Communication in Colonial America

The thirteen colonies that declared independence in 1776 were spread over more than a thousand miles of Atlantic coastline, separated by vast distances, poor roads, and the natural barriers of rivers, mountains, and forests. The challenge of communication across these distances was one of the defining conditions of colonial American society, shaping the pace of political mobilization, the character of community life, and the ability of the revolutionary movement to coordinate action across thirteen separate colonies. The colonists developed a variety of communication systems—postal networks, newspapers, committees of correspondence, and oral culture—that connected communities and made intercolonial cooperation possible.

The Speed of Information

Travel Times

The speed of communication in colonial America was limited by the speed of human and animal travel. A letter sent from Boston to Philadelphia by post rider took approximately one week in good weather and considerably longer in winter or during periods of heavy rain. A letter from Boston to Charleston could take three to four weeks. The journey from London to the colonies took six to eight weeks by sailing ship, meaning that colonial political leaders were always operating with information that was weeks or months out of date.

These travel times had significant political implications. The colonial response to British legislation was necessarily delayed: news of the Stamp Act, passed by Parliament in March 1765, did not reach most colonies until April and May, and the full text of the act was not widely available until later. This delay gave colonial leaders time to deliberate and to coordinate their responses, but it also meant that political crises developed slowly and that misunderstandings could persist for weeks before they were corrected.

Roads and Transportation

The colonial road system was rudimentary by modern standards. The major routes—the Boston Post Road between Boston and New York, the King’s Highway between New York and Charleston—were little more than cleared paths, often impassable in wet weather. Bridges were rare; rivers were crossed by ferries or fords. Travel by stagecoach was uncomfortable, expensive, and slow: the journey from Boston to New York took three to four days by coach in the 1770s, compared to roughly four hours by modern automobile.

Despite these limitations, the colonial transportation system offered genuine advantages for a society stretched along a navigable coastline. The post roads, maintained by the postal system, provided regular routes for the movement of mail, newspapers, and travelers. The coastal shipping trade provided an alternative to overland travel for those moving between port cities, in many cases faster and cheaper than any land route.

The Postal System

The British Post Office

The British Post Office in America, established in the late seventeenth century, was the principal institution for long-distance communication. By the 1770s, the postal system connected all the major port cities with regular mail service. Post riders carried mail along established routes on fixed schedules, stopping at designated post offices (often located in taverns or printers’ shops) to collect and deliver letters.

The postal system was expensive. Postage rates were based on distance and the number of sheets in a letter, and the cost of sending a letter from Boston to Philadelphia was roughly one shilling—a significant sum for ordinary colonists. As a result, the postal system was used primarily by merchants, government officials, and the wealthy. Ordinary colonists relied on informal networks—friends, neighbors, and travelers—to carry letters and messages.

Franklin’s Reforms

Benjamin Franklin, who served as deputy postmaster general for the colonies from 1753 to 1774, transformed the postal system. Franklin improved delivery times, extended routes, established dead letter offices, and introduced standardized accounting practices. Under his management, the postal system became more efficient and more profitable. Franklin’s dismissal from the post office in 1774, in retaliation for his role in the Hutchinson letters affair, was one of the grievances that fueled colonial resentment.

The Revolutionary Post

The Continental Congress established its own postal system in July 1775, with Franklin as the first postmaster general. The revolutionary post office was essential to the war effort, carrying official correspondence between Congress, the military, and the states. It also carried newspapers, which were distributed through the mail at reduced rates, and private letters. The postal system was one of the few institutions that connected all the colonies under a single administration, and its survival through the war demonstrated the practical necessity of intercolonial cooperation.

Newspapers and Print

The Newspaper Network

Newspapers were the most important medium for political communication in colonial America. By 1775, approximately thirty-seven newspapers were published in the colonies, with a combined weekly circulation of perhaps 40,000 to 50,000 copies. Newspapers were distributed primarily through the postal system, with printers exchanging copies through the mail and reprinting items from other papers.

The practice of reprinting created a de facto national news system. A political essay published in a Boston newspaper might appear in a Philadelphia paper within a week and in a Charleston paper within a month. This cascade effect meant that important political arguments reached a wide audience, even though individual newspapers had relatively small circulations.

The Role of Printers

Colonial printers were both craftsmen and political actors. Their decisions about what to print, how to frame it, and when to publish it shaped public opinion and influenced the course of political events. Patriot printers like Isaiah Thomas of Worcester and Edes and Gill of Boston used their presses to promote resistance to British policies. Loyalist printers like James Rivington of New York defended British authority. The competition between patriot and Loyalist presses was a central feature of the political landscape.

Committees of Correspondence

The Intercolonial Network

The committees of correspondence, established beginning in 1772, were the most important institutional innovation for political communication during the revolutionary period. The first committee was established in Boston at the suggestion of Samuel Adams, who recognized that coordinated resistance required a mechanism for sharing information and coordinating action across the colonies.

By 1774, committees of correspondence had been established in most colonies, creating an intercolonial communication network that operated independently of British authority. The committees exchanged letters, circulars, and printed resolutions, sharing news of British actions and colonial responses. They also coordinated the boycotts of British goods, organized public meetings, and mobilized popular support for the resistance movement.

The committees of correspondence were, in effect, a shadow government—a parallel political structure that operated alongside and eventually superseded the official colonial governments. The network of committees provided the organizational infrastructure for the First Continental Congress and for the revolutionary governments that emerged after independence.

Local Committees

At the local level, committees of correspondence (often combined with committees of safety and committees of inspection) served as the primary instruments of revolutionary governance. They enforced boycotts, monitored Loyalist activity, regulated prices, and maintained public order. The local committees were the point of contact between the revolutionary leadership and ordinary colonists, translating continental political decisions into local action.

Oral Culture

Sermons and Public Speaking

Oral communication remained the primary medium of political discourse for most colonists. Sermons were the most common form of public address, and the colonial clergy played a crucial role in disseminating political ideas. Ministers preached on political topics, read official proclamations from the pulpit, and used their moral authority to shape public opinion.

Public meetings—town meetings in New England, county meetings in the South—provided forums for political discussion and decision-making. These meetings were oral events: participants debated, argued, and voted through spoken discourse. The skills of public speaking—rhetoric, persuasion, and debate—were essential to political leadership in a society where most political communication was face-to-face.

Taverns and Coffeehouses

Taverns were the most important sites of informal political communication. They served as gathering places where news was exchanged, political arguments were debated, and resistance strategies were discussed. The Sons of Liberty and other resistance organizations met regularly in taverns, and many of the key decisions of the revolutionary movement were made in these informal settings.

Coffeehouses, which were more common in the larger cities, served a similar function for the merchant and professional classes. The London Coffee House in Philadelphia and the Green Dragon Tavern in Boston were famous as centers of political discussion and organization.

Even in a society with relatively high literacy rates, oral transmission of information was essential. Newspapers and pamphlets were read aloud in taverns, meetinghouses, and homes, reaching audiences far larger than the circulation figures suggest. Political essays were discussed and debated in conversation, and the arguments of the revolutionary movement were transmitted through chains of oral communication that connected the literate elite to the broader population.

The Communication Revolution

The revolutionary period witnessed a significant expansion of communication infrastructure and practices. The establishment of the continental postal system, the proliferation of newspapers and pamphlets, the creation of the committees of correspondence, and the development of a shared political language all contributed to the emergence of a continental public sphere—a space in which colonists from different regions could discuss common concerns and develop a shared political identity.

This communication revolution was a prerequisite for the Revolution itself. Without the ability to share information, coordinate action, and develop common arguments across thirteen separate colonies, the revolutionary movement could not have succeeded. The communication networks that the colonists built during the 1760s and 1770s were, in this sense, as important to the Revolution’s success as the military victories at Saratoga and Yorktown. The infrastructure of communication—postal routes, newspaper exchanges, committee networks, and oral culture—created the conditions for a continental political community that had never before existed and that would provide the foundation for the new nation’s political life.

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