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

disintegration of the formerly coherent social categories. 73 At a minimum, religious
debates in the Virginia Gazettes did help to lessen the deferential character of the
social structure, and prefaced political dissidence yet to be seen.
Another extremely important factor in the newspapers’ shift towards more
inter-colonial news—and less news from England—were major improvements in
the Chesapeake area postal service. Many analysts have noted that changes in
transportation and postal service were key to an information revolution in the
eighteenth century. 74 In 1751, Virginia Gazette printer William Hunter complained
that deliveries of the paper were not as efficient as they might be, “for Want of a
regular Post through the Country. However, as we daily expect the Arrival of a
Postmaster-General, we have no Reason to doubt, but that the Post-Office will be
regulated in such a Manner as will give Content.” 75 While inter-colonial mail had
been established earlier, service was not regular and efficient until Benjamin
Franklin and that same William Hunter became joint deputy-postmasters for the
colonies in 1753. The post office in Williamsburg shared the space with the
printing shop. The two businesses were more compatible than is readily apparent, as
not only did the printer sell stationery supplies necessary for letter writing, but the
post also carried newspapers from the various colonies as a sort of early wire service.
Before Franklin, the post would carry these papers for free, but local postmasters
would exclude the competition from the mails. Franklin opened the mail to all, but
at a cost: henceforth, there was a charge of nine pence a year for each fifty miles
distance of carriage for newspapers in the post. 76 However, the new regulations did
73 Copeland, Colonial Newspapers, 199, 202-203.
74 Brown, Knowledge is Power, 5, and Wallace Eberhard, “Press and Post Office in
Eighteenth-Century America: Origins of a Public Policy,” in Bond, Newsletters to Newspapers,
145-154.
75 Virginia Gazette (Williamsburg: Hunter, Dec. 27, 1751), 3.
76 John Clyde Oswald, Benjamin Franklin, Printer (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1917),
109.
85