Taverns and coffee houses, because
of their trustworthiness, were the establishments in which news was passed,
subscriptions to newspapers were delivered to a tavern. They also provided a
space for the illiterate to hear the news. Also, news was passed orally through
taverns and this made taverns a place to gather information. These
establishments were a mode of communication distribution.
Christopher Marshall kept a detailed diary of his stay in Philadelphia. In that diary were a few excerpts that showed the correlation between taverns and coffee houses, and news. These establishments were, in a way, the Twitter of the day. People went to these establishments for the latest gossip, events and on-goings in local and country-wide news.
Christopher Marshall states, "To [the] Coffee House, where was the reading Rivington's newspaper, containing the capitulation of Charleston, but, as this came through the Tory line and was by forced extorted from John Mercer, who, when taxed about his paper, absolutely denied it until confronting him with Daniel Wister and Owen Jones Jr., and by threats [they] recovered it from him, as was related to me by Paul Fooks, who was one of them who attended him until he delivered, numbers did not believe the authenticity of it." This diary entry details the occurrence of a man delivering news to a coffee house. What is interesting, besides the fact that news was orally read to customers at the coffee house, was that many were skeptical about the story because of its bias. It is amazing to see the realization of bias during this time and that they take into account the source of their information. It shows that these readers, or listeners in some cases, are not blindly following something simply because it written on parchment. These people understood that the British, or Tories in this quote, could have produced falsified information to undermine the morality of the citizens of Philadelphia. Marshall says, "numbers did not believe the authenticity of it." The term authenticity is important because it connotes that the citizens did not believe the news because of its Tory beginnings.
Later on the citizens learn that this article was in fact true. Marshall expresses the dismay and disappointment of all around him.
