Seeds of Revolution: Colonial Discontent

Sowing The Seeds of Revolution

• In 1776, political rebels demonstrated that colonial discontent could evolve into a potent rebellion, creating a world power.
• This redefinition of human history was driven by passionate prose demanding freedom from an oppressive government.
• Political dissidents produced publications that shaped the mindset for political and social revolution.
• The "Journal of Occurrences" (1768-1769) and the response to the Boston Massacre (1770) were milestones.
• Tom Paine's Common Sense (1776) transformed discontented subjects into insurgents committed to revolution and American history.

Dissension Takes Root

• The 1763 British victory over the French led to the expulsion of the French from the American colonies.
• Britain sought to have colonists pay war debts and frontier defense costs, leading to increased levies by colonial legislatures.
• The press played a vital role, with newspapers, magazines, and pamphlets expressing rebels' arguments, using passion to fuel the movement.
• Early rebels wanted a larger voice in governance, with colonies making their own laws while accepting British crown authority.

Sam Adams: Firebrand of the Revolution

• Sam Adams, a prominent voice in the Boston Gazette during the 1760s, argued against British Parliament's excessive taxes on colonists.
• Adams protested against taxation without representation, viewing it as an annihilation of their charter right to govern and tax themselves.
• Adams and his associates believed securing home rule was the only way to resolve disputes with England.
• Adams sought to arouse public opinion to gain grassroots support for revolutionary ideas, stating, "Where there is a Spark of patriotick fire, we will enkindle it."

"Journal of Occurrences" as News Service

• Adams conceived the "Journal of Occurrences," America's first systematic news gathering and distribution service, as a precursor to the Associated Press.
• It became a communication network spreading anti-British rhetoric throughout the colonies.
• Items were written by Adams and other Bostonians before being reprinted in the thirty-five weekly newspapers in the colonies.
• Adams established the news service in response to Britain stationing troops in Boston to maintain order.
• The journal aimed to build opposition to the troops and the British by documenting the soldiers' alleged misdeeds against the colonists.
• Organized like a personal diary, each installment listed dates and descriptions of events, claiming to be "strictly fact."
• The journal created a record of soldiers' uncouth behavior, low morals, crimes, and mistreatment of law-abiding citizens, often unidentified.
• Accounts included accusations of profane language, drunkenness, extortion, theft, and brutalities against Boston women.
• Items were written with outrage, using strong phrasing to describe affronts against the colonists and labeling soldiers with derogatory terms.
• The news items became popular reading, raising colonists' blood pressure.

British Reaction

• British officials, like Governor Francis Bernard and Thomas Hutchinson, denied the troops were monsters and denounced the news items as lies.
• Hutchinson acknowledged the accounts were turning colonists against the crown.
• British officials withdrew the militiamen in August 1769 due to increased hostility.
• The "Journal of Occurrences" ceased operation, having produced 300 entries during the troops' ten-month stay.
• Incidents in the "Journal" were effective in ridding Boston of British soldiers and gaining support for Adams' ideas.
• Many accounts were fabrications or extreme exaggerations, with delayed reporting casting doubt on their accuracy.
• Colonial editors felt justified in exaggerating or fabricating incidents to fan hatred against the British for the patriot cause.

Boston Massacre: Not to Be Forgotten

• On March 5, 1770, colonists threw snowballs at British guards, escalating into a melee with casualties.
• The incident became known as the Boston Massacre.
• Sam Adams labeled the British soldiers "barbarous & cruel, infamously mean & base" after light punishments were given.
• Incendiary material about the massacre circulated in one-page fliers, read aloud to colonists, fueling a desire for retribution.
• The fliers "administered fuel to the fire of liberty" and kept it burning.

Tom Paine: Voice of Inspiration

• After armed hostilities broke out in Lexington and Concord in April 1775, Tom Paine became the most important writer of the colonial era.
• Benjamin Franklin encouraged Paine to go to America, where he became the editor of Pennsylvania Magazine.

Common Sense Ignites a Nation

• In January 1776, Paine wrote Common Sense, advocating social revolution.
• It transformed colonists into rebels prepared to fight for a utopian new world.
• Paine argued that the issues were timeless and universal, appealing to his readers' sense of destiny.
• Paine called King George III "the Royal Brute of Great Britain" and denounced the British monarchy.
• Paine presented separation from Britain as the only option and envisioned American independence as a new beginning for humankind.
• Paine pioneered a new style of political writing aimed at extending political discussion to all classes.
• He wrote with clarity, directness, and force, using straightforward language.
• Over 150,000 copies of Common Sense were sold within three months, with Paine's message reaching virtually every American colonist.
• General George Washington noted Common Sense was working a powerful change in the minds of many men.
• Thomas Jefferson observed, “No writer has exceeded Paine in ease and familiarity of style, in perspicuity of expression, happiness of elucidation, and in simple and unassuming language.”
• Common Sense helped arouse colonists to the concept of independence and thrust them toward open rebellion.

Crisis Essays Inspire an Army

• Paine joined the Continental Army in August 1776 and wrote his Crisis essays at Washington’s request.
• The essays motivated the men to continue fighting.
• The first essay, beginning with "These are the times that try men's souls," was read to the troops and reprinted throughout the colonies.
• Other Crisis papers appeared as needed.
• Tom Paine died in 1809, with his tombstone listing Common Sense as his most important accomplishment.
• Colonial American journalism provides a salient example of the impact of the news media on shaping American history.
• Publications in the colonies during the 1760s and 1770s led the colonists toward political and social revolution.
• Sam Adams and his associates mobilized colonial public opinion against the crown through the "Journal of Occurrences."
• Reports of British soldiers' mistreatment led to the withdrawal of troops.
• Patriots reported the brutality of the Boston Massacre, keeping it fresh in the colonists' minds.
• Common Sense became the manifesto that aroused the colonists to the concept of independence and thrust them toward open rebellion.

Turning America Against the Sins of Slavery

• In 1837, Reverend Elijah Lovejoy was killed defending his antislavery press, becoming a martyr who propelled thousands into the Abolition Movement. Lovejoy’s sacrifice showed antislavery stances endangered civil liberties of all Americans.
• From the 1820s to 1860s, advocacy journalists turned the American conscience against slavery. Garisson's Liberator was central to the abolitionist movement with antislavery papers and activism through rhetoric and public demonstrations.
• African Americans began pleading their case through the early black press in the 1820s.

The "Peculiar Institution" Divides a Nation

• Economic developments in the 1820s split the country on the issue of slavery.
• The North industrialized with urban factories, while the South remained agrarian, relying on slave labor for cotton and tobacco production.
• Slavery became a rallying cry for northern progressives seeking social change, highlighting social and economic differences between the North and South.
• Abolitionist editors used highly charged rhetoric to make the slavery debate accessible to the public.
• They argued that slaves were denied their rights as children of God, countering southern defenses of slavery providing for slaves' welfare.
• Abolitionists created newspapers (Instigator, African Observer) to spread the antislavery ideology to end the "peculiar institution."

Reverend Elijah Lovejoy: Journalistic Martyr

• Elijah Lovejoy, born in Maine in 1802, established a Presbyterian newspaper in Missouri in 1834.
• Lovejoy considered slavery a sin
• Lovejoy's antislavery stance in the St. Louis Observer was controversial in the pro-slavery state of Missouri, as the Missouri Republican voiced oppostion, demanding Lovejoy's paper should be silenced becaise comerrcial operations in the South would stop doing bussiness with Missouri
• Lovejoy relocated to Illinois after violence destroyed his printing press.
• Lovejoy insisted American negro Slavery is wrong and he has a duty to make people see they are wrong.
• Lovejoy's printing press and second press were destroyed by mobs in Illinois.
• In 1837 a mob gathered and urged Lovejoy to leave and set fire to the warehouse with Lovejoy’s fourth press.
• Lovejoy attempted to thwart his attckers but fell to the ground.
• Lovejoy's death transformed the Abolition Movement as it involved the civil liberties of all Americans.
• Garrison condemned the United States.
• The American Anti-Slavery Society capitalized on the protests, printing 40,000 publications. Lovejoy’s death showed the necessity of direct action.

William Lloyd Garrison: Radical Abolitionist Editor

• Garrison founded the Liberator which championed the American abolitionist crusade during the early nineteenth century.
• Garrison grew increasingly vehement against slave traders after being an apprentice printer.
• Garrison was jailed after he accused Todd of mistreating slaves
• In 1831 Garrison began publishing the Liberator
• Garrison advocated for all slaves to be emancipated right away.
• His ingenuous system involved exchanging his paper for other editors- mostly proslavery Garrison was very inflammatory and made people mad.
• Georgia legislature offered a $5,000 bounty for Garisson
• Federal level US Postmaster General Amos Kendall allowed southern vigilante groups to rifle mail sacks in an effort to destroy copies of the Liberator.
• A mob wanted to lynch him.
• In 1844, he proclaimed that Americans could no longer pledge their allegiance to a slaveholding and racist government and that all non-slaveholders should secede from the union.
• He burnt the document
• The New York tribune was abolitionist and widely acknowledged as the leading opponent.
• The thirteenth amendment aboloished slvaery.
• Garrison stopped publishing the Liberator
• The Nation wrote that the magazine affected Moral Sentimenet, and conscience. Liberated slaves hosted a Jubillee and showed garisson support
• Presidant Abrahma liconcn received Grisson at the White House.

African-American Journalists Find Their Voices

• By the late 1820s African Americans started publishing new papers, and the abolition of slavery dominated Grissons Liberator.
• Freedom’s Journal was the first black newspaper and was founded in 1827.
• Freedom’s Journal focused on education.
• Freedom’s Journal faced financial difficulties and ceased publication.
• Maria stewart began writing for Liberator in 1831.
• Garrison showcased Stewart created a “Ladies Department”
• Maria Stewart’s passion was for abolishengt of slavery.
• Black Commuinty denounced Stewarts fiery discourse.
• Fredrick Douglas was more influential and founded thr North Star.
• Douglas adopted his paper after the Liberator mirroring Grisson.
• The North star read in europe , the west indies and the United States.
• By mortaging his home Douglas continued to to publish for 13 years.
• Black papers created racial pride, and abolitionist struggles.
• Provided firsthand descriptions of brutality.

Moving Abolition onto the National Agenda

• The Revolutionary war and civil war were important events.
• In neither case did economics propel citizens into warfare.
• Journalistic publication played an essential role.
• The abolisnonts press began newspapers such as Elijah Lovejoy's St. Louis observer. Garrison strategically position the Liberator.
• Between 1830 and 1850 the black and white abolotions press articlualted and disseminated thr out the naion.
• Forced institutional into American History.

Slowing the Momentum for Women’s Rights

• In July 1848 the Women put forth liberty wasn't a province of men alone it should be the birth rite of women.
• It took seven decades women were finally able to secure the right for American women to Vote.
• The news media was overwhelmingly occupied by men- who threatened by the that could be rising from their second class of citizenship.
• American Journlism opressvie treatment of women didn’t begin in Seneca Falls
• Publications restricted women to narrow existence and restricted hem to her home
• women’s rigths leaders wanted to fallow abolitionist and create an entirely alternitive network.

Confining The American Woman to Her Place

• American women had begun making major contortions in society success in diverse fields.
• in 1777 Mary Katherine Goddard was a respected printer of the declaration of independence.
• Women Weren’t going to have rigths in the Consitituion.
• average 18th century woman was placed in society based on her husbands identity.
• She Was considersi be not capable of importnt decision making.
• Fundamental messages were men encompassesd all bussiness.
• The Primary publishing venue for these messages was the women's magazines
• Laise was for the women altho it wasn't wman owned.
• limited qualities of women was a consistent theme.

Discrediting the Women’s Rights Movement

• The hisotirc meeting in the men to be more paternalistic.
• in Seneca falls ew yrok because community in the home of elizabeth cady staton.
• Her meeting initated the seneace meeting.
• Stanton initiated place a pulbic notes.
• 68 women and 33 men signed a declaration of sentiments.
• they challenged the concept of ex segregated sophres.
• new york herald one of the most infuneuql newspapers intrh coytnr called the sencea alls men a women wrong convertion.
• The philipadha ledger daily transcript woman id nobody a wife is everyhting.
• hundreds of women and women rigth meeting.
• The twowomen organized a national convention.
• new papers attacked the three
• in addition the jew papaers attked tehfemits women leaving ther homeresoibsity
• they accused them on violate the god
• newspapers referred to women as unfortunate women ol maids and unsexed women.
• Despiste the scrofnful tone in mainstream newspapers, statue believe it was good to move their name forrwaed.
• Lucretia mott press goes through riridul them.

Creating a Voice of Their Own

• Visioanry leaders such as Stanton and Anthony relaized rigth womens need to fallow alterative communication mediums.
• In 1868 Stanton ant antoney fodned revolution
• Stanton was drving for eidtiral force.
• such onterversit cnten aliedntaedy may readrs never went past 3000.
• not all females agreed on the bread women.
• In 1869 suana and anthony odned nation women alfffeee association.
• Stone fodned woman a jounral a more motreate journal.
• Woman journal the suupport needed and puclishe and gave to 600 Whatmore jornal was real business, financed thought a stock community that acieved final solveny.
• Revolutiton and woman journal member sufrgge press sevral doesn publication.
• journals were dirven buy individual eidtots and aimed audience white middle and upper woman era large runber journal
• There where various of these journsl
• Howver ot major force tranfrm viewes and wommens rights and were not albltity to bild curalitona nd were committed wom mens to be
• Editors woul adtarc ntionaly and the orchested