Teacher Guide

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“. . . Influenced by None”
A Teacher’s Guide with
Historical Background and
Lesson Plans
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“Habit d’Imprimeur en Lettres,” engraved by G. Valck, Holland, ca. 1700. In this trade print of the
period, a printer wears the primary tools of his occupation.
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Contents
Historical Background ........................................................................................................................ 5
Glossary ............................................................................................................................................... 10
Timeline of Events .............................................................................................................................. 13
Lesson One: Reading Primary Sources ........................................................................................... 16
Introduction ............................................................................................................................. 16
Objectives ................................................................................................................................ 16
Standards of Learning ............................................................................................................. 16
Materials .................................................................................................................................. 16
Setting the Stage ...................................................................................................................... 16
Strategy .................................................................................................................................... 16
Lesson Extension .................................................................................................................... 16
Graphic Organizer 1: Reading the Virginia Gazette ........................................................................ 17
Selections from the Virginia Gazette .................................................................................................... 18
Lesson Two: Avoiding Libel ............................................................................................................... 22
Introduction ............................................................................................................................. 22
Objectives ................................................................................................................................ 22
Standards of Learning ............................................................................................................. 22
Materials .................................................................................................................................. 22
Setting the Stage ...................................................................................................................... 22
Strategy .................................................................................................................................... 23
Lesson Extension .................................................................................................................... 23
Primary Source about an Incident at Jamestown Camp, 1776 ............................................ 24
Sample Rewrites ...................................................................................................................... 25
Excerpts from the Virginia Gazette ...................................................................................................... 26
Optional Extension Lesson in Multimedia ...................................................................................... 27
Introduction ............................................................................................................................. 27
Objectives ................................................................................................................................ 27
Standards of Learning ............................................................................................................. 27
Materials .................................................................................................................................. 27
Strategy .................................................................................................................................... 27
Lesson Extension .................................................................................................................... 27
Final Evaluation Activity .................................................................................................................. 28
Introduction ............................................................................................................................. 28
Objective .................................................................................................................................. 28
Standards of Learning ............................................................................................................. 28
Materials .................................................................................................................................. 28
Strategy .................................................................................................................................... 28
Take-Home Lesson ............................................................................................................................. 29
Graphic Organizer 2: Forms of Communication .................................................................. 30
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Printing a copy of the newspaper.
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“. . .Influenced By None”
Historical Background
F
or centuries, most communication was verbal. News traveled efficiently by word of mouth. By
the late eighteenth century, the four-hundred-year-old printing industry was still a secondary
method for distributing information. The printed word was the domain of the rich. Access to books
and newspapers was a defining feature of the gentry, or upper, class. On the eve of the Revolution,
however, America experienced an explosion in printers practicing their trade. As tensions increased
between Great Britain and her colonies, so did the demand for information. From 1763 to 1775, the
number of master printers in the American colonies increased from forty-seven to eighty-two, and
the number of newspapers doubled from twenty-one to forty-two.
The printing trade practiced in the eighteenth century was virtually unchanged from the 1450s
when German printer Johannes Gutenberg first introduced movable type printing to western
Europe. After the publication of Gutenberg’s famous Bible in 1456, printing spread rapidly throughout Europe. William Caxton introduced printing in England in 1476. The first press in the New
World was established in Mexico City, Mexico, in 1539. In 1638, Stephen Day set up the first press
in the North American colonies in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
An attempt to launch a printing operation in Jamestown, Virginia, in the seventeenth century
failed. William Parks finally established the trade in Virginia when he set up shop in Williamsburg
in 1730. He began his Virginia Gazette newspaper in 1736, and he and his successors enjoyed a
monopoly in the printing trade until the Stamp Act crisis in the mid-1760s. Some of the more liberal
members of the House of Burgesses were frustrated by the conservative voice of the colony’s only
newspaper. Several of the radical politicians felt that Joseph Royle, who operated the Virginia Gazette at this time, was “under such Influences as to be obliged to Print what he is directed, and
nothing else.” Another disgruntled subscriber complained: “Has it not been said that Mr. Royle
owned a private license, and that a paper was constantly carried to a certain house in Palace street to
be inspected before it could be seen by the publick?” Even the governor, Francis Fauquier, the
resident of a “certain house,” was aware of these frustrations in the late 1760s: “The printer to the
Colony is dead [Royle had just died], and as the press was then thought to be too complaisant to me,
some of the hot Burgesses invited a printer from Maryland.” Thomas Jefferson, reflecting back on
those years from retirement, recalled that “we had but one press, and that having the whole business
of the government, and no competitor for public favor, nothing disagreeable to the governor could
be got into it. We procured [William] Rind to come from Maryland to publish a free paper.” The
first issue of Rind’s Gazette was dated May 16, 1766. Jefferson and his friends, however, did not
define free as impartial. Coming on the heels of the repeal of the Stamp Act, Rind and his newspaper represented a new weapon. The burgesses now had a press that was less subject to British
government influence and much more receptive to airing colonial grievances.
Impartiality was not in a printer’s best interest. As the conflict between Great Britain and her
American colonies grew, printers usually sided with either loyalists or patriots. It was virtually
impossible to publish a paper that treated both sides fairly and impartially. The patriotic printer
Isaiah Thomas, who printed the Massachusetts Spy, originally intended his paper to be an impartial
eye on the times, yet that task proved too difficult. Thomas recalled that the Pennsylvania Ledger failed
after barely six months because, he concluded, “the impartiality of the Ledger did not comport with
the temper of the times.” It stood to reason, Thomas surmised, that a printer “must be either of one
[faction] or the other (he cannot please both), he must therefore incur censure and displeasure of
the opposite party.” Loyalist printers agreed. New York printer James Rivington expressed the
printer’s plight in verse: “Dare’s the poor man impartial be, He’s doomed to want and infamy.”
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Such was the case for one of Williamsburg’s printers, William Hunter, Jr., son of William Parks’s
immediate successor, William Hunter, Sr., who had died in 1761. A succession of printers carried on
the business partly on behalf of young Hunter until he reached the age of twenty-one. Alexander
Purdie and John Dixon ran the business from 1766 to 1775 in direct competition with the press of
William Rind and Rind’s widow, Clementina. When young Hunter, a loyalist, assumed management
of the Purdie-Dixon shop in 1775, Purdie left to start his own shop, while Dixon remained as
Hunter’s partner. By that time, the political climate in Williamsburg was very sympathetic to the
patriot cause, and Hunter had no choice but to follow popular sentiment. Finally, unable to deny his
loyalty to the Crown any longer, Hunter wrote: “Being firmly attached to the British Constitution &
ever averse to the proceedings of the Americans he embraced the earliest Opportunity of joining the
Royal Army which he did when Lord Cornwallis was in Virginia in June 1781.” He “declined his
Business … as he found he could not continue according to his Principles.”
Regardless of the century or content, the process of printing remained the same. Improvements
in the operation of the printing press enhanced the efficiency and output of the press, yet Williamsburg
printers followed much the same procedure as the first German tradesmen. Compositors, working
in front of large type cases, selected lead-alloy type from a multitude of small compartments. Capital
letters taken from the upper case, and other characters taken from the lower case, were lined up in a
handheld composing stick that was set to the exact width of the column being laid out. Each completed segment of type was placed on a galley to be taken to a flat marble slab called an imposing
stone where the entire form to be printed was built in sections. A typical newspaper column could
take two hours or more to set. A typical four-page, three-column newspaper could require twentyfour hours to set (assuming all the type made it from case to press without incident). Once all the
type was collected on the galleys, it was transferred to the imposing stone, wedged tightly into a large
iron chasse frame, and transferred to the bed of the press. The completed form (set type) was then
ready to be printed.
The operation of a press was a two-man job. The beater was responsible for applying a thin layer
of ink to the type using two ink balls—wooden handles that held several handfuls of wool under a
tightly tacked piece of leather. He then transferred the ink from the surface of the leather to the type
by methodically beating the ink balls against the form. Meanwhile, the puller positioned a new sheet
of dampened paper on a skin-covered wooden frame called a tympan and then folded a lighter
paper-covered frame called a frisket over it to hold the paper in place. While the beater reinked his
ink balls, the puller ran the form under the press and pulled a long bar, which pressed a large block
called a platen against the tympan. The paper was caught between the platen and the form, and the
pressure transferred the ink from the type to the page. A well-coordinated team of pressmen could
print one-hundred-eighty to two-hundred-forty sheets an hour following this sequence. Printed
pages were hung to allow paper and ink to dry overnight.
Profitability and security were common problems for colonial printers. Like most other tradesmen, colonial printers were at a disadvantage with their counterparts in Great Britain who could
manufacture products, particularly books, in quantity for less money and in greater variety. To make
their business profitable, printers in the colonies offered a wide variety of products and services.
They usually congregated in their respective colony’s capital city, and competed for the highly coveted post of government printer, or “Printer to the Publick.” Printers frequently were appointed
postmaster for their colonies. In addition, most printers diversified their activities to ensure a steady
income by operating stationery and bookstores and hiring binders to produce and repair books.
Some printers even financed paper mills. Revenue from printing came from the production of pamphlets, broadsides, almanacs, books, blank forms, and even paper currency for the government.
Newspaper subscriptions and newspaper advertisements provided one of the most dependable
streams of income for printers.
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Beating ink on the type.
News came from many sources. In the eighteenth century, there were no reporters ferreting out
stories and following up on tips. Letters, other newspapers, and word of mouth from travelers and
ship captains all provided information. Thus, the phrase “we hear” is used as an introduction to
many newspaper entries.
Generally, American newspapers followed the same format as English papers. Most were printed
weekly, with two pages printed on both sides of a large sheet of paper that was folded once to form a
four-page folio newspaper. Researchers have estimated that Williamsburg’s printers produced as
many as one thousand papers per edition. By the American Revolution, however, the clamor for
information encouraged several colonial printers to release biweekly newspapers. Considering the
length of time it took to set type, such a business decision demanded that a shop operate two or three
presses, which represented a considerable investment in capital, equipment, and staff.
The layout of colonial newspapers followed the precedent established by London papers. Articles appeared in a consistent sequence according to the source of the news and the length of time it
took for the information to arrive at the print shop: Continental news first, followed by news from
Great Britain, news from other colonies, local news and announcements and, last, advertisements.
Occasionally, the usual order of news was adjusted for government pronouncements, significant
extralegal proceedings (such as the Continental Congresses), or literary offerings.
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For example, Purdie and Dixon’s September 16, 1773, Virginia Gazette begins with a dispatch
from Warsaw, Poland, dated June 16 that contains a lively report of the war between the Russians
and the Turks. There is three months’ difference between the date of the news and the publication
date of the Virginia Gazette. There is also news from Copenhagen, Denmark (June 15), Hamburg,
Germany (June 24), and Algiers (May 3).
The next section of the same issue summarizes all the news collected from London. Such news
includes “a letter from Madrid [that gives] an Account of a Mortality prevailing among the Dogs in
that Capital to such a Degree that 800 of those Animals have died in a Day”; news of Lord Townsend’s
marriage to Miss Montgomery (much to the consternation of his mother, apparently); the appointment of “the famous Hero, General Paoli [to] a very considerable Post in the King of Sweden’s
Army”; an update on the travails of the East India Tea Company (that would soon lead to the
unpleasantness in Boston Harbor in three months’ time); the upcoming retirement of chief justice
Lord Mansfield (with a generous pension of £6,000 per year); and a notice that “an agreeable Lady
of large Fortune at Rotherhithe, aged 90, was married to the Apprentice of her late Husband, aged
20.” These various extracts are dated from November 26 to July 9, 1776, which indicates a travel
time of slightly more than two months from Great Britain to Virginia.
The same Purdie and Dixon paper then offers news collected from colonial sources. Information
from Boston, Massachusetts (August 16), New London, Connecticut (August 13), Providence, Rhode
Island (August 14), New York, New York (August 26), and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (August
25) all appear on the second page. Regional news was typically delayed two to three weeks, although
truly important information, such as word of the battles of Lexington and Concord in 1775, traveled
by express from Massachusetts to Williamsburg, Virginia, at the exceptional speed of ten days.
Following established format, local news appears next, including notice of the latest ship arrivals
and a story that describes an accident in a Virginia church where “some Part of the Gallery [balcony] where the Negroes sit” collapsed, causing injuries. Nonetheless, the congregation gathered
itself and continued on, listening to a sermon warning of the rise of Baptists. Purdie and Dixon
conclude the second page of the issue with an essay by a subscriber from Stafford County that
details the effect of paper currency on the colony’s economy.
The second half of the September 16 edition of the Virginia Gazette contains advertisements
(except the top corner of the back page, which was the traditional location of the “Poet’s Corner”
dedicated to literary submissions offered by genteel subscribers). In this particular issue, there is an
announcement of a land sale by Thomas Jefferson, who served as executor for the estate of his
deceased father-in-law, John Wayles. There is also an advertisement for the sale of “about thirty
likely VIRGINIA NEGROES” at the Charlotte County courthouse. Rounding out the section are
governmental announcements, notices of runaway slaves and escaped convicts, notes from ship
captains looking for cargo for the return trip to England, land sales, sales of imported woolens and
wines, and a lost person report.
It is evident that Virginians were relatively well informed of events from much of the world. The
timeliness of the information was limited only by the speed of horses or ships. These limitations had
kept the flow of news constant for hundreds of years and would continue to do so until the invention
of railroads and telegraphs in the nineteenth century. Eighteenth-century newspapers provided
little local news. Such news and information spread primarily by word of mouth through a network
that was faster than any typesetter. For example, in late 1774, when loyalist Nicholas Cresswell
wanted to get news about the deliberations of the Continental Congress, he did not wait for it to be
printed in the next paper. He wrote in his journal, “this evening went to the Tavern to hear the
Resolves of the Continental Congress.” When an anonymous essayist, who called himself “Monitor,” wrote an article on the lessons of antiquity in one of William Rind’s Gazettes, he instructed his
audience to “entertain one another frequently in conversation on these subjects.” He was encourag-
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ing his fellows to participate in a public discourse like Cresswell’s in which the primary means of
education was verbal interaction.
For the most part, newspapers brought the rest of the world into Virginia. For those who could
read, the printed word was one of the components that made up the eighteenth-century gentleman’s,
and lady’s, world. Colonial America’s printers were more than mere tradesmen. They served a vital
function in not only disseminating information but also providing a network that bound educated
people to each other and to polite British society at large. Newspapers were a compendium of
information and a forum for literate people.
People from the middle and lower ranks of society came by print information via word of mouth,
perhaps by overhearing discussions in public places such as taverns. Increasingly, though, they
learned to read for themselves. Political scandals in the mid-1760s, encouragement by Baptist and
Presbyterian preachers to read the Bible, and an increasing amount of discretionary income and
time, began bringing literacy to the masses in numbers never before seen. The world was changing,
and the desire of Virginians to make sense of it was intensifying. Newspapers printed instructions
from voters to their delegates in the Virginia conventions. Gentry essayists, who once wrote articles
for their peers, offered printers articles that were “adapted to the understandings, and intended for
the information of the middling and lower sorts of people.”
Ultimately, the unrest that began in the 1760s led to a revolution that separated Great Britain
from her colonies and started a new experiment in republican self-government. That same crisis also
started a revolution in public printing—in the composition of the readership and in the way printed
pieces were used. The events that unfolded between the Stamp Act and 1776 created an unprecedented interest in acquiring information, which led to the growth in printing establishments. At the
same time, Virginia’s gentry recognized the importance of an educated society to the success of the
cause of liberty. Colonial printers were a part of and a product of the change happening around
them. On the one hand, they traditionally served a well-off, educated clientele, providing newspapers, books, and pamphlets for a fairly select group of readers. On the other hand, the Revolutionary War created such a clamor for information that the traditional role of printers would never be the
same. The Fourth Estate was born. As the New York Typographical Society proclaimed in 1811:
Heaven decreed
That Columbia be freed,
And Printing and valour accomplish’d the deed.
The banner of war was by Justice unfurl’d,
And Freedom by Printing proclaim’d to the world.
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Glossary
ALLOY—A substance composed of two or more metals.
ALMANAC (also ALMANACK)—An annual publication containing a yearly calendar noting astronomical and meteorological data, religious observances, public celebrations, and a variety of other
useful information. Light readings including poems and other amusing stories, were also popular
items in almanacs.
BOOKBINDER—A person who is engaged in stitching books together and attaching the covers.
BROADSIDE—A large single sheet, usually printed on one side, used to distribute news or government proclamations or to publicize a public event such as a play or auction.
WILLIAM CAXTON (1422–1491)—The founder of English printing who, in 1477, published Earl
Rivers’s The Dictes and Sayenges of the Phylosophers, the first dated book, printed in Westminster, England. Caxton is known to have printed approximately one hundred books.
CENSORSHIP—Censoring; examining to suppress or delete anything considered objectionable.
COMPOSING STICK—A small, adjustable, hand-held tray designed to hold several lines of type.
COMPOSITOR—A person who sets text in type for printing; typesetter.
CONTINENTAL—Relating to a continent; relating to the continent of Europe, excluding Great
Britain.
CONTINENTAL CONGRESS—A body formed of elected delegates from each colony to represent the colonies’ common views, including resolving conflicts with Great Britain.
LORD CHARLES CORNWALLIS (1738–1805)—English general and statesman who became
second in command to Sir Henry Clinton, commander of British forces during the American Revolution, in 1778. Two years later Cornwallis began the fateful Carolina campaign, which ended in
1781 with the British defeat at Yorktown.
Setting type.
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COVETED—Longed for; strongly desired.
STEPHEN DAY (ca. 1594–1668)—An Englishman who settled in Massachusetts Bay Colony in
1638. Considered the first printer in the American colonies, he issued the Bay Psalm Book, the first
book printed in the colonies, in 1640.
DIVERSIFICATION—To produce a variety of products.
EDITOR—Someone who prepares material for publication or public presentation.
FOURTH ESTATE—The press. Legend attributes the phrase to Sir Edmund Burke who, during a
debate in Parliament in the late eighteenth century, reportedly noted that there were three “estates”
that held formal power in Britain: monarchy, Lords, and Commons. Gesturing to the press gallery,
he then said, “And yonder sits the Fourth Estate, more powerful than them all.”
FRESHEST ADVICE—The latest news.
GALLEY—A tray designed to hold set type.
GAZETTE—A newspaper.
GENTRY—People of high social standing and wealth in colonial America—approximately the top
2 percent of the population in eighteenth-century Virginia.
JOHANNES GUTENBERG (ca. 1397–1468)—German metalsmith and printer credited with the
invention of movable type printing in the West, including the use of molds, metal alloys, a special
press, and oil-based inks. This method of printing, with refinements and increased mechanization,
remained in use until the twentieth century.
HITHERTO—Up to this or that time.
HOUSE OF BURGESSES—The elected lower house of the colonial Virginia legislature. The
governor and Council comprised the upper house. The upper and lower houses together were “to
meet in General Assembly”.
IMPARTIAL—Unbiased; having no direct involvement, not favoring one side over another.
INFLUENCE—The power to affect or influence.
LIBEL—A written or oral defamatory, unfavorable, or unjust statement about a person.
LOYALIST—A supporter of the British government during the American Revolution. Also known
as a Tory.
MASTHEAD—The name of a newspaper displayed on the top of the first page.
MIDDLING SORT—People of middle-class rank, under the gentry and above the lower class
working laborers. People in trades or professions, sometimes quite wealthy.
MOVABLE TYPE—Reusable metal blocks with relief characters that can be arranged in rows and
columns to form words. Although movable type was invented in China in the eleventh century,
Gutenberg was the first to make pieces of type from metal (an alloy of lead, tin, and antimony) rather
than wood.
PAMPHLET—An unbound printed publication, usually stitched together with thread, having no
cover or a paper cover.
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WILLIAM PARKS (ca. 1698–1750)—Printer and publisher in three English towns and in Annapolis, Maryland, before opening the first printing office in Williamsburg, Virginia, in 1730. Parks
founded the colony’s first newspaper, the Virginia Gazette, in 1736.
PARLIAMENT—The national legislature (lawmaking body) of Great Britain.
PARODY—A literary work imitating the characteristic style of some other work in a satirical or
humorous manner.
PATRIOT—An American colonist who favored a political break with Great Britain. Also known as
a Whig.
POSTMASTER—One who has charge of the mail.
PRINTER—A person engaged in printing.
PUBLICATION—The process of publishing; to make generally known.
PUBLICK—Public. The populace; the people as a whole.
STAMP ACT—A tax law passed in 1765 by Parliament, which required all publications and legal
documents in the American colonies to bear a tax stamp. The act was repealed in 1766.
STATUS—An individual’s position or standing, determined by birth, education, wealth, race, or
ability.
TAVERN—A public house that offered food, drink, and lodging in the eighteenth century.
LORD CHARLES TOWNSHEND (1725–1767)—English statesman and Chancellor of the
Exchequer. Townshend became a leading figure in the ministry and was responsible for the implementation of the ill-fated Townshend Duties that taxed all paper, lead, glass, paint colors, and tea
imported into the American colonies.
TYMPAN—A skin-covered wooden frame that served as a guide for positioning a sheet of paper on
the press.
TYPE—Rectangular metal pieces, cast in molds by European letter foundries, bearing raised characters from which an inked print can be made; a collection of such blocks. Type was traditionally
kept in two cases: capitals in the upper case and small letters in the lower case.
VIRGINIA CONVENTIONS—Meetings of elected delegates from Virginia’s counties and towns
to determine the colony’s response to the crisis between Great Britain and her North American
colonies. Five conventions were held, the last instructing the Second Continental Congress to declare independence.
VIRGINIA GAZETTE—The name used by several eighteenth-century printers in Williamsburg,
Virginia, for their newspapers.
YOUR MOST OBEDIENT SERVANT—A common, polite way of closing a letter in the eighteenth century.
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Timeline of Events
Eleventh century The Chinese begin to print with movable carved wooden type.
ca. 1400
A printing technique using wooden blocks and type arrives in Europe from the
Far East.
1452
Johannes Gutenberg begins working with the idea of movable type. In his workshop, he brings together the technologies of movable metal type and the press to
print books.
1477
William Caxton publishes Earl Rivers’s The Dictes and Sayenges of the Phylosophers,
the first dated book printed in England.
1500s
Printing provides the first mass medium for the dissemination of information.
1607
Jamestown, Virginia, the first permanent English settlement in North America,
is established.
1619
The first representative assembly in the American colonies meets in Jamestown.
1638
Stephen Day establishes the first printing press in North America in the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
1640s
News pamphlets begin to appear.
1640
Stephen Day publishes the Bay Psalm Book, the first book printed in the American colonies.
1660s
Newspapers begin to appear. The gazette format uses paper more efficiently and
requires less folding and no stitching.
1660–1677
Sir William Berkeley, governor of Virginia, summarizes the attitude of most officials of his day:
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, sects into this world, and printing had divulged them, and libels against the best government. God keep us
from both.
1682
At the invitation of John Buckner, a merchant-planter in Virginia, printer
William Nuthead moves to Virginia, without official permission, and makes plans
to print the laws passed by the 1682 General Assembly. Called before the governor and Council to explain his actions, Nuthead waits several months for royal
approval, but the king’s instructions state that “no person be permitted to use
any press for printing upon any occasion whatsoever.”
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1690
The first newspaper in the colonies, the “Publick Occurrences Both Forreign
and Domestick,” is published in Boston, but is suppressed by the governor after
the first issue. The paper is restarted in 1704.
1699
The capital of the colony of Virginia moves from Jamestown to Williamsburg.
1726
John Peter Zenger opens a printing shop in New York, becoming the colony’s
second printer.
1730
With the approval of governor William Gooch, the Virginia General Assembly
invites printer William Parks to move from Annapolis, Maryland, to Williamsburg
and is named the first public printer of Virginia.
1731
Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790) and others found a subscription library in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
1732
Benjamin Franklin begins publishing Poor Richard’s Almanack.
1735
After more than eight months in prison, John Peter Zenger is tried for libel,
accused of publishing comments critical of the government in his newspaper,
The New York Weekly Journal. His lawyer argues that impartiality is essential for a
free press and that truth is fundamental to that impartiality. The jury agrees and
finds Zenger not guilty.
1736
Williamsburg printer William Parks begins printing the Virginia Gazette, the first
newspaper published in Virginia.
1750
William Parks dies. The Virginia Gazette ceases publication.
1751
William Hunter succeeds William Parks as Williamsburg printer. He restarts
the Virginia Gazette, with the Virginia coat of arms appearing in the masthead.
1754
The Pennsylvania Gazette publishes America’s first newspaper political cartoon, a
picture of a snake cut into sections, each representing a colony, with the caption
“Join or Die.”
1761
William Hunter, Sr., dies. Joseph Royle succeeds him as Williamsburg printer.
1765
Parliament passes the Stamp Act.
1766
A group of burgesses persuade William Rind to come from Maryland to
Williamsburg to publish a competition newspaper, free from the influence of the
government. The motto of Rind’s Virginia Gazette proclaims that it is “Open to
ALL PARTIES, but influenced by NONE.”
1773
William Rind dies. His wife, Clementina, takes over the business and becomes
Virginia’s only female printer during the colonial period.
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1774
Thomas Jefferson’s “A Summary View of the Rights of British North America”
is published in Williamsburg by public printer Clementina Rind.
Clementina Rind dies. John Pinkney succeeds her.
1775
January
Alexander Purdie establishes his own Virginia Gazette, making it the third newspaper printed by competing printers in Williamsburg.
April
The first battles of the American Revolution take place in Lexington and Concord, Massachusetts.
August
King George III declares the American colonies in rebellion.
Thirty-eight newspapers are published in the American colonies.
1776
January
Thomas Paine (1737–1809) writes Common Sense. The first printing (one thousand copies) in Philadelphia sells out in one week.
May 15
The Virginia Convention unanimously adopts a resolution instructing the colony’s
delegates in the Continental Congress to introduce a motion for independence.
July 2
The second Continental Congress adopts Virginian Richard Henry Lee’s resolution for independence and, on July 4, adopts Thomas Jefferson’s Declaration of
Independence.
1781
Washington defeats British troops under the command of General Cornwallis at
Yorktown, Virginia.
1783
The Treaty of Paris ends the American Revolution.
1788
The United States Constitution is ratified in September after it is approved by
nine of the thirteen states.
1789
Congress proposes twelve amendments to the Constitution. Ten of the twelve
amendments are ratified and added to the Constitution as the Bill of Rights.
Article I states, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech,
or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition
the government for a redress of grievances.”
1790
Approximately ninety newspapers are printed in the United States.
1800
Approximately one hundred sixty newspapers are printed in the United States.
1810
Approximately three hundred sixty newspapers are printed in the United States.
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LESSON ONE
Reading Primary Sources
INTRODUCTION
The Virginia Gazette newspaper was an important source of information in Williamsburg,
Virginia. In this lesson, students will examine excerpts from various Virginia Gazettes, identify the
types of information that are being printed, and determine whether the information is local or global,
British or colonial.
OBJECTIVES
As a result of this lesson, students will be able to:
1. Read excerpts from the Virginia Gazette and identify the types of information contained in
each excerpt.
2. Identify the information as local or global, British or colonial.
3. Understand the nature of eighteenth-century travel and how it affected the length of time
required to receive the news.
STANDARDS OF LEARNING
This lesson meets the National Standards of Learning in the areas of historical comprehension, analysis, interpretation, and evidencing perspectives.
MATERIALS
Graphic Organizer 1: Reading the Virginia Gazette
Selections from the Virginia Gazette (one for each group of students)
Flip chart or butcher paper and markers (provided by the teacher)
SETTING THE STAGE
Inform students that, unlike today, not everyone in the eighteenth century read newspapers.
Also, in most cases only gentry or middling-sort people could afford to purchase them. The most
common form of communication was word of mouth. Newspapers, however, were frequently the
source of the news that was discussed or read aloud to others.
STRATEGY
1. Divide students into ten groups. Give each student a copy of Graphic Organizer 1. Give
each group one of the selections from the Virginia Gazette.
2. Instruct students to read the selections from the Virginia Gazette and fill in Graphic Organizer 1.
Circulate among the students to help them read the passages. Give the longer passages to the
stronger readers.
3. When they are finished, ask each group to share their information with the rest of the class.
On flipchart or butcher paper, make a list of the various types of information found in the
Virginia Gazette.
LESSON EXTENSION
For homework, tell students to find, cut out, and bring in an article from the newspaper that
gives the same type of information that they saw in the Virginia Gazette. Ask them to share these
articles the following day.
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Local, Global,
Imperial, Colonial
Entertainment,
Advertisement, Information
Description
Date
Graphic Organizer 1: Reading the Virginia Gazette
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SELECTIONS FROM THE VIRGINIA GAZETTE
CAMBRIDGE, October 19.
Since our last arrived in town the hon. Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Lynch, and Benjamin
Harrison, esqrs. from Philadelphia, a committee from the Continental Congress; the hon. Matthew
Griswold, esq; deputy governour, and —Wales, esq: of Connecticut; the hon. Nicholas Cooke, esq;
deputy governour and commander in chief of Rhode Island; and the hon. John Wentworth, esq;
president of the provincial congress of New Hampshire. As the time for which the present army is
raised will expire in two or three months, these gentlemen, with the members of the hon. council of
this colony, are appointed to meet and confer with his excellency general Washington on the subject
of forming and establishing another continental army, for the defence of the invaded rights of the
united colonies.
Virginia Gazette (Purdie), Nov. 10, 1775.
WHEREAS the Minds of his Majesty’s faithful Subjects in this Colony have been much disturbed by various Rumours and Reports of Proceedings tending to deprive them of their ancient,
legal, and constitutional Rights; and whereas the Affairs of this Colony are frequently connected
with those of Great Britain, as well as of the neighboring Colonies, which renders a Communication
of Sentiments necessary: In order, therefore, to remove the Uneasinesses and to quiet the Minds of
the People, as well as for the other good Purposes above mentioned,
Be it resolved, that a standing committee of correspondence and Inquiry be appointed, to consist of
eleven Persons, to wit, the Honourable Peyton Randolph, Esquire, Robert Carter Nicholas,
Richard Bland, Richard Henry Lee, Benjamin Harrison, Edmund Pendleton, Patrick Henry, Dudley
Digges, Dabney Carr, Archibald Cary, and Thomas Jefferson, Esquires, and six of whom to be a
Committee, whose Business it shall be to obtain the most early and authentick Intelligence of all
such Acts and Resolutions of the British Parliament, or Proceedings of Administration, as may relate
to or affect the British Colonies in America; and to keep up and maintain a Correspondence, and
Communication, with our Sister Colonies, respecting these important Considerations; and the Result of such their Proceedings, from Time to Time, to lay before this House.
Virginia Gazette (Purdie & Dixon), Mar. 18, 1773.
A remedy for sore gums and loose teeth.
BOIL oak leaves in spring water, add a few drops of spirit of sulphur, and gargle the mouth with
a little of this decoction every morning while necessary.
A sure preservative against the tooth ach, and defluxations on the gums or teeth.
AFTER having washed your mouth with water, as cleanliness, and, indeed, health require, you
should every morning rince the mouth with a teaspoon full of lavender water, mixed with an equal
quantity of water. This simple and innocent remedy is a certain preservative, the success of which
has been confirmed by long experience.
Virginia Gazette (Rind), Jan. 28, 1773.
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WILLIAMSBURG, September 23, 1773.
To be SOLD, on Saturday the 2d of October, at the dwellinghouse of the late Mr. William Rind,
deceased,
ALL the estate of the said Rind, consisting of HOUSEHOLD and KITCHEN FURNITURE,
&C. Six months credit will be allowed the purchasers, on giving bond, with approved security, to the
subscriber, who is empowered by the court of York county to settle the said estate. All persons who
have any demands against the same are desired to make them known immediately; and those indebted are requested to pay their respective balances, that I may be enabled to settle the estate, and
pay off the creditors, as no indulgence will be given.
WILLIAM RUSSELL, Deputy Sheriff
Virginia Gazette (Rind), Sept. 23, 1773.
RUN away from the subscriber in Dinwiddie, the 5th day of April last, a dark mulatto man named
JEMMY, 5 feet 9 or 10 inches high, well made, has remarkable long feet, the middle toes longer
than the rest, which they ride over, has lost part of one of his foreteeth, which occasions the next to it
to look blue, is a very artful fellow, and will probably endeavour to pass for a freeman; he is very
fond of singing hymns and preaching, and has been about Williamsburg ever since he went off, passing
by the name of James Williams. Whoever apprehends the said slave, and secures him so that I get him
again, shall have 40s. reward, and if delivered to me in Dinwiddie £4.
DAVID WALKER.
Virginia Gazette (Purdie), Sept. 8, 1775.
On the 12th of March died Mr. HENRY MOORE of Colchester, a man eminent for integrity as
well as other virtues, and whose memory is revered, and whose death is much lamented, by all
honest men within the circle of his friendship or acquaintance.
On the 8th instant came on the election for a Burgess for the county of Frederick, in the room of
Mr. Robert Rutherford, when the poll stood thus:
For Mr. Isaac Zeene
273
For Mr. Robert Wood
81
Majority in favor of Mr. Zeene
192
Mr. Charles Carter is elected for Stafford.
There is at Ditchley, the seat of the earl of Litchfield, the picture of a DOG, who got into the
chamber of a son of the then Lord, and could by no means be driven out; the young Gentleman
therefore suffered him to remain, and went to bed. In the night a man entered the room, upon whom
the dog seized, and kept him until help arrived: This man proved to be the butler, who confessed his
intention of murdering the master, and robbing the house.
Virginia Gazette (Rind), Apr. 15, 1773.
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Mr. RIND,
Please to insert the following lines in your next Gazette.
SIR,
I SHALL be much obliged to you if you’ll be kind enough to inform the public for what reason,
or by what authority, you returned Col. John Randolph eldest Burgess for Lunenburg county, in
your gazette, bearing date the 9th day of December last past, before the writ for the said election was
returned to the Secretary’s office, as the law directs. One of my country men informs me that he
asked Mr. Benjamin Waller the reason, and his answer was, because Mr. Randolph was a man of
greatest dignity. I will not undertake to say what Mr. Randolph, or Mr. Waller’s dignity may be; but
in my humble opinion Mr. Randolph, nor any other Gentleman in his behalf, is intitled by law, or
custom, to crown Mr. Randolph with the honour due to me, that was given me by my country men,
freely and lawfully, when at the same time, it lay to their own choice whether they would give Mr.
Randolph that honour, or myself; and they gave me 260 votes, and Mr. Randolph but 210 votes; and
if any Gentleman questions my honour and dignity, I am not ashamed, nor afraid to dispute that
point before any lawful authority whatever.
I am, Sir,
Your most obedient servant,
HENRY BLAGRAVE.
SIR,
WE often receive the accounts of elections from transient persons, who know nothing more than
the names of the Gentlemen who are elected, and cannot give correct lists until all the writs are
returned.
I am, SIR, your most obedient servant,
WILLIAM RIND.
Virginia Gazette (Rind), Feb. 2, 1769.
LONDON, December 14.
AN express was dispatched last night from the admiralty office to the Right Honourable Lord
Sandwich, at his seat at Hinchinbroke Priory, in Huntingdonshire.
The marchioness of Caermarthen, when presented at court under her new title, had 70,000£
worth of jewels about her person.
The marchioness was presented by Lady Ancram. Their Majesties received her in the white and
silver favours she condescended to accept as nuptual compliment, and said abundance of gracious
things to her on the occasion.
Sunday the Duke and Dutchess of Gloucester dined with her Royal Highness the Princess of
Amelia, at her house in Cavendish Square.
Yesterday a cause was tried before Lord Mansfield, in the court of King’s Bench, Westminster,
wherein a partner in a tavern was plaintiff, and a person who keeps coffeehouse defendant. The
action was brought to recover damages for defamation, in calling the plaintiff by a very opprobrious
name, in a public company, at a house of entertainment. The jury, which was special, withdrew for a
few minutes, and found a verdict for the plaintiff, with 300£ damages.
Virginia Gazette (Rind), Mar. 3, 1774.
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WARSAW, November 24.
IT is certain that the King our sovereign has fully ratified the treaties concluded with the three
neighboring powers. It is said that the Prussian minister had insisted that the absent delegates
should subscribe the treaty with his court, but the thing is almost impossible, as several of them are
actually at Petersburg, and others are in different parts. It was thought the demand of this minister
would have served for a pretence to keep the Prussian troops in Poland, but they are actually on
their march, and the regiment of Belling is to arrive the Ist of December at Nakel, a small Prussian
town beyond the frontiers. General Loftow has also quitted his quarters near Rawicz, and the generals Lentulus and Richecourt have left this city. We also learn that the Austrian troops have orders to
march, which causes the greater satisfaction here, as the first article of the treaties being so punctually observed, gives room to hope the others will be strictly adhered to.
Virginia Gazette (Rind), Mar. 3, 1774.
On FREEDOM.
FREEDOM’s charms alike engage
Blooming youth and hoary age.
Time itself can ne’er destroy
Freedom’s pure lasting joy:
Love and friendship never gave
Half their blessings to the slave;
None are happy but the free,
Bliss is born of LIBERTY.
Virginia Gazette (Dixon), Jan. 13, 1776.
Virginia Gazette (Dixon), Jan. 13, 1776.
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LESSON TWO
Avoiding Libel
INTRODUCTION
Explain to students that eighteenth-century printers believed in the idea of a free press. However, although there was no censorship before publication, printers could face serious consequences
resulting from comments that offended another person. To avoid such problems, printers developed
clever devices to avoid libel. Whole sections of a biblical passage could be reworked to explain an
event or issue, and readers understood to whom the passage referred. Another method involved
printing the first letter of the last name followed by a line (for example, L
). Yet another way was
to print a little story that created an analogy.
OBJECTIVES
As a result of this lesson, students will be able to:
1. Write an eighteenth-century-style informative piece about a person.
2. Avoid libel by writing the piece using the first letter and a line (T
), rather than using the
person’s last name.
3. Write a second informative piece about the same person, using an analogy with figurative
language.
STANDARDS OF LEARNING
This lesson meets National Standards of Learning in the areas of historical comprehension,
analysis, interpretation, and consideration of multiple perspectives.
MATERIALS
Pencils and paper (provided by the teacher)
Primary Source about an Incident at Jamestown Camp, 1776
Sample Rewrites (for the overhead)
Excerpts from the Virginia Gazette
SETTING THE STAGE
1. Discuss with students what it would be like to be a news reporter. Explain how to write an
informative piece covering the key areas of who, what, when, where, and why.
2. Discuss what freedom of the press means today and what it meant before the Bill of Rights
was ratified December 15, 1791. Explain that students must forget about constitutional protection for freedom of the press. Early in the eighteenth century, English precedents held
that libels aimed at public officials undermined the government and bordered on treason.
Zenger’s acquittal in 1735 challenged that precedent. Discuss why freedom of speech and
freedom of the press were so important that they became a part of our written constitutional
guarantees.
3. Explain to students that since there were no reporters in the eighteenth century, they will
play the role of the editor of the Virginia Gazette. As such, they will write a piece that will
inform the reading public about a person or event without offending the person(s) about
whom they are writing.
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STRATEGY
1. Explain to students the three ways an eighteenth-century writer could avoid libel (these are
mentioned in the introduction of this lesson). Inform students that they will use two of these
methods—using the first letter of a name and writing an analogy.
Display on the overhead the Excerpts from the Virginia Gazette that illustrate the two
methods.
2. Distribute a copy of the Primary Source about an Incident at Jamestown Camp, 1776, to
each student. Explain that this information, which appeared in the Virginia Gazette, would
have been offensive to the person about whom it was written. Read the passage with the
class, making sure everyone understands it.
3. Elicit from students ideas for changes they would make to the piece to avoid being charged
with libel. How would they rewrite the article using the first letter of the name followed by a
line? Show students an overhead transparency of the Sample Rewrite using the first letter
and a line method.
Define and make certain the students understand the use of analogies. Have students summarize the plot of a simple story they would be able to use to rewrite this article. Encourage
them to use analogies in their stories. Have them share their stories in small groups, and then
have each group share one story with the class. Show students an overhead transparency of
the Sample Rewrite using the simple story method. Discuss it with them and explain that
there are many different ways to rewrite the article as a simple story.
4. Distribute the Excerpts from the Virginia Gazette to students. Read them together as a class to
make certain the students understand the Excerpts.
Ask each student to select one of the Excerpts. Explain that although the information in the
passage may not offend the person that it is written about, they should assume that it would.
Have them rewrite the passage twice, once using the first letter and a line method and once
using a simple story. Students should be encouraged to use figurative language with the
simple story. [Note to teachers: Have students who finish quickly rewrite one or two additional passages.]
Have students share their work within their groups. Volunteers will share work with the
entire class.
[Note to teachers: These writings could be word processed and placed into a portfolio along
with the primary source copy.]
LESSON EXTENSION
For homework (allow about three days), instruct students to find a newspaper article that
they think is offensive to the person about whom it is written. They should cut out the article, rewrite
a section of it twice using the two methods they have learned, and bring the completed assignment
back to class.
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PRIMARY SOURCE ABOUT AN INCIDENT
AT JAMESTOWN CAMP, 1776
JAMESTOWN CAMP, July 25, 1776.
MR. John Davis, of Surry County, having passed in this Camp several Bills of the North Carolina
Currency, which were suspected to be counterfeit, he was arrested in Order to be brought through
the proper Channel to Trial; Upon inquiry into the Matter, his Innocency appeared, and he was
discharged. ———Mr. Davis apprehending that his Character may suffer unless this Affair of his
being taken into Custody is explained to the World, the Officers of this Camp do cordially certify
that he fully satisfied them of his having no Design to impose counterfeit Bills on any Person whatever, and that they think him an honest Member of civil Society.
Signed by
EDWARD CARRINGTON.
NICHOLAS CABELL.
Virginia Gazette (Dixon), Aug. 3, 1776.
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Sample Rewrites
The first letter and line method:
JAMESTOWN CAMP, July 25, 1776.
MR. John D——, of Surry County, having passed in this Camp several Bills of the North Carolina
Currency, which were suspected to be counterfeit, he was arrested in Order to be brought through
the proper Channel to Trial; Upon inquiry into the Matter, his Innocency appeared, and he was
discharged. ——— Mr. D—— apprehending that his Character may suffer unless this Affair of his
being taken into Custody is explained to the World, the Officers of this Camp do cordially certify
that he fully satisfied them of his having no Design to impose counterfeit Bills on any Person whatever, and that they think him an honest Member of civil Society.
Signed by
EDWARD CARRINGTON.
NICHOLAS CABELL.
A simple story method:
There was a gentleman who made purchases of different types in Jamestown Camp. The proprietors, upon receiving his paper currency, believed the money was not real and they had the
gentleman arrested. Being the gentleman that he was, the accused was able to prove his innocence.
He was very embarrassed by the whole affair because word spread rapidly and his reputation was
being damaged. Wanting to do what was right, the officers of the camp publicly stated that the
money was good and that the gentleman should be held in the highest esteem.
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EXCERPTS FROM THE VIRGINIA GAZETTE
Lord Talbot was observed yesterday to swallow a spoonful of soup, in the King’s kitchen, without chewing it.
It is not true that one of her Majesty’s right fingers, as was villainously reported, is affected with
a pimple; It is one of her left fingers.
Lord Suffolk has of late dedicated his whole time to trap ball, in which science he has made
prodigious progress. It is said that he will next study the noble game of cricket; and after he has
studied it three years, it is not doubted but he will catch a ball with all the dexterity of Lord Tankerville.
It is remarkable that Lord Mansfield was not yesterday, when he appeared in the court of King’s
Bench, so close shaved as usual. The reason is not known. Some attribute it to his barber’s razor
having been blunt, and others to his lordship’s chin increasing in wrinkles.
Last night, at the door of Drury Lane theatre, Lord F——— was observed actually to lift his lap
dog into the chariot, without once seeking the footman’s assistance.
Virginia Gazette (Rind), Feb. 10, 1774.
Yesterday, as a great personage was stepping out of his carriage to go to St. James’s Palace, he
was presented with a petition by a young Lady of about ten years of age, confidently said to be the
daughter of a deceased great personage, to whom she bears an exact likeness. She likewise presented another petition to his Royal Highness the Duke of Gloucester, as he was coming out of the
Palace and stepping into his coach, which he received with a most gracious and benign condescention,
and seemed to take great notice of the young Lady.
Virginia Gazette (Rind), Dec. 7, 1769.
The masthead of William Rind’s Virginia Gazette.
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Optional Extension Lesson
in Multimedia
INTRODUCTION
This topic lends itself well to using a technology application such as PageMaker, Microsoft
Publisher, Children’s Writing and Publishing Center, or some other software program that can be
used to create newspapers.
OBJECTIVES
As a result of this lesson, students will be able to:
1. Compose an eighteenth-century-style newspaper based on their knowledge of modern newspapers and eighteenth-century gazettes.
2. Use the various components of a gazette as presented in the Lessons One and Two.
STANDARDS OF LEARNING
This lesson meets the National Standards of Learning in the areas of historical comprehension,
analysis, interpretation, and consideration of multiple perspectives.
MATERIALS
Computers
Publishing software
Pencils and paper
Scanner or digital camera
Printer
STRATEGY
1. Divide the class into groups of three or four students.
2. Have students create a modern gazette by designing a title, masthead, crest, motto, date, and
layout similar to an eighteenth-century Virginia Gazette. Each paper should include:
• A short editorial
• A poem or story
• Recent Continental, national, and state news
• Advertisements
• An announcement
LESSON EXTENSION
Students who have viewed other Colonial Williamsburg Electronic Field Trips and/or in-depth
studies in colonial history could write their gazette from an eighteenth-century point of view. For an
additional challenge, some students could write the paper from a loyalist or patriot point of view.
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Final Evaluation Activity
INTRODUCTION
This activity will give students the opportunity to demonstrate their acquired knowledge of
eighteenth-century written and oral communication.
OBJECTIVE
As a result of this activity, students will be able to reflect on the societal role of an eighteenthcentury newspaper, how the printing business was run, and the significance of freedom of the press
in pre-Revolutionary America.
STANDARDS OF LEARNING
This activity meets the National Standards of Learning in the areas of historical comprehension,
analysis, interpretation, and decision-making.
MATERIALS
All the finished work from the lessons in this Teacher Guide
Information gathered from the “. . .Influenced By None” Web Adventure on the Colonial
Williamsburg Web site
Discussion Forum interactions with Colonial Williamsburg staff
STRATEGY
Explain to students that, based on what they have learned about dissemination of information, they will communicate a topic of their choice to the rest of the class. This can be done using the
medium of their choice. They will be afforded all the latitude granted to a free press. Clementina
Rind wrote in a letter to Mr. Purdie, editor of another Virginia Gazette:
To Mr. PURDIE,
SIR,
The Motto to your Sister Printer’s Gazette is Open to all Parties, but
influenced by none. It is very properly descriptive of that Freedom which renders the
Press beneficial to Mankind.
Students need to put some thought into what they are going to communicate and how best to
convey it to the class so everyone will understand it. Quality is important. Follow the example set by
Clementina Rind, who endeavored to amuse and instruct while simultaneously preserving the
dignity of her paper. [Note to teachers: A teacher/student rubric should be considered to assess
student presentations.]
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Take-Home Lesson
Through the Colonial Williamsburg Electronic Field Trip “. . .Influenced by None,” students
learned how eighteenth-century people acquired news and information, especially through a gazette, or newspaper. Today, newspapers educate, inform, entertain, and, in our free republic, act as
watchdogs over the government. In the pre-Revolutionary War period, newspapers educated, entertained, and informed, but did not serve as watchdogs over the government. Eighteenth-century
newspapers expressed particular points of view by virtue of what they did or did not print. Since it
was mostly the privileged few that could afford to subscribe to a newspaper, much information was
passed by word of mouth. Today we depend not only on newspapers, magazines, the Internet, radio,
and television, but also on word of mouth just as the colonists did.
As a culminating activity to this unit, parents are encouraged to do the following lesson with
their children. Students should have a week to finish this lesson. Ask students and their parents to
fill in Graphic Organizer 2: Forms of Communication and sign it.
The students and parents should choose two forms of communication (newspapers, magazines, the Internet, radio, television). For each form, select three specific examples (for instance, for
television one might choose CNN, Dateline, and MTV news). Fill out Graphic Organizer 2 while
watching, listening to, or reading an information source. Be sure to discuss what your thoughts are
before filling in Graphic Organizer 2 for each form of communication.
Have fun!
From Benson J. Lossing, The Pictorial Field-Book of the Revolution, vol. 2 (New
York, N.Y., 1859), p. 53. Published the day before the much-hated Stamp
Act took effect, this issue of William Bradford’s Pennsylvania Journal
announced the temporary suspension of the newspaper. Bradford altered the
regular masthead, dramatically featuring a tombstone, a coffin, and the “fatal
Stamp” rendered as a death’s head.
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Comments:
Parent Signature:
Intended Audience
Name of
(for example, Age,
Publication or
Gender, Geographic
Program and Date Area, or Political
Stance)
Form of Communication:
Name:
Types of
Information
Presented
How Information Is Presented (Is it interesting or
entertaining? Are the presenters in the field or a studio?
Are there a variety of people presenting? Are different
points of view presented? Is there variety in
presentation technique?)
Graphic Organizer 2: Forms of Communication
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31
“Printer,” plate 14 in Denis Diderot, Encyclopédie, ou, Dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers, 1751.
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Proofreading a printed copy.
We at Colonial Williamsburg would enjoy receiving copies of some of your students’ work from
any of the lesson plans in this packet. If you would care to share examples, please send them to:
Jodi Norman
Education Outreach
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
P.O. Box 1776
Williamsburg, VA 23187-1776
Special thanks for their help to: Darci Fronk, middle school teacher, Vancouver, Washington;
Virginia Goodrich, elementary school teacher, Pasadena, California; Dr. Ted D. R. Green, assistant
professor, Educational Studies, Saint Louis University, Saint Louis, Missouri; Carole Gunner, middle
school teacher, Carlsbad, California; Mark Howell, Director, Department of Program Development, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, Williamsburg, Virginia; William Neer, middle school
teacher, Liverpool, New York; Glenna Raper, elementary school teacher and reading specialist,
Davis, Oklahoma; Andrew Rodgers, middle school teacher, Englewood, Colorado; Chris Sink, middle
school teacher, Battleground, Washington.
This teacher’s guide has been underwritten by a grant from the DeWitt Wallace Fund for Colonial Williamsburg, established by the founder of Reader’s Digest, and the William and Gretchen Kimball
Young Patriots Fund.
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