Just over 250 years ago, 26-year-old Isaiah Thomas was in danger. The young printer of The Massachusetts Spy, a newspaper hostile to the British crown, packed up his printing press in Boston.
British spies had fanned out into neighboring towns, searching for illicit arms and evidence of unapproved militia activity.
“When the British took over Boston, they had a list of people they wanted to arrest. Thomas was one of them,” said Vince Golden, who curates the newspaper collection at the American Antiquarian Society in Worcester — a society that Thomas himself founded…