The Origins of a Free Press in Prerevolutionary ... - Web Publishing

Much of the news from and about other British colonies beginning in 1754
was about the Seven Years War, including patriotic letters on the importance of
driving out the French. According to one letter writer, that war should be “always
considered in a national Light, not as Virginians, but as Britons.” 81 Obvious from
that comment is that at least some colonists were developing a sense of identity
with their colony rather than their mother country. Although it is easy to assume
that the increase of inter-colonial news was due to the fact that the war provided
more news of fighting with the French and the Native Americans, a better answer
is more complex, more multi-directional, and more related to technical
improvements. Through 1752, it typically took two and a half months for news
from New York or Boston to be printed in Virginia. By 1757 however, some news
arrived from Boston in only three weeks, from New York in two weeks, and from
Philadelphia as quickly as ten days. Not just war news, but trivial and interesting
news that used to come from London, now was printed from American sources.
From South Carolina, for example, came the story of a house outfitted with one of
Benjamin Franklin’s “electrical Rods.” Despite the protection, lightning struck the
house, the damage being caused by too small a wire grounding the charge. The war
was, however, covered extensively and quickly. Just eight days after British General
Edward Braddock was defeated near what is now Pittsburgh, the Williamsburg
newspaper reported the disaster, with hopes that the news was false. 82 Historians
such as Copeland suggested that news of the war and New Light religious
developments led to the increased colonial character of the news in the mid-
eighteenth century, but that may perhaps be an oversimplification. 83 Postal
improvements certainly would not have occurred if there had been no need for
81 Virginia Gazette (Hunter, May 9, 1755), 1.
82 Few of the 1752-54 and 1756-57 Virginia Gazettes are extant. On lightning, see Virginia
Gazette (Sept. 19, 1755), 2. On Braddock, see Ibid., (July 17, 1755), 3.
83 Copeland, Colonial Newspapers, 269.
87