Rivington Revisited: A Nuanced Look at James Rivington, America’s “Tory” Printer

Abstract

ABSTRACT James Rivington of New York may well be the most infamous printer of the American Revolution. During his lifetime, he was called “despotic,” “treasonable,” and “detestable.” He was considered an adamant Tory and enemy of the Patriot cause. Now, he is commonly cited as the token Tory printer in media history textbooks. Yet, if Rivington can be so easily categorized as a Loyalist, why did he so frequently assert that his press was “open to publications from ALL PARTIES,” and publish essays from both Patriot and Tory perspectives? This research aims to provide a nuanced look at this much-discussed figure of media history, and to add to the conversation regarding extreme partisanship by detailing one example of what occurred when party furor was aimed at one man and his newspaper.