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

material had to be imported at substantial expense. In his 1671 reply to a query
from the Commissioner of Foreign Plantations in London about education in his
colony, Governor Sir William Berkeley indicated that he wanted it to remain that
way:
But I thank God, there are no free schools nor printing, and I hope
we shall not have these hundred years; for learning has brought
disobedience, and heresy, and sects into the world, and printing has
divulged them, and libels against the best government. God keep us
from both! 10
Berkeley knew just how revolutionary and troublesome literacy and printed
materials could be. His comments suggest that he was well aware that a printing
press would undercut his domination and control of society. In England, a
troublesome press often eluded regulations, and the best way to control a press was
to have none. It was still recognized as appropriate for the state to limit printing to
only what served the purposes of civil and religious authorities. 11 Literacy was likely
to be low, as was the demand for books and other written material.
Books and the corresponding conversations spurred by literature were
largely the province of the affluent in Virginia in the seventeenth century and
beyond. Books had to be either carried in person from England or specifically
ordered through a ship captain or overseas merchant. There are no records of early
book dealers, libraries, or stores selling books. Religious tracts were the most
common titles, although throughout the seventeenth century there was a perception
9 Billings, Documentary History of Virginia, 295.
10 Governor Sir William Berkeley responded to, “Enquiries to the Governor of Virginia,”
submitted by the Lords Commissioners of Trade and Plantations in London, from “Inquisitions,
&c. 1665 to 1676,” 239, quoted in William Hening, The Statutes At Large; Being A Collection Of
All The Laws Of Virginia, From The First Session Of The Legislature In The Year 1619 (New York:
Printed for the editor, 1819-23. Facsimile reprint, Charlottesville: Published for the Jamestown
Foundation of the Commonwealth of Virginia by the University Press of Virginia, 1969), 2:511-
517.
11 David D. Hall, “The Chesapeake in the Seventeenth Century,” in Hugh Amory, and Hall
The Colonial Book in the Atlantic World (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000), 56.
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