On September 27, 1774, 26-year-old Dr. Nathaniel Freeman of Sandwich, Massachusetts, led 1500 Patriots from the Cape Cod area in “the first open overt act done in the face of day without disguise, which according to the British jurisprudence, would be called treason,” as reflected on the 1774 event in the June 3, 1837 issue of Niles’ Weekly Register.
Freeman led the massive party to the Barnstable County Court House to protest an unfair British-imposed method of juror selection. For more background about this historic event, read Mary Hall Leonard’s Cape Cod Magazine article titled The Breaking Up of The Barnstable Court (1915).
The purpose of this post, however, is to raise awareness of what may be the Tory retaliation for Freeman’s march on the Barnstable Court. The October 24, 1774 issue of the Newport Mercury reports that six Tories attempted to murder Freeman. According to the report, pictured below, Freeman escaped and the six Tories eventually received their own justice from the Sons of Liberty.
If you were a gambling American in late 1774, you would have appreciated reading these betting odds, published in the October 24, 1774 issue of the Newport Mercury (Rhode Island). “Five to one that if the sword is drawn, General Gage mistakes a windmill for a magazine of arms, and is more intent on gaining bread, than victory, for his troops.”
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 June 14, 1777, the Second Continental Congress passed the Flag Resolution stating:
“That the flag of the Thirteen United States be Thirteen Stripes, alternate red and white: That the union be Thirteen Stars white in a blue field, representing a new constellation.”
The brief article pictured above was published in the lower right-hand corner of the third page of the May 10, 1783 issue of the Newport Mercury (Rhode Island).This particular issue contains extensive coverage of the peace treaties being negotiated in France so this stars and stripes reminder was published at a time of tremendous American patriotism.
Since the Flag Resolution of 1777 didn’t specify the arrangement of stars, several designs were used including the three pictured below.
The fact is that John Hanson was indeed the first President of the Continental Congress elected under the terms of the Articles of Confederation, which were officially ratified by all 13 colonies on March 1, 1781. The Articles of Confederation called for Congress “to meet on the first Monday in November, in every year,” (Article V), and gave Congress the authority “to appoint one of their members to preside, provided that no person be allowed to serve in the office of president more than one year” (Article IX). Under these ratified Articles — the first constitution of the United States of America — John Hanson was elected on November 5, 1781.
Here is the brief but important report from the November 7, 1781 Freeman’s Journal (Philadelphia) announcing the election of what some historians recognize as the first President of the United States. To those who call Hanson the first, this is arguably the most important presidential report in newspaper history. Only the Pennsylvania Packet scooped this report with its own on November 6, 1781.
In an odd but Hanson-related note, the May 10, 1783 Newport Mercury (Newport, Rhode Island) published a report on page two clarifying the rumored death of John Hanson. See below.
