OUR PRINTING HERITAGE

From the crude presses of Williamsburg came an ingredient essential to the movement toward American self-government and independence—the political pamphlet. In the world of the eighteenth century, devoid of radio, television, or the bulky daily paper, the substance of political debate came from such pamphlets. It was also an era which took its political philosophy seriously, and the author of a pamphlet could count on wide readership among the planter-aristocrats who controlled the machinery of government. Williamsburg, as the colony’s capital and its political and intellectual center, was the obvious city to lend its imprint to the speculations of Virginia’s pamphleteers.

One of the most significant early tracts was Richard Bland’s An Inquiry into the Rights of the British Colonies, printed by Alexander Purdie in March 1766. Writing in the aftermath of the previous year’s fiery Stamp Tax debates, Bland vigorously proclaimed his belief in Locke’s doctrines of natural rights and natural law. Reprinted in London, Bland’s tract was evidence of the mounting sentiment for self-rule in the colonies. Bland’s Inquiry was also a memorial to its author, a man who devoted much of his life to public service. An aged delegate to Virginia’s first state legislature in October 1776, Bland collapsed in the Williamsburg streets on his way to a session, and died hours later in the home of his friend, John Tazewell.

Jefferson’s SUMMARY VIEW, from the press of Williamsburg’s only woman printer. Of all of Jefferson’s writing this has been described as the document second only to the DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE in influencing the colonies to break from England. Printed by Clementina Rind, this is an example of the type of document not readily accepted by some Williamsburg printers and for which the Rinds were encouraged to establish themselves in the eighteenth-century Virginia capital.

A
SUMMARY VIEW
OF THE
RIGHTS
OF
BRITISH AMERICA.
SET FORTH IN SOME
RESOLUTIONS
INTENDED FOR THE
INSPECTION
OF THE PRESENT
DELEGATES
OF THE
PEOPLE OF VIRGINIA.
NOW IN
CONVENTION.

By a NATIVE, and MEMBER of the
HOUSE of BURGESSES.
by Thomas Jefferson.

WILLIAMSBURG:
Printed BY CLEMENTINA RIND.