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

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Parson’s Cause are the first apparent political pamphlets from the Virginia press.
Even in that early controversy between political leaders and religious leaders,
some voices could not get printed in Williamsburg and were forced to turn to
Annapolis. 43 In 1765, Landon Carter sent a pamphlet against the Stamp Act to
printer Royle, asking him to make public his threat to resign in reaction to the
move to tax Americans without their approval. He refers to Great Britain’s
Parliament as “submitted to anticonstitutional measures” and to the Stamp Act a
“blow … fatal to American Freedom … to be a Representative of a People
divested of Liberty is to be a real Slave.” 44 Royle apparently refused to print this,
perhaps due to the governor’s influence. 45 The daybooks indicate that pamphlets
were typically produced only when the author or another sponsor paid for the
whole lot, but the printers would share the responsibility for selling them, and
they would also sell pamphlets produced outside the region. Royle’s successor,
Alexander Purdie, ran an ad in the Virginia Gazette for Richard Bland’s pamphlet
denouncing the Stamp Act, “An Inquiry into the Rights of the British
Colonies…” selling for 1 s, 3 d. 46 Bland argued forcefully against taxing the
colonies without their approval and against the concept that the colonists were
“virtually, represented in Parliament.” He accused those favoring the tax of
attempting to “to fix Shackles upon the American Colonies: Shackles which,
however nicely polished, can by no Means sit easy upon Men who have just
43 See Chapter 2 regarding the Parson’s Cause.
44 Landon 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, CA.
1766), 3.
45 Greene, Quest for Power, 158-162 and 289.
46 Royle & Purdie, Printing Office Journals, Virginia Gazette (Williamsburg: Purdie, March 7,