This is the frontispiece of John Milton’s (of _Paradise Lost_ fame) _Areopagitica_, a treatise promoting free speech by arguing against licensing, aka mandating that publications must have official government/religious approval. Published in 1644, Milton’s world was not one that guaranteed the right to free expression. Instead, both in England and in the nascent colonies, there were many men in positions of power who forbade controversial publications.
For instance, the Royalist supporter and Governor of Virginia, William Berkeley (d. 1677), stated that “I thank God there are no free schools nor printing, and I hope we shall not have these hundred years; for learning has brought disobedience, and heresy, and sects into the world, and printing has divulged them, and libels against the best government. God keep us from both!” Berkeley was not alone in his hostility to public education and censorship — the officials controlling Massachusetts Bay Colony were like-minded, even if they would have disagreed with the Royalist sympathies of Berkeley.
The path to freedom of speech/the press/expression took many twists in the 17th century. Although Milton’s polemic _Areopagitica_ was unsuccessful in the short term of upending England’s licensure laws, his ideas proved foundational for Enlightenment thinkers. He implored the value of books, writing that “unless wariness be used, as good almost kill a man as kill a good book. Who kills a man kills a reasonable creature, God’s image; but he who destroys a good book, kills reason itself, the image of God . . .”
Milton’s ideas resonate in the U.S. today, when book banning and gutting public schools have been promoted in several states. Donald Trump campaigned in 2016 to “open up our libel laws so when they write purposely negative and horrible and false articles, we can sue them and win lots of money.” Two years later, he promised to “take a strong look” at American libel laws after a highly critical book about his administration was published.
Meanwhile, Milton proclaimed “Give me the liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely according to conscience, above all liberties . . . “
Source(s): Inspiration and content for this post comes from work by James Sterner “‘Of a dangerous nature’: William Bradford, Thomas Maule, and Colonial censorship of the 1690’s,” M.A. thesis for Shippensburg University, Department of History, July 2024. Quotes from Wiki quote on _Areopagitica_
