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

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with the religious Great Awakening, continued with political leaders clashing with
religious leaders in the Parson’s Cause, and emerged more broadly during the
Stamp Act crisis. A simultaneously emerging print culture not only reflected this
dissidence, it was in fact a precedent for it. Print was a necessary preface, but not
sufficient in itself. The expanding economy of consumption was an important force
behind both the increasing importance of books, newspapers, and pamphlets and
also the increasing discourse in public places of consumption. Driven by
commercially burgeoning print media, critical political debates continued in the
taverns and coffeehouses, allowing both dissident lawmakers and their constituents
to take part in political decisions for the first time.
It was the very market commodity of print that allowed the colonists to
relate together in new ways, to help them imagine a new community—a nation. In
the British-American colonies, it was the new distribution of political pamphlets
and newspaper stories among colonies, especially during the Stamp Act crisis, that
helped to bring about public support for a new nation. 82 In contrast to Habermas’
public sphere, this colonial discourse began with the gentry, as nobility was virtually
nonexistent in the colonies. It started with a literary focus as in Europe, expanded to
include debate on religion, and then transitioned to incorporate political debate and
dissent. Habermas suggested the civic discourse devolved in later centuries as the
capitalistic profit motive consumed it. What we see in Virginia is such discourse
spurred by the very beginnings of capitalism—an expanding market economy. The
burgeoning drive for consumption actually helped to create a civic public. As we
shall see, this expanding civic discourse has serious implications regarding the
development of freedom of the press.
However, the one printing office in the colony was still dependent on
government subsidies in 1765. The royal governor was able to strongly influence the
82 Anderson, Imagined Communities. A common language was an important preface to the
shared print commodity.