Kaya Karpati
2016 – 2017
Printing with Power: Printing in Early America
Social class would determine how cultures would interact with printing. The social class with the most power, the English settlers, used the printing press the most. The Native Americans did not have a written language therefore they did not have much use for printing materials. The settlers used the printing press for many things. The first printers at Jamestown were white, English males. They took advantage of the freedom of the press to spread their ideas and stay in power. When the African-Americans would run away, to show rebellion, the printer would run advertisements to help catch them. This shows that the English used the printing press to stay “superior” to the other cultures who did not have access to the press.
Gwen Raffo
2015
Bookbinding and Printing Started the Revolution – Colonial Research Paper
Concluding paragraph: The bookbinders and printers were some of the most important trades in Colonial America. A lot of what we know about the Colonial Era come from prints and books made in that time. Even though it took many hours of labor to complete one book, that one book might have given us a whole new look on the Colonial Era. Someone could have written a journal entry that eliminated a theory on Colonial America. Prints and pamphlets could have been preserved and proved what actually happened in Williamsburg. They give us medical records to show what kind of medicine was practiced. They give us court records to show exactly who was punished and why. Bookbinding and printing weren’t trades used by Native Americans and Africans. Some African slaves read, and Natives told stories. No matter how stories and books were used, they all were unquestionably important to the development of Colonial Virginia. All forms of storytelling and spreading ideas, were what started the revolution. Every single printer, bookbinder, storyteller, and slave that read were crucial to change in early America. What would it be like now if there were no colonial bookbinders and printers? What would be different today?
Caleb KB
2015
Printing in the Colonial Era
The work that the printers printed greatly influenced the colonial people. It spread ideas and impacted people through pamphlets and newspapers and other items that were printed. Printing cost a lot of money and required a lot of tools. There were tools like the stick, and type and casing.It took a lot of time but people still printed, even if it meant doing something that they would later regret or get in trouble for. Today, printing presses are no longer used, and other things have taken it’s place, things like computers and printers. They have the same function, making it easier to write and print and are used as frequently, if not more than the press that came before it.