trials (seditious libel)

Readers will learn how Zenger's legacy established norms for the freedom of the press and how it remains relevant in the practice of journalism today.

Relates the story of an impoverished printer named John Peter Zenger whose paper, the New York weekly journal, printed articles describing the new British governor, William Cosby, as corrupt and abusive. Although Zenger was only a front man for the governor's adversaries, New York Supreme Court Chief Justice Lewis Morris and attorney James Alexander, he nevertheless became the fall guy when Cosby brought the full force of his high office down upon the paper. Jailed for the better part of a year, Zenger was forced into a jury trial matched only in importance during the colonial period by the Salem Witch Trials.

Profiles the life of eighteenth-century German immigrant and newspaper publisher John Peter Zenger, focusing on his 1735 trial for allegedly printing seditious libel against New York's governor William Cosby and the British government.

Chronicles the events surrounding John Peter Zenger's 1735 arrest and trial for seditious libel against the British royal governor and explains how the case laid the groundwork for America's freedom of the press.

Text and illustrations chronicle the life of controversial eighteenth-century American printer John Peter Zenger, whose trial for libel and sedition paved the way for freedom of the press.