printers' businessby raising the prices of their products, encouraging many of chern(0 abandon impartiality. In addition, political writing becamemore popular with an increasingly important consumer marker,making it financially worthwhile (0 take a more radical standwith their printed products. Botein suggested that most printerschen abandoned their normally neutral position, being virtually

82 j01lnw/islII Hislo~Jl38:2 (SulJlmer 2012)

political debate and dissent. \Xlhile Habermas suggested the civicdiscourse devolved in later centuries as the capitalistic profit motiveconsumed it, what occurred in Virginia was that such discourse wasspurred by the beginnings of capitalism, which was an expandingmarket economy. The burgeoning drive for consumption actuallyhelped [0 create a broader civic discourse that sharply turnedrewards dissent, which was influenced by an unpopular new taxthat hit printers especially hard. The royal governor's control overthe one press in Virginia led to dissatisfaction, the beginning ofprim competition, and ideas of press freedom that were a crucialprecedent to the new nation's First Amendment guarantee of pressfreedom.

NOTES

1 The importance and power of gatekeepers who control the flow ofinformation is widely recognized. A censor or editor of the newspaper influencespublic debate by selecting what is included in the public prints and what isomitted. The printers in the eighteenth-century Chesapeake region functionedas the editors-or gatekeepers-with some control or influence by governmentauthorities. In a society with few mass media, a limited number of gatekeeperscontrolled the messages transmitted [Q large numbers of people. According to

Jean Folkerts and Stephen Lacy, The Media in YOllrLift: An Introduction to MassCommunication, 2nd cd. (Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 2001), 6, 28-29, 475 (no 4),the term "gatekeepers" was first applied (0 journalism by David Manning \'{fhite,"The 'Gatekeeper': A Case Study in the Selection of Ncws," Journalism Quarterly 27(M 1950), 383-90.

2 See British Parliament, TheStamp Act (London: March 22, 1765); EdmundMorgan and Helen Morgan, The Stamp Act Crisis: Prologue to Revolution (1953;revision, Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1995); and ArthurSchlesinger, Prelude to Independence: The Newspaper \.Varon britain, 1764-1776(New York: Knopf, 1958), 10, 14,68. In eighteenth-century Brirish currency, onepound (£) equaled 20 shillings (s), which equaled 240 pence (d); thus, there weretwelve pence to the shilling. See Jeremy Black, The English Press in the EiglJteenthCenney (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1987), introduction.

3 Newspapers in England were taxed until 1855. See Hannah Barker,Neuspapers, Politics and English Society, 1695-1855 (Harlow, England: Longman,2000), 1,65-68.

4 Charles R, Ritcheson, "The Preparation of the Stamp Act," William dudMary Quarterly 3d ser., 10 (October 1953): 546-47.

~See Schlesinger, Prelude to Independence, 68; and Morgan and Morgan, TheStamp Act Crisis, 307.

6 John Adams, "A Dissertation on the Canon and Feudal L1W," Boston Gazette,Aug. 26, 1765. It can be found in Charles Francis Adams, ed., The \.Vorks0/JohnAdams (Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 1851-65),3:464; and in Schlesinger, Preludeto Independence, 70.

7 Roger P. Mellen, "Almanacs of the Chesapeake Colonies: Revolutionary'Agent of Change'," Explorations in Media Ecology 9 (Winter 2010): 212-13.

S Michael \'{farner, the Letters of the Republic: Publication and the PublicSphere in Eighteenth-CenturyAmerica (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press,1990),69.

9 Morgan and Morgan, The Stamp Act Crisis.10 John Adams, diary ently, Dec. 18, 1765, in Adams, The Works of John

Adams. It also is quoted in Schlesinger, Prelude to Independence, 20-21.IISee Schlesinger, Prelude to Independence, 76; and Schlesinger, "The Colonial

Newspapers and the Stamp Act," New England Quarterly 8 (March 1935): 1:63-83.See also Maryland Gazette (Annapolis: Jonas Green), Ocr. 31, 1765; and VirginiaGazette (Williamsburg: Royle), Oct. 25, 1765.

IZ Maryland Gazette (Annapolis: Jonas Green and William Rind), Aug. 22,1765.

u Maryland Gazette (Annapolis: Jonas Green and William Rind), Ocr. 10,1765.

I..See Maryland Gazette (Annapolis: Jonas Green), Ocr. 31, 1765, and Dec.10,1765. William Rind was no longer listed as a partner.

I~ Maryland Gazette (Annapolis: Jonas Green and William Rind), Ocr. 10,

[oumalism HistOJ)l38:2 (StllJlmer 20 12)

1765, I."See Morgan and Morgan, The Stamp Act Crisis, 72; and Schlesinger, Prelude

to Independence, 68.Illt is not certain if that is the reason rharrhe Virginia newspaper went on hiatus

or if it was because of the death of printer Royle. See Isaiah Thomas, The History ofPrinting in America, With a Biography of Printers 6- an Account of Newspapers, 2ndcd., Marcus A. McCorison (1810; reprint, New York: \X!eathervane Books, 1970),558; and Douglas C. McMurrrie, A History o/Printing in the United Statts; TheStoryof the Introduction of the Press and of Its History and Influence During the PioneerPeriod in Each State of the Union (New York: R.R. Bowker Co., 1936),288.

IS Morgan and Morgan, The Stamp Act Crisis. Printers would freely reprintfrom other newspapers sent ro them (rom England and other colonies.

19Schlesinger, Prelude to Independence. 68.20 lbid., 68, 82.11 Stephen Borcin, "Meer Mechanics' and an Open Press: the Business and

Political Strategies of Colonial American Printers," in Perspectives in AmericanHistory, vol. 9 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1975), 128-29.

12 Michael Schudson, The SOciologyof News (New York: Norton, 2003), 63,19-20. See also Ben Bagdikian, TheMedia Monopoly (Boston: Beacon Press, 1983),xvi.

!J"nlomas, The History of Prinring in America, 16-17. Thomas' contemporary,David Ramsey, in The History of the American Revolution (Philadelphia: R. Aitken& Son, 1789), 1:61-62, claimed the tax generated printers' "united zealousopposition." Thomas' more reserved observation appeared more accurate as hepresented more evidence and a specific breakdown of printers.

NThoma5, The History oftrintmg in /[meriCtl,332, 556.25 Susan Macall Allen, in "The Impact of the Stamp Act of 1765 on Colonial

American Printers: Threat or Bonanza?" (Ph.D. diss., University of California-LosAngeles, 1996), 1-6,24,67, suggested that Scblesioger erred by [fearing printers asa monolithic group. She took a quantitative approach and suggested that printers instrong financial positions tended ro oppose the tax while those on less solid financialground were more often neutral. With no extensive financial records or newspapercirculation numbers available, she based her financial estimates only on the amountof paper used for books, broadsides, and pamphlets printed in 1765. She caregorbesMaryland's Green as very strong financially, and Virginia's Royle as merely strongbut nor as financially solid as Green. TIlis would tend to suppOrt the idea that Greenwas in a better position to oppose the British government in this dispute than wasRoyle.

26 Maryland Gazette, July 4, 1765. Another version of Henry's Resoilleswasprinted first in the Newport Mercury in Rhode Island by Samuel Hall on June24, 1765, according to Francis Walett. See "The Impact of the Stamp Act on TheColonial Press," in Bond, Newsletters to Newspapers, 263-69; and Schlesinger,Prelude to Independence, 71. There were several conflicting versions of theseresolutions passed by the burgesses on May 31. See Edmund Morgan, Prologueto Revolution: Sources and Documents on the Stamp Act Crisis, 1764-1766 (ChapelHill: Untverslry of North Carolina Press, 1959),44-50, for the disagreement overwhat the precise resolves were. According to Governor Fauquier, Henry wrote sevenspecific resolves, but only five were debated and passed and one was later rescinded.Henry left a copy of five resolves, the Maryland newspaper printed seven, and theRhode Island newspaper printed six. This Rhode Island version gOt the greatestcolonial circulation and inspired most other colonies to approve similar resolvesagainst the Stamp Act.

rrMorgan and Morgan, Ihe Stdmp Act Crisis, 102.!8 Virginia Gazette, Aug. 30, 1765. This issue is no longer extant, but the

quotation was republished in the Maryland Gazette on Oct. 3, 1765).29 Maryland Gazette (Green and Rind), Oct. 3, 1765.}(I Any assessment of [he Virginia press requires comparison with the nearby

colony of Maryland. Several printers moved from one colony to the other, andrhe Maryland Gazette clearly had some circulation in Virginia. Advertisementsfrom Fairfax and Alexandria in northern Virginia often appeared in rhe newspaperfrom Annapolis, and with transportation by water being faster rhan by land inthe eighteenth-century, parts of the southern colony were served faster by thenorthern printer. There were notices for home sales in Alexandria, and GeorgeWashington and George William Fairfax solicited for a builder for a new churchin Fairfax County's Truro Parish in the Maryland Gazette. See, for example, housesale advertisements for Alexandria, Va., in the Mar)4and Gazette on Feb. 2, Feb. 23,and Ocr. 2,1764; the church builder advertisement on May 17,1764; and a May

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26, 1768, advertisement in the Maryland Gazette from William Rind, now printingin Virginia, for a revised edition of the L"lWS of Virginia, price 40 shillings. See alsoEdith Moore Sprouse, Along the POt01ntlCRiver: Extracts ftom the Maryland Gazette,1728-1799 (Westminster, Md.: Willow Bend Books, 2001), introduction.

.11 The nearly complete online collection at Colonial WilliamsburgFoundation's Digital Library (the Rockefeller Library) contains only three copiesof Royle's Virginia Gazette. Six issues were located and examined for this article.

3~ "The Sentinel no. IlL" reprinted from the New-York Gazette and theMaryland Gazette (Green and Rind), May 23, 1765 .

.13 Maryland Gazette (Green), Oct. 31, 1765, special supplement."Virginia originally was a land grant to the Virginia Company, but following

the bankruptcy of that joint stock corporation, [he territory became a royal colonyin 1624.

lSSee Francis Fauquier to the Board of Trade, Williamsburg, April 7, 1766,in George Reese, ed., The Official Papers of Francis Fauquier, Lieutenant GovernorofVirgillia, 1758-1168 (Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1980-83),3:1352-55; and Maryland Gazette (Green and Rind), Oct. 3, 1765. Fauquier isreferred to here and in comemporary writings as "governor," when, in facr, theacting governor in colonial Virginia was typically a lieutenant governor; the actualroyal governor was a figurehead, who remained in England.

3(, Second Supplement to the Maryland Gazette (Green), Oct. 24, 1765. Green'spartner, \'<?illiam Rind, left Annapolis about this time, and this issue lacked hisname. I~orRind's move from Annapolis to become a second printer in Williamsburg,and historians' errors regarding Thomas Jefferson's role in this move, sec Roger P.Mellen, "Thomas Jefferson and the Origins of Newspaper Competition in Pre-Revolutionary Virginia," journalism History 35 (Fall, 2009): 151-61.

wIhis prevented Virginia from sending representatives to the Congress.3~Second Supplement to the Maryland Gazette (Green), Oct. 24, 1765. He is

known now as "\'(lilliam Pin, the Elder."39 It is important to recognize that colonial newspapers did not order their

stories in regard to importance, so the page placement is not directly relevant. SeeBarker, Neuspapen, Politics and English Society, 1695-1855,44.

40 Virginia Gazette (Royle), Oct. 25, 1765. This newspaper report wasremarkably similar to the detailed account sent by the governor to his superiorsin London despite the fact that separate eyewitness accounts of any event arerarely consistent. Although the two accounts are not exact enough to suggest thesame author, neither report is supportive of the crowd's action. The newspaperaccount was neutral enough rhar Governor Francis Fauquier included a copy of thenewsp,lper in his letter. See Fauquier to Board of Trade, Nov. 3, 1765, handwrittenrranscripr in Great Britain PRO CO 5, Container v. 1331 [Public Record Office]97- 106 [137-148], Manuscript Reading Room, Library of Congress.

11 Sec William Hunter, Printing Office journal, vol. 1, 1750-1752; and JosephRoyle and Alexander Purdie, Printing Office journal, vol. 2, 1764-1766. Bothare in the Department of Special Collections, University of Virginia Libraries,Charlottesville.

42 John Pendleton Kennedy, cd., journals of (he House of Burgesses ofVirginitl(Richmond: Colonial Press, E. WaddcyCo., 1906), 10: 11, 22, 38,158-59, 164-66,and 221. See, for example, William Hunter's will, in which his estate was valued inexcess of 8,614 pounds, and information about Joseph Royle leaving four separateWilliamsburg properties. They are in "Old Virginia Editors," William and MilryCollege Quarterly Historical Magazine 7 (July 1898); 1O.

43 Susan Srromei Berg, comp., Eighteenth-Century Willitllmburg Imprints (NewYork: Clearwater Publishing Co., 1986),49.

-\oj Sec Hunter, Printing Office journal; Royle and Purdie, Printing Officejournal; Mary Goodwin, "Printing Office: Its Activities, Furnishings, and Articlesfor Sale," Research Report Series, #238, 1952, 1-36, Colonial WilliamsburgFoundation Library; "Old Virginia Editors;" and Thomas, The History of Printingin America, 558 .

•s See Royle and Purdie, Printing Office [aurnai; and Stiverson, "ColonialRetail Book Trade," 165.

_6 Royle and Purdie, in Printing Office journal, listed £75 credit-only almanacsales for 1764. They did not indicate any cash sales, including for almanacs ornewspapers.

H Rawson, "Virginia Print Culture," 72._8 See Royle and Purdie, Printing Office [aurnals: Susan Srromei Berg, "Agent of

Change or Trusted Servant: The Eighteenth-Century Williamsburg Press" (Master'sthesis, College of William and Mary, 1993), vi. Her analysis indicated that book

84

buying increased by 54 percent between 1752 and 1765, compared wirh a localpopulation growrh rate of 18 percenL However, colony-wide population recordsindicated a population growth similar to the book-buying increase. See HistoricalStatistics of the United States, 2: 1168. For titles, see also Berg, Eighteenth-CenturyWiLliamsburg imprints .

4~Paul Hoffman, ed., Guide to the Microfilm Edition of the Virginia GazetteDaybooks: 1750-1751 & 1764-1766(Charlottesville: University of Virginia Library,1967), 5-8.

soGary Nash, "The Transformation of Urban Politics," journal of AmericanHistory 6 (December 1973): 617-18.

SITlre pay of Virginia ministers had been written into law in pounds oftobacco rather than in rare currency. When tobacco prices tripled, the Virginialegislature passed a law allowing tobacco debts to be paid in currency at the formerequivalency, which in essence Cut back what would have been a pay raise for meclergy. See Berg, "Agenr of Change or Trusted Servant;" and John Camm, Singleand Distinct View of the Act, Vulgarly Entitled, The Two Penny Act (Annapolis, Md.:Green, l763).

S2Landon Carter, "Address to the Freeholders of the COUnty of Richmond,"sent to Joseph Royle, June 3, 1765, Fairfax Proprietary papers, Brock Collection(BR box 229), Huntington Library, San Marino, Calif.

S5Greene, Quest for Power, 158-62, 289.~4See Royle and Purdie, Printing OjJicejouTrials; and Virginia Gazette (Purdie),

March 7,1766).';sRichard Bland, An Inquiry into the Rights of the British Colonies, cd. Earl

Gregg Swem (1766; reprint, Richmond, \1:1.: Appeals Press for the \'(filliam ParksClub, 1922).

~ Rind's Virginia Gazette (Rind), May 16, 1766.j7 Ian K. Steele, The English Atlantic, 1675-1740: An Exploration ill

Communication and Community (New York: Oxford University Press, 1986), whichis quoted in Hugh Amory and David Hall, eds., The Colonial Book in the AtlanticWorld (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000), 526 (n. 26). Steele referredto the entire British-American colonies. Many theorists have noted that such oral,written, and print-based influences overlap, never entirely eliminating the influenceof the others.

S8While estimated numbers arc subject to many questions, it is believed that60-70 percent of white men in Virginia and as many as 30 percent of white womenwere able to read by 1765. See Darren B. Rutman and Anita H. Rutman, A Place inTime: Exl'limtld (New York: Norton, 1984), 165-70; and Philip Alexander Bruce,institutional History of Virginia in the Seventeenth Century (New York: Putnam,1910), I: 450-59, who is quoted in Rawson, "Contextual History of Print Culturein Virginia Society," 54.

S9David Hall, "Readers and Writers in Early New England," in Amory andHall, the Colonial Book in the Atlantic World, 119.

6(1 Richard D. Brown, Knowledge Is Power: -I/;eDijfi,sion oftnformotion in l:,arlyAmerica. 1700-1865 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1989), 11-12.

61Warner 1he Letters of the Repllblic, 14,31.6.: Rawson, "Virginia Print Culture," 53.63 Schlesinger, Prelude to Independence, 53-55. On circulation, see also Charles

E. Clark, The Public Prints: The Newspaper in Anglo-American Culture, 1665-1740(New York: Oxford Universiry Press, 1994),259.

M Brown, Knowledge Is Power, 3-5.6Sjournal kept by Hllgh hnlElJ. Surveyor of the Post Roads (if! she Continent of

North America, 1773-1774 (Brooklyn: Norton, 1867), which is quoted in WilliamSmith, "The Colonial POStOffice," American Historical Review 21 (January 1916):273.

66 Jerald E. Brown, "It Facilitated Correspondence: The POSt, Postmasters,and Newspaper Publishing in Colonial America," Retrospection: The New EnglandGraduate Review in American History and American Studies 2 (1989): 1-15.

(,7 Virginia Gazette (Royle), July 6, 1764. This recently recovered issue (fromthe Rockefeller Library in Williamsburg) had a story from Philadelphia datelinedJUStsixteen days earlier but none datelined from Europe. The Gazette on Nov. 4,1763, had a srory from Philadelphia JUSt two weeks old, but on Oct. 25, 1765,it had European stories nearly four months old because shipping speeds fromLondon did not change substantially. See Arthur Pierce Middleton, Tobacco Coast·A Maritime History of Chesapeake Bay in the Colonial Era (Newport News, Va.: TIleMariners' Museum, 1953); and Virginia Gazette (Royle), March 16, 1764.

(,H See Virginia Gazette (Williamsburg), 1751-1766; and Paul David Nord,

jOllrlia/islJI f-hrI01)138:2 (SlIlJlmer 2012)

Communities of journalism: A History of American Newspapers and Their Readers(Urbana: University of Illinois, 2001),50-52. Regarding rhc English model, see alsoBarker, Newspapers. Politics and English Society, 1695-1855,44; Clark, the PublicPrints, 3-5, and Thomas, The History of Printing in ilmeriCtl, 2- ](;4.

69See Virginifl Gazette (Purdie and Dixon), Aug. 4, 1768; and Virginia Gazette(Rind), May 12, 1768. There were still many stories of British or European origin,but the mix had now shifted to a greater number of American stories.

70 "Norrhamproniensis," Virgillia Gazette (Purdie), Aptil4, 1766.71 Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and

Spread of Nationalism, rev. ed. (New York: Verso, 1991), 24-37. He understoodhow "print as commodity" (newspapers and novels) was essential to tying peopletogether with a shared common language, but he did not note how an efficientPOStoffice also would bring that sense of commonality and community, making itcrucial to the functioning of a newspaper.

n Virginia Gazette (Purdie and Dixon), March 16, 1769.7.1 This was a variant spelling of empiric, who is a charlatan or one who believes

that practical experience is the source of knowledge.74 Virginia Gazette (Purdie and Dixon), Jan. 18, 1770.75 See Anderson, Imagined Communities, 34; Marshall McLuhan, The

Gutenbe/g Galaxy: The Making of Typographic Mall (Toronto: University of TorontoPress, 1962), 125; and Walter J. Ong, Orality and Literacy: The TechnologizingoftheWord (New York: Methuen, 1982), 118-19.

76T.H. Breen, Marketplace of Revolution, 133.n lhid., 252.78 See ibid., xvi, 133-58, 248; and Amory and Hall, lhe Colonial Book in the

Atlantic World, 6-7.79 See Mary Goodwin, "The Coffee-House of the 17th and l grh Centuries,"

Research Report, 1956, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation Library; MichaelOlmert, "Coffeehouses: the Penny Universities," JoumaLofthe Colonia/WilliamsburgFoundation (Spring 2001): 68-73; David Conroy, In Public Howes: Drink andthe Revolution of Authority in Colonial Massachusetts (Chapel Hill: University ofNorth Carolina Press, 1995), 233; and Peter Thompson, Rum Punch & Reioiution:Taverngoing & Public Life in Eighteenth-Century Philadelphia (Philadelphia:University of Pennsylvania Press, 1999), 1-13.

Journalism History 38:2 (.)/(fl/tller 2012)

80 Francis Fauquier to Board of Trade, Nov. 3, 1765, in Reese, The OfficialPapers of Francis Fauquier, Lieutenant Governor of Virginia, 1758-1768, 97-106; andVirginia Gaeeue (Royle), Oct. 25, 1765.

81 Goodwin, "The Coffee-House of (he 17th and 18th Centuries," 30.82 David Waldstreicher, In The Midst Of Perpetual Fetes: The Making of

American Nationalism, 1776-1820 (Chapel Hill: University of North CarolinaPress, 1997), 26.

8.3 Christine Leigh Heyrman, Southern CroJ5."The Beginnings of the Bible Belt(Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1997), 11-14, 270 (fn. 14).

84 Virginia Gazette (Parks), jan. 6, 1738.85 Virginia Gazette (Purdie and Dixon),jan. 1, 1767, and Jan. 8, 1767.MChristopher Grasso, A Speaking Aristocracy: Transforming Public Discourse in

EiglJleenth-Century Connecticut (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press,1999),4.

87 Rhys Isaac, The Transformation of Virginia, 1740-1790 (Chapel Hill:University of North Carolina Press, 1999), 1-6.

S!I See jurgen Habermas, Structural Transformation 0/ the Public Sphere,introduction; and Warnet, The Letters of the Republic.

s~See Borein, "'Meer Mechanics' and an Open Press," 127-225; and StephenBotein, "Printers and the American Revolution" in Bernard Bailyn and John B.Hench, eds., the Press and the American Revolution (Worcester, Mass.: AmericanAntiquarian Society, 1980), 12-42.

90 Benjamin Franklin, from "Apology for Printers," which was first printed inthe Pennsylvania Gazette on june 10, 1731, and was quoted in Borcin, "Printers andrhc American Revolution," 20.

91 Botein, "Printers and the American Revolution," 19.n In 1776, Virginia was the first of the newly declared American states to

write a new constitution, and it included a Declaration of Rights, which containedfor (he first time a guarantee of press freedom. This was an important precedentto the federal Bill of Riglns. See Roger P. Mellen, The Origins of a Free Press inPrerevolutionary Virginia: Creat;'lg a Culture of Political Dissent (Lewiston, N.Y.:Edwin Mellen Press, 2009), 225-78.

93 Anderson, Imagined Communities. A common language was an importantpreface to the shared print commodity.

85