MTSU’s celebration of America’s 250th anniversary continued on March 16 with a lecture hosted by the John Seigenthaler Chair of Excellence in First Amendment Studies about the role the press played in fueling the American Revolution.
A packed audience gathered in the Parliamentary Room at the Student Union as Carol Sue Humphrey, author of The American Revolution and the Press, read an excerpt from her book.
Deborah Fisher, the director of the Seigenthaler Chair of Excellence, emphasized the importance of the event.
“ As this is the semi-quincentennial, which is the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, we wanted to show what role the press played in influencing public opinion and also bringing cohesion to the colonists during the revolution and sustaining them in fighting the war,” Fisher said.
One specific event that Humphrey discussed from her book was the effect the Stamp Act had on the pro-independence newspapers.
British Parliment passed the Stamp Act in 1765. Indicated by a stamp on the product, the act required colonists to pay taxes on paper goods like paper, documents and playing cards.
“As the deadline approached, printers debated what to do,” said Humphrey. “Some temporarily suspended publication while others came out defiantly as usual, appearing without the detestable touch stamp and declaring that the Stamp Act was a direct attack on liberty itself.”
Humphrey also highlighted the unique ways newspapers protested the Stamp Act.
“In late October, several newspapers published with black borders and a skull at the top to protest the impact of the Stamp Act,” Humphrey said. “The most garish design was in the Pennsylvania Journal and Weekly Advertiser. Black columns of the tombstone topped with skull and crossbones, mourning the death of press and liberty.”
After reading the excerpt from her book, Humphrey took questions from the audience.
Amy Sayward, a history professor, asked what kind of coverage the Boston papers gave as the military campaigns progressed further south into cities like New York and Philadelphia.
“ It probably was a little less, I think, but they still covered it,” Humphrey said. “It is just that it wouldn’t have been as quick, because it would take a while for the news to get there. But the Boston papers really did do a good job of covering what was happening in the revolution.”
Humphrey also answered a question from an audience member as to how news was shared among the other colonies.
“ Usually what happened is that printers would exchange papers with each other,” Humphrey said. “For example, in the Southern colonies, they got a lot of the Boston newspapers and they would just pick stories up from there and reprint ’em, which meant it would take quite a while for people to get it because it could take weeks for a paper from Massachusetts to reach North or South Carolina.”
Jordan Walker, a senior majoring in commercial songwriting, attended today’s lecture with the rest of her crime, gender and media class.
“ I thought it was really interesting,” said Walker. “We’ve done a couple of newspaper [activities] in class that were really interesting. But this was the first time we’ve really talked about it.”
Walker also learned something new regarding the role of the newspapers during the Revolution.
“ I found out that newspapers were read aloud to people in taverns instead of just distributed house to house,” said Walker. “I think that was pretty cool.”
More events will follow in celebration of America’s semiquincentennial.
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