On the Sixth Day of July, 1776, the words lately agreed upon by Congress were no longer confined to parchment, chamber, or committee. In the Pennsylvania Evening Post, printed at Philadelphia, the Declaration of Independence appeared before the public as newspaper intelligence — carrying the cause from Congress into the hands and hearing of the people.
Thus did Independence become news.
The Declaration had been adopted.
The press had spoken.
And America’s appeal to mankind began to travel by paper, post, and proclamation.
The July 6 issue of the Pennsylvania Evening Post is recognized as the first newspaper printing of the newly adopted Declaration.
Printed just days after Independence was declared, this July 10, 1776 issue of The Pennsylvania Journal; and Weekly Advertiser captures America at the moment of its birth. Within its columns are the newly printed Declaration of Independence, reports of Pennsylvania Associators preparing for war, British troop and naval movements, news from New York, the Carolinas, and Canada, and public notices that show daily life continuing in the midst of Revolution.
A newspaper page where ordinary advertisements and extraordinary history stood side by side.
On July 13, 1776, the Pennsylvania Ledger carried the words that were changing the world.
Printed in Philadelphia by James Humphreys Jr., this edition helped carry the newly adopted Declaration of Independence from Congress into the hands of ordinary readers. By then, the Declaration had already begun spreading through the colonies by broadside, post rider, and newspaper — but each new printing gave the cause a wider voice.
In its crowded columns, amid the ordinary notices of the day, appeared extraordinary news:
the United Colonies were now Free and Independent States.
The Pennsylvania Ledger was among the colonial newspapers that printed the Declaration in July 1776, following earlier Philadelphia printings in the Pennsylvania Evening Post, Pennsylvania Gazette, and Pennsylvania Journal.
The July 20, 1776 edition of the Pennsylvania Ledger captures America in the first weeks after Independence was declared. Printed in Philadelphia, this four-page weekly newspaper carried the crowded life of the Revolution: congressional business, public notices, military intelligence, and reports from across the colonies. The Library of Congress identifies the issue as The Pennsylvania Ledger, or, The Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, & New-Jersey Weekly Advertiser, published in Philadelphia on July 20, 1776.
The July 24, 1776 Pennsylvania Gazette captures America in the first uncertain weeks after Independence. Printed in Philadelphia, this issue carried not only the ordinary notices of daily life, but also the political and military intelligence of a new nation at war. Most notably, it helped publish Lord Howe’s letters and declarations, allowing the people to see Britain’s supposed terms of peace and Congress’s warning against being lulled by royal promises. In its crowded columns, the Revolution appears not as a single event, but as a living struggle — fought in Congress, in print, in public opinion, and soon upon the field.
The July 26, 1776 Virginia Gazette shows Independence becoming public authority in Virginia. Printed at Williamsburg by Alexander Purdie, the issue carried the full Declaration of Independence, the order requiring it to be proclaimed across the Commonwealth, and news of its public reading in Williamsburg amid cannon, musketry, troops, and the acclamations of the people. It is not merely a newspaper of the Revolution—it is a record of Virginia publicly casting off royal allegiance and announcing herself among the United States.
The July 27, 1776 Pennsylvania Ledger captures Philadelphia in the uneasy weeks after Independence. The Declaration had gone forth, but the war was gathering force. In its crowded columns, readers encountered British peace overtures, congressional warnings, military intelligence, and the ordinary notices of daily life in a city becoming the nerve center of a new nation at war. It is a reminder that after July 4, the Revolution did not pause—it became more urgent.
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