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

Chapter 6
The Stamp Act
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The American Stamp Act of 1765 marked a turning point for the role of
print media in the colony of Virginia. This controversial law polarized political
opinion and led to dissatisfaction with the only printer in the colony. Many
contemporaries expressed the opinion that the royal governor kept tight control
over this one printer and the output of his press. That had serious political and
social consequences, as he was the sole gatekeeper for the one mass medium based
in the colony. 1 With control over distribution of messages, the royal governor had a
great deal of control over political discourse and dissent and the British ministry
appeared to have aimed the Stamp Act directly at the disseminator of such
dissidence. Participants in a widening, more broadly based civic discourse saw the
most important source of information threatened by government action. The
outcry was immediate and the subsequent changes were dramatic. The subordinate
relationship of the printer to the royal governor was soon to give way to a much
more adversarial role. The old-style political deference gave way to dissidence, and
eventually to Revolution. This change was both reflected within the pages and
driven by the printed material such as newspapers and pamphlets.
Parliament’s Act
The Stamp Act was designed to defray the cost of defending the American
colonies, and the British government did not expect the intense opposition that
1 See previous chapter for an explanation of the term gatekeeper and the power which
gatekeepers hold over information flow. The importance here is that gatekeepers control the
messages transmitted, and in a society where there is only one gatekeeper, the power is immense.