American Revolution

At seven years old, Isaiah Thomas was placed in an apprenticeship with the printer Zechariah Fowle in Boston. Fowle was a poor printer, and it was not long before Thomas had learned the trade and conducted business better than his master.

When he was sixteen, Thomas left his...

This document was one of the first items printed in Worcester after Thomas’s arrival in April 1775. It gave a more official account of what had occurred on the day of the Battle of Lexington and Concord.

On the front page, you will see that this Narrative includes “Depositions...

All colonial newspapers appeared weekly and were sold by subscriptions. While most colonial newspapers had circulations of between 500 and 1,000, the Massachusetts Spy had a circulation of 3,500 from subscribers throughout the thirteen colonies making it the most popular American...