Thomas Jefferson and the Origins of Newspaper Competition in Pre-Revolutionary Virginia.

For 200 years, historians have written that Thomas Jefferson and his fellow patriots brought a second printer into the colony of Virginia so that their radical messages could be heard. By examining newspapers and other evidence from the critical period around the Stamp Act of 1765-66, this article uncovers flaws in that interpretation and attempts a better understanding of what happened and how that influenced the development of a free press. Jefferson was not directly involved in procuring a printer, but new print competition did bring substantial changes to the relationship among the printer, the government, and readers. Broader civic discourse spurred by commercial competition helped to develop new revolutionary ideals, including the concept of a constitutional protection for a free press, which ultimately was expressed in the First Amendment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]