The first American Newspaper was published in Boston, Massachusetts by a man named Benjamin Harris in the year 1689. It was called Publick Occurrences Both Foreign and Domestick, and it published monthly, "or if any Glut of Occurrences happen, oftener." However, after its first issue it was shut down by the governor, due to its eyebrow-raising content and its lack of permission for publication. It featured articles about the flirtatious ways of the king of France, and also of the barbarism shown by the Indians to their British prisoners during the first of the four French and Indian Wars. Another newspaper wouldn’t appear for fourteen more years.

The American newspaper became the chief source of news and other information in the nation. By the end of the revolutionary war, 43 newspapers were in publication. By the 1880 census, 11,314 different papers were being produced. The newspaper is not only a symbol of our nation’s interest in its affairs and knowledge, but also of our freedom.

*Picture from Encarta Encyclopedia

Barber, Phil. (2003). A Brief History of Newspapers. Historic Pages. Retrieved January 5, 2004, from: <http://www.historicpages.com/nprhist.htm>

• This article provides a detailed history of American newspapers. I used it to put the first newspaper of America into perspective with the rest of the history of newspapers.

Time Trip: Newspaper Publishing. (2002). Looksmart. Retrieved January 5, 2004, from: <http://www.findarticles.com/cf_dls/m0EPF/22_101/
84210622/p1/article.jhtml>

• This article had a paragraph about the first newspaper in the United States. I mainly pulled from this article while writing the details of that first newspaper in my first paragraph.