On the Edge of the American Revolution: The Nova Scotia Gazette in 1775

Abstract

This study focuses on the first Canadian newspaper, the Nova Scotia Gazette, on the eve of the American Revolution. It explores the means by which the paper’s printer, Anthony Henry, was able to continue including both American patriot and British loyalist viewpoints long after polarization in the colonies that became the United States drove printers to solely support the Patriot cause. The analysis identifies printerly practices Henry used to continue publishing multiple perspectives. Also discussed are how differences between the economic, political and social reality of Nova Scotia and that of the American colonies contributed to Henry retaining an impartial stance.

Notes

1 Carol Sue Humphrey, “This Popular Engine”: New England Newspapers during the American Revolution, 1775–1789 (Newark, NJ: University of Delaware Press, 1992), 27–28.

2 Humphrey, “This Popular Engine,” 17–21. Christopher B. Daly, Covering America: A Narrative History of a Nation’s Journalism (Boston: University of Massachusetts Press, 2012), 34 and 37. For a detailed discussion of the mounting pressures prior to 1775, see Wm. David Sloan and Julie Hedgepeth Williams, The Early American Press: 1690–1783 (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1994), 147–169.

3 Throughout this paper “partisan” will mean simply holding a position strongly. While no choice of terms can be truly neutral, for the purposes of this study the partisan position in favor of breaking with the Crown will be referred to as Patriot or rebel. The range of views supporting the Crown will be denoted as Loyalist. The colonies that became Canada will be referred to as British North America. The colonies that became the United States will be referred to as America.

4 David Copeland, “America, 1750–1820,” in Press, Politics and the Public Sphere in Europe and North America 1760–1820, edited by Hannah Barker and Simon Burrows (Toronto: Cambridge University Press, 2002), 150–51.

5 Ralph Frasca, “‘The Glorious Publick Virtue so Predominant in our Rising Country’: Benjamin Franklin’s Printing Network During the Revolutionary Era,” American Journalism 13, no. 1 (1996): 26–29.

6 Richard D. Brown, Knowledge is Power: The Diffusion of Information in Early America, 1700–1865 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1989), 52–53.

7 Brown, Knowledge, 127–28; Ibid., 52–53.

8 Humphrey, “This Popular Engine”, 18–21; Brown, Knowledge, 128.

9 Isaiah Thomas, The History of Printing in America (Barre, MA: Imprint Society, 1970), 18.

10 Brown, Knowledge, 62–63.

11 Ibid, 116–19.

12 Chris Raible, The Power of the Press: The Story of Early Canadian Printers and Publishers (Toronto: James Lorimer and Company, 2007), 15–17; George Henry Payne, History of Journalism in the United States (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1920), 120–22.

13 Alfred McClung Lee, The Daily Newspaper in America: The Evolution of a Social Instrument (New York: The MacMillan Company, 1947), 36–38.

14 Brown, Knowledge, 247–49.

15 Richard B. Kielbowicz, “Newsgathering by Printers’ Exchanges Before the Telegraph,” Journalism History 9, no. 2 (1982): 42–48.

16 Brown, Knowledge, 116. Lee, Daily Newspaper, 16–17.

17 Lawrence C. Wroth, The Colonial Printer (New York: Dover Publications, 1965), 187–88. Stephen Botein, “Printers and the American Revolution,” in The Press and the American Revolution, edited by Bernard Bailyn and John B. Hench (Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1981), 15–17.

18 Brown, Knowledge, 45. Charles E. Clark, The Public Prints: The Newspaper in Anglo-American Culture 1665–1740 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1994), 195–96; David A. Copeland, Colonial American Newspapers: Character and Content (Newark, NJ: University of Delaware Press, 1997), 17.

19 Clark, Public Prints, 195–96; Daly, Covering America, 17–18.

20 Wroth, Colonial Printer, 187.

21 Ibid.

22 See Carol Sue Humphrey, “The Revolutionary Press: Source of Unity or Division?,” American Journalism 6, no. 4 (1989): 245–56 for a review of scholarship on how newspapers encouraged or discouraged divisiveness.

23 Eamon, Imprinting Britain.

24 Frank Luther Mott, American Journalism (New York: The MacMillan Company, 1950), 77.

25 Thomas, History of Printing, x–xi.

26 Botein, Printers and the American Revolution, 33.

27 Ibid.

28 Botein, Printers and the American Revolution, 36–39. Mott, American Journalism, 84–85. These two accounts differ somewhat in the details of Rivington’s arrest and vandalism.

29 Carol Sue Humphrey, The American Revolution and the Press: The Promise of Independence (Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press, 2013), 191.

30 Printerly is the designation for newspapers of this era. Kevin G. Barnhurst and John Nerone, The Form of News: A History (New York: The Guilford Press, 2001), 4.

31 Similar treatment of content can be seen in Charles E. Clark, Public Print, 216. An analysis of content areas may be found in David Copeland, Colonial American Newspapers: Character and Content (Cranbury, NJ: Associated University Presses, 1997), 279–99 and also Carol Sue Humphrey, “Greater Distance = Declining Interest: Massachusetts Printers and Protections for a Free Press, 1783–1791,” American Journalism 9, no. 2 and 3 (1992): 19.

32 Norman Fairclough, Analysing Discourse: Textual Analysis for Social Research (New York: Routledge, 2003), 88–89.

33 Barnhurst and Nerone, Form of News, 32–36.

34 Fairclough, Analysing Discourse, 145–50.

35 Barnhurst and Nerone, Form of News, 41–42.

36 Originally named the Halifax Gazette, its first printer was John Bushell. Bushell’s widow sold the printing business to Henry in 1761. See Humphrey, “This Popular Engine,” 32–33 discussing the official view in the American colonies of the value of newspapers. Also David Copeland, “The Colonial Press 1690–1765,” in The Media in America: A History, edited by Wm. David Sloan, James G. Stovall, and James D. Startt (Scottsdale, AZ: Publishing Horizons, 1993), 24–25 and Roger Mellon, “The Press, Paper Shortages, and Revolution in Early America,” Media History 21, no. 1 (2015): 24. doi:10.1080/13688804.2014.983058.

37 John Bartlett Brebner, The Neutral Yankees of Nova Scotia (Toronto, McClelland and Stewart, 1969), 108–109.

38 W. S. MacNutt, The Atlantic Provinces: The Emergence of Colonial Society 1712–1857 (Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1965), 53–55. Also Brebner, Neutral Yankees, 18–21.

39 Natives or inhabitants of Halifax are known as Haligonians; it is also used as an adjective. J. Brian Bird, “Settlement Patterns in Maritime Canada: 1687–1786,” Geographical Review 45, no. 3 (July, 1955), 396–97. The other settlements in Nova Scotia beyond the Halifax district were in precarious conditions, with many failing. Halifax, although primarily a garrison town somewhat in disrepair, had at least recognizable streets.

40 Brebner, Neutral Yankees, 262.

41 Julian Gwyn, Excessive Expectation: Maritime Commerce and the Economic Development of Nova Scotia (Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1998), 8.

42 Gwyn, Excessive Expectation, 130. Dean Jobb, “‘The first that ever was publish’d in the Province’: John Bushell’s Halifax Gazette 1752–1761 (The 21st Annual Phyllis R. Blakeley Memorial Lecture),” Journal of the Royal Nova Scotia Historical Society 11 (2008): 9–10.

43 Brebner, Neutral Yankees, 127. For a description of the development of the postal system in the American colonies, see Lee, Daily Newspaper, 26.

44 Gwynn, Excessive Expectations, 130–31.

45 Ibid., 18.

46 Brebner, Neutral Yankees, 104–105.

47 MacNutt, Atlantic Provinces, 56–60; Elizabeth Mancke, “Corporate Structure and Private Interest: The Mid-Eighteenth-Century Expansion of New England,” in The Invention of Canada, Readings in Pre-Confederation History, edited by Chad Gaffield (Toronto: Copp Clark Longman, 1994), 223–26.

48 Brebner, Neutral Yankees, 181–86.

49 MacNutt, Atlantic Provinces, 68–72.

50 Brebner, Neutral Yankees, especially chapter 5 (“Land Booms and Residues”) and chapter 9 (“The New Broom”). Also, MacNutt, Atlantic Provinces, 67–68.

51 Brebner, Neutral Yankees, 212.

52 Ibid., 135–36.

53 For a full discussion of how the Stamp Act and the role of the Sons of Liberty were presented in the American colonial press, see David A. Copeland, Debating the Issues in Colonial Newspapers: Primary Documents on Events of the Period (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2000), 193–225.

54 An example comes from the August 1, 1766 House of Assembly resolution to pay Henry “Forty two Pounds ten Shillings be paid out of the publick Money in the Treasury to Anthony Henry Printer for printing the votes of this House two Sessions.” PANS RG5 Series A Vol 1a #9.

55 Phyllis R. Blakeley, “BULKELEY, RICHARD,” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 4 (University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003). http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/bulkeley_richard_4E.html (accessed November 7, 2017). There are several accounts of these events, including that of Isaiah Thomas himself. These accounts differ as to the interpretation put on Henry’s and on Thomas’ motivations and roles even as they seem to primarily rely on Thomas’ History of Printing in America, 156–160 and 595–597.

56 Brebner, Neutral Yankees, 258.

57 Marie Tremaine, A Bibliography of Canadian Imprints 1751–1800 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1952), 603–604.

58 Henry’s obituary appeared on page 3 of the Dec 2, 1800 Nova Scotia Gazette, identifying him as King’s Printer and “a most affectionate Husband and Father.”

59 Eventually Henry renamed the newspaper again as The Royal Gazette. In this study, it will be referred to as the Nova Scotia Gazette, the name it was commonly known by in 1775.

60 Mellon, “Paper Shortages,” 23.

61 John Nerone, The Media and Public Life: A History (Malden, MA: Polity, 2015), 28, characterizes this commitment as separating “‘civilized’ from the ‘savage’.”

62 One source of evidence of this is Henry’s extensive land-holdings as recorded in land transactions, which may be found at “Nova Scotia, Halifax County, Deed Indexes, 1749–1958.” Images. FamilySearch. http://FamilySearch.org: 14 June 2016. Nova Scotia Archives and Records Management, Halifax.

63 Brebner, Neutral Yankees, 130.

64 Other official printing work was also contracted to him as evidenced by a record of a July 8, 1772 vote of the Legislative Assembly to pay Henry for printing stationery supplies. Public Archives Nova Scotia RG5 Series A Volume 1a #51.

65 Brebner, Neutral Yankees, 264.

66 Nova Scotia Gazette, July 4, 1775.

67 Jeffrey L. Pasley, The Tyranny of Printers: Newspaper Politics in the Early American Republic (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2001), 25–26.

68 Thomas, History of Printing, 156–57.

69 Jobb, “First ever publish’d,” 10–11.

70 Thomas, History of Printing, 157.

71 The correspondent is not identified in the Nova Scotia Gazette. However, Randall cites a portion of the letter—identical to that published in the Nova Scotia Gazette, and identifies the source as the journal of Eliazer Oswald, newly appointed aide-de-camp to Arnold. Willard Sterne Randall, Benedict Arnold: Patriot and Traitor (New York: William Morrow and Company, 1990), 102–104.

72 Randall, Benedict Arnold, 103.

73 Eamon, Imprinting Britain, 17–18.

74 Brown, Knowledge, 248–49.

75 Copeland, “The Colonial Press,” 24–25.

76 Gazette, August 8, 1775.

77 Brebner, Neutral Yankees, 104–105. Brebner details the extensive and rewarding smuggling operations linking Halifax to New England.

78 Eamon, Imprinting Britain, 31–32.

79 Jobb, “John Bushell’s Halifax Gazette 1752–1761,” 1–22. Thomas, History of Printing, 591–93.

80 Thomas, History of Printing, 593.

81 MacNutt, Atlantic Provinces, 76–79.

82 Nerone, Media and Public Life, 41–42.

83 Thomas, History of Printing, 593 and 156

84 “Nova Scotia, Halifax County, Deed Indexes, 1749–1958.” Images. FamilySearch. http://FamilySearch.org : 14 June 2016. Nova Scotia Archives and Records Management, Halifax.

85 Thomas, History of Printing, 593.

86 Brebner, Neutral Yankees, 244–45. MacNutt, Atlantic Provinces, 76–77.

87 Gazette, January 10, 1775.

88 An address from the people of Great Britain to the inhabitants of America was published in a similar format in the July 25 and August 1 editions.

89 Eamon, Imprinting Britain, 10.

90 Fairclough, Analysing Discourse, 88–89.

91 Gazette, March 7, 1775.

92 Gazette, May 9, 1775.

93 For examples, see Gazette editions throughout 1775 including January 17, January 31, March 7, April 4, July 4, July 11, August 8, and October 17.

94 Gazette, January 10, 1775.

95 Ibid.

96 Bulkeley is described as the editor of the Halifax Gazette under Bushell and then Henry. See Tremaine, Bibliography of Canadian Imprints, 600; J. J. Stewart, “Early Journalism in Nova Scotia,” Collections from Nova Scotia Historical Society, 6 (Halifax: Nova Scotia Printing Company, 1888), 104–107.

97 Gazette, June 20, 1775.

98 Gazette, February 21, 1775.

99 Gazette, September 26, 1775.

100 Ibid.

101 Gazette, October 31, 1775.

102 Gazette, October 24, 1775.

103 Ibid.

104 Ibid.

105 Randall consistently spells this as St. Jean, while the journal spells it St. John’s. Randall, Benedict Arnold, 102–105.

106 Gazette, November 7, 1775.

107 Ibid.

108 Ibid.

109 Nerone, Media and Public Life, 47.

110 Pasley, Tyranny of Printers, 27–28.

111 Carol Sue Humphrey, “Producers of the ‘Popular Engine’: New England’s Revolutionary Newspaper Printers,” American Journalism 4, no. 2 (1987): 97–117. Pasley, Tyranny of Printers, 24–42.

112 Humphrey, “Producers of the ‘Popular Engine’,” 97.

113 Thomas, History of Printing, 592. Parker, in turn, did business with Benjamin Franklin, as discussed in Frasca, “Glorious Publick Virtue,” 31–33.

114 Public Archives Nova Scotia, microfilm reel 19408 listing an inventory of his estate and microfilm reel 12927 listing some of his many land holdings.

115 Humphrey, “Producers of the ‘Popular Engine’,” 105. Henry’s obituary stating his age ran on page 3 of the December 2, 1800 edition of the Nova Scotia Gazette.

116 Edward T. Bliss, Masonic Grandmasters of the Jurisdiction of Nova Scotia 1738–1965, typed manuscript, Public Archives Nova Scotia oversize collection. A review of land deeds shows Henry buying and selling with merchants, a brewer and a fisherman among others. Public Archives Nova Scotia, microfilm reels 23247 and 23253. This pattern of close, but not social, relations with members of the elite was found generally as described in Pasley, Tyranny of Printers, 26–27.

117 Humphrey, “Unity or Division?,” 246.

118 Carol Sue Humphrey, “The Revolutionary War,” Vin The Greenwood Library of American War Reporting: The French and Indian War & The Revolutionary War, edited by David A. Copeland, vol. 1 (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2005), 286.

119 A review of the scattered editions that survive from 1776–1779 shows a continued inclusion of American material. For example, the July 9, 1776 edition has nearly three pages of material from the colonies in rebellion. The October 10, 1779 edition (heavily damaged) carries nearly two pages of news from America including minutes of the Continental Congress and an item headed “From a rebel Paper.”

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Kate Dunsmore

Kate Dunsmore is a Professor in the Department of Communication at Fairleigh Dickinson University.