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

Chapter 2
Print Culture in the Early Chesapeake Region
Printed material helped to drive many of the early emigrants from England
to the new Jamestown colony. The Virginia Company was chartered by King James
to colonize and govern the region, and the land company embarked upon a
propaganda campaign to counter a very stark reality. While the vast majority of
Europeans in early Jamestown died from disease, starvation, or warfare with the
natives, the company distributed printed colonization literature to encourage
settlement. John Smith wrote of the wonders of living in the New World,
suggesting that no hard landlords charge high rents, and “here every [man] may be
master and owner of his own labour and land; or the greatest part in a small time. If
hee have nothing but his hands, he may set up his trade; and by industrie quickly
grown rich.” 1 Smith’s account was edited by an employee of the Virginia Company
before it appeared in print, removing some of the starkest reality, apparently in an
effort to improve their heavy investment in the venture and keep colonists coming.
Despite efforts to control the flow of news back to England, negative stories did
appear, and the company organized a campaign of literary patronage, sermons, and
travel narratives to make life in the colony appear more positive. 2
For the colonist who did make the trip to the Chesapeake region, the
printed word was not a crucial possession. The culture of print, however, did
1 John Smith, A Description of New England; or The Observations, and Discoveries of Captain
John Smith… 1614 (London, 1616), quoted in Copeland, Idea of a Free Press, 104.
2 Hall, Cultures of Print, 134-135.
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