European papermaking came to the American colonies in the late seventeenth century. Although most paper made today is produced from wood pulp, paper in colonial days was made from cotton and linen fibers. ,end italics,
from ,begin bold,Paper,end bold,
paragraph 1,The history of paper offers insight into why the colonists wanted independence from Britain. A coin, a paper mill, a newspaper—whatever it was that the colonists wanted, the Crown often prohibited it. And then the British tried to earn revenue by taxing the goods the colonists were forced to import from England because local production was stifled.
paragraph 2,In 1764, the British, looking for revenues in an economic recession that had hit both England and the colonies, proposed the Stamp Act. This required all American colonists to pay a tax on every piece of printed paper, including shipping documents, legal documents, books, pamphlets, newspapers, broadsides,,superscript,1,baseline, and even playing cards. The tax did not cost the average colonist a great deal, but they objected to the principle of the new legislation. The Stamp Act went beyond the normal practice of regulating commerce: It was a fund-raising measure, and one that was being done without the consent of local legislatures.
paragraph 3,But for newspaper publishers, the Stamp Act was a true hardship. It assessed a halfpenny on each copy of a newspaper printed on what was termed "half a sheet." If a newspaper used a larger format, it was assessed a penny per copy. The act also charged two cents for an advertisement—and some of these ads only earned three cents—and a halfpenny for each copy of a pamphlet. An additional tax on publishing in foreign languages killed a thriving German-language press in Pennsylvania. Lawyers, whose documents were also taxed, were harmed by the Stamp Act as well, and together, newspaper publishers and lawyers led a successful campaign to repeal the act. The experience also pushed the newspaper publishers into taking a pro-independence stance, which was critical in winning over public opinion for the revolution.
paragraph 4,The Stamp Act was repealed before it did any real harm. The British were sensitive to the Americans' political objections to it, but not to the economic hardship that it would have created. They then reasoned that since the Americans objected to internal taxes levied from England, they would raise money via port levies instead. In 1767, the British Chancellor of the Exchequer, Charles Townshend, promoted a piece of legislation that placed added taxes on various British goods that the Americans imported, including glass, lead, painters' pigments, tea—and paper. Townshend's legislation passed into law, and the British established a bureau in Boston to enforce the new duties. Newspapers vociferously protested.
paragraph 5,One American response to the Townshend Act, first suggested in 1767 and broadly promoted by newspapers the following year, was to boycott British goods. The movement started in the North and quickly caught on in the South. New York newspapers declared that those who bought British goods were "enemies to their Country." In Philadelphia, newspapers preferred the phrase "an Enemy to the Liberties of America." In the process, newspapers themselves became committed, for the first time, to printing on American-made paper.
paragraph 6,Newspapers had already started buying American paper in the mid-1760s, but with the Townshend Act, more and more of them were printed on American stock. They would boast of this fact. People also considered it an act of patriotism to bring their rags to paper mills. In 1769 the first type made in America was cut and cast in Killingworth, Connecticut, by Abel Buell. That same year, the first American-made printing presses went on sale, manufactured in New Haven by Isaac Doolittle.
paragraph 7,Americans vowed to content themselves with inferior American paper, even if, due to the competition created by the Townshend Act boycott, it cost more. But in truth, the thirty-four paper mills operating in the thirteen colonies in the 1760s did not have the capacity to meet America's paper needs. The higher price of paper did encourage new mills to start up, and local government provided further inducements in subsidies and interest-free loans; between 1775 and 1783, twenty-six new paper mills were opened. But it was not enough.
paragraph 8,Once the Revolution began and British imports cut off, American paper mills, by this time numbering eighty, still could not meet the demand for paper. In 1775, Gen. Philip Schuyler in Albany apologized in a letter to Gen. George Washington: "Excuse these scraps of paper; necessity obliges me to use them, having no other fit to write on." In 1776, John Adams, who wrote faithfully to his wife, Abigail, penned the words, "I send you, now and then, a few sheets of paper; but this article is scarce here as with you."
paragraph 9,Obtaining enough rags to keep the mills in operation became a more and more serious issue. It took about twenty tons of rags to keep one vat operating full time for a year. In February 1776 the Massachusetts House of Representatives declared:
paragraph 10,"Whereas this Colony cannot be supplied with a sufficient quantity of Paper for its own consumption, without the particular care of its Inhabitants in saving Rags for the Paper-Mills:
paragraph 11,"Therefore ,begin italics,Resolved,end italics, that the Committees of Correspondence, Inspection and Safety, in the several towns in this Colony, be, and they hereby are required immediately, to appoint some suitable person, in their respective towns, (where it is not already done) to receive in Rags for the Paper-Mills; and the Inhabitants of this Colony are hereby desired to be very careful in saving even the smallest quantity of Rags proper for making Paper, which will be a further evidence of their disposition to promote the public good."
paragraph 12, It is interesting that the writer of this resolution assumed that the average citizen knew what kinds of rags were useful for papermaking. Other appeals were more specific. In Sutton, Massachusetts, a key paper mill made this political appeal:
paragraph 13,"It is earnestly requested that the fair daughters of Liberty in this extensive country would not neglect to serve their country by saving, for the Paper Mill in Sutton, all Linen and Cotton-and-Linen Rags, be they ever so small, as they are equally good for the purpose of making paper as those that are larger. A bag hung up at one corner of a room would be the means of saving many which would be otherwise lost. If the ladies should not make a fortune from that bit of economy, they will at least have the satisfaction of knowing that they are doing an essential service to the community, which with eight pence per pound, the price now given for clean white rags, they must be sensible will be a sufficient reward."
paragraph 14,Similar pleas were made in other colonies. A North Carolina mill suggested that if young women would sell off to the paper mill an old handkerchief . . . they might get it back someday in the form of a love letter.
(from ,begin underline,PAPER: PAGING THROUGH HISTORY,end underline, by Mark Kurlansky. Copyright © 2016 by Mark Kurlansky. Used by permission of W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.)
,begin bold, ,superscript,1,baseline,broadsides ,end bold,one-page printed articles or announcements, usually unsigned and passed out for free
Question
Select ,begin emphasis,two,end emphasis, sentences from the passage that ,begin emphasis,best,end emphasis, support a central idea regarding colonists' support of locally made paper.
Answer options with 5 options
1.
"People also considered it an act of patriotism to bring their rags to paper mills." (Paragraph 6)
2.
"Obtaining enough rags to keep the mills in operation became a more and more serious issue." (Paragraph 9)
3.
"It is interesting that the writer of this resolution assumed that the average citizen knew what kinds of rags were useful for papermaking." (Paragraph 12)
4.
"If the ladies should not make a fortune from that bit of economy, they will at least have the satisfaction of knowing that they are doing an essential service to the community, which with eight pence per pound, the price now given for clean white rags, they must be sensible will be a sufficient reward." (Paragraph 13)
5.
"A North Carolina mill suggested that if young women would sell off to the paper mill an old handkerchief . . . they might get it back someday in the form of a love letter." (Paragraph 14)
1. "People also considered it an act of patriotism to bring their rags to paper mills." (Paragraph 6)
4. "If the ladies should not make a fortune from that bit of economy, they will at least have the satisfaction of knowing that they are doing an essential service to the community, which with eight pence per pound, the price now given for clean white rags, they must be sensible will be a sufficient reward." (Paragraph 13)