After reading our assignment for this post, I began to wonder what it would be like if America's first printing press hadn't come about until much later. In today's world of instantaneous results and lightning-fast internet, residents of California can read first hand information about decisions being made by Congress in Washington D.C. just as quickly as residents of New York can. Therefore, it is hard for me to imagine how it would feel to not receive news of major events until weeks later as the colonists did before the circulation of newspapers and periodicals.
The national unity that emerged during this period is largely due to the beginning of the printed word in the colonies. Through the use of newspapers and periodicals, political activists could share their opinions and promote their ideas. Without newspapers, the concept of America becoming independent of England would have never circulated or sparked a revolution; if the colonists hadn’t united under this concept, would America exist today? I’ve heard the saying that ‘There is power in the written word’ many times, but it really comes to life when you look at the colonists as an example. Who would have thought that a grouping of colonies, many secluded or spread apart from one another, would be brought together by something as simple as a printing press? Not the English. There truly is power in the written word.
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