To help launch his colonial Philadelphia newspaper, John Dunlap turned to his brethren printers in Boston to publish “proposals for printing by subscription, a weekly news-paper, entitled The Pennsylvania Packet, And General Advertiser.” The inaugural issue of Dunlap’s newspaper was printed printed on October 28.
Dunlap was the printer of the first copies of the Declaration of Independence although his Packet was second to print the full text of the Declaration (July 8, 1776) after The Pennsylvania Evening Post (July 6, 1776). The Pennsylvania Packet eventually became the first daily newspaper in America with its September 21, 1784 issue.
Below is the full text of Dunlap’s colonial newspaper launch announcement, as published in the October 21, 1771 issue of The Massachusetts Spy. Click to enlarge.
Supplementing his weekly Massachusetts Spy newspaper, perhaps to satisfy a demand for more hard-hitting anti-British essays and illustrations, Isaiah Thomas printed the first issue of Royal American Magazine in January 1774. The magazine was published every month until the eve of the Revolutionary War and featured Paul Revere and John Hancock among its many contributors.
“Besides the usual variety of general literature, this work contains a faithful summary of the public transactions of Boston during that eventful year, and great value is added to the work by the public documents preserved in its pages,” according to Samuel Burnside, Memoir of Isaiah Thomas, Transactions and Collections of the American Antiquarian Society.
Below is an early — possibly the earliest — advertisement for the premier issue of Royal American Magazine, as published in Thomas’ Massachusetts Spy on October 14, 1773.
Colonial newspapers are unsung heroes of the American Revolution and the Revolutionary War. Specifically, several newspapermen and women deserve recognition for their role in America’s founding, including:
Benjamin Edes and John Gill, Boston Gazette
Isaiah Thomas, Massachusetts Spy
William Goddard, Pennsylvania Chronicle
Peter Timothy, South Carolina Gazette
Thomas Green, Connecticut Courant
John Holt, New York Journal
Solomon Southwick, Newport Mercury
William Gradford III, Pennsylvania Journal
Mary Goddard, Maryland Journal
Anne Catharine Green, Maryland Gazette
James Rivington, Royal Gazette
Paul Revere, engraver for colonial newspapers (e.g., Massachusetts Spy and Boston Gazette)
One author who recognizes the revolutionary role of newspapers, and their printers and journalists, is Eric Burns, author of Infamous Scribblers (2006).
Marrying the story-telling flair of McCullough with the journalism history acumen of Mott and Emery, Burns says that the Boston Gazette, arguably the most influential newspaper the country has ever known, got us into the Revolutionary War, sped up the course of the war and may have even determined the outcome of the war. And a good chunk of Infamous Scribblers is dedicated to supporting this thesis.
As Burns admits, “Perhaps the importance of the press to the outcome of the war can be exaggerated, but not easily and not by much. It was newspapers that kept the colonies informed of the progress of the fighting in a way that letters and patterers could not have done, and in the process united the colonies in a way that was beyond the ability of the jerry-built wartime government.”
Burns points out that newspapers were the only form of media at the time and served as the great unifier of our nation during a time when America “needed unity as much as we needed ammunition.”
Below are a few other highlights from Infamous Scribblers:
On reporting and publishing during the Revolutionary War:“The Revolutionary War was not an easy one to cover. For one thing, once the fighting started there was more news than ever but no more shipments of ink or type or spare parts for the presses coming into American ports. There were no more shipments of paper either, and, as for the quantities still available or smuggled into the colonies from a friend in the motherland or a trader in another European nation, there were higher priorities for it than journalism.”
On a newspaper’s role in the Revolutionary War:“It was Franklin, though, who most succinctly and accurately assessed the role of the media in the days leading up to the war. It was he, astute as ever, who pointed out that the press not only can ’strike while the iron is hot,’ but it can ‘heat it by continually striking.’”
On an unlikely spy embedded as a printer:“Jemmy [James] Rivington’s Tory newspaper, the Royal Gazette, was extremely critical of George Washington. However, Rivington was also a spy who passed along secrets of the British navy to colonial leaders. On one occasion, Rivington helped break a British code that almost surely saved American lives during one of the war’s earlier battles.” Read the Rag Linen blog post on this topic.
Additional resources on the role and significance of colonial printers during the American Revolution:
On the morning of July 11, 1804, a sitting Vice President of the United States shot and subsequently killed a Founding Father. Imagine the headlines and talk shows if that happened today!?
There are plenty of books and websites — even films and humorous web videos — to browse for background and analysis on the famous duel. Going back in time to a key primary source, the July 25, 1804 Massachusetts Spy printed 12 letters exchanged between Aaron Burr, Alexander Hamilton and their seconds in the days that preceded the duel. The issue also contains a wealth of other important content related to the event, including Alexander Hamilton’s last will and testament, which he wrote the day before the duel. Click the images below to browse the July 25, 1804 “extra” issue of the Massachusetts Spy.
