Slavery Advertisements Published August 20, 1776

Carl Robert Keyes Slavery Adverts 250 Project

The Slavery Adverts 250 Project chronicles the role of newspaper advertising in perpetuating slavery in the era of the American Revolution. The project seeks to reveal the ubiquity of slavery in eighteenth-century life from New England to Georgia by republishing advertisements about enslaved people – for sale as individuals or in groups, wanted to purchase or for hire for short periods, runaways who liberated themselves, and those who were subsequently captured and confined in jails and workhouses – in daily digests on this site as well as in real time via the @SlaveAdverts250 Twitter feed, utilizing twenty-first-century media to stand in for the print media of the eighteenth century.

The project aims to provide modern audiences with a sense of just how often colonizers encountered these advertisements in their daily lives. Enslaved men, women, and children appeared in print somewhere in the colonies almost every single day. Those advertisements served as a constant backdrop for social, cultural, economic, and political life in colonial and revolutionary America. Colonizers who did not purport to own enslaved people were still confronted with slavery as well as invited to maintain the system by purchasing enslaved men, women, and children or assisting in the capture of so-called “runaways” who sought to free themselves from bondage. The frequency of these newspaper advertisements suggests just how embedded slavery was in colonial and revolutionary American culture in everyday interactions beyond the printed page.

These advertisements also testify to the experiences of enslaved men, women, and children, though readers must consider that those experiences have been remediated through descriptions offered by enslavers rather than enslaved people themselves. Often unnamed in the advertisements, enslaved men, women, and children were not invisible or unimportant in early America.

These advertisements appeared in revolutionary American newspapers 250 years ago today.

Dunlap’s Maryland Gazette (August 20, 1776).

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Dunlap’s Pennsylvania Packet (August 20, 1776).

August 19

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

What was advertised in a revolutionary American newspaper 250 years ago today?

Boston-Gazette (August 19, 1776).

“French and Dutch GOODS.”

In an advertisement in the August 19, 1776, edition of the Boston-Gazette, Martin Bicker listed an array of textiles and other goods in stick at his shop.  He offered a “very great choice of callicoes, patches, printed linens, fine lawns, cambricks, silk gauzes, … silk and linen handkerchiefs, cotton and linen checks, … ribbons, black sattin, persians, kid gloves, pins and needles, … middling and coarse broad-cloths, trimmings to match, … breeches patterns, thread and worsted hose, bedticks, buckrams, durants, sagathees, duroys, wiltons, white silk Damascus, writing paper, [and] castor hats.”  Modern readers may not recognize the names of many of those textiles, but eighteenth-century consumers knew them and could distinguish among them.  Bicker invited prospective customers to make selections according to their own tastes and budgets.  To that end, he carried “macaroni velvets,” but he also had “plain” velvets for those who considered the alternative too extravagant or too expensive.  He concluded his list with “&c,” the abbreviation commonly used for et cetera, to indicate even more choices among his “good assortment.”

Bicker’s advertisement looked much like one that would have run in an American newspaper before the Revolutionary War, but with one exception.  The headline proclaimed, “French and Dutch GOODS.”  Bicker reiterated the origins of his wares when he stated that he “has just received a very good assortment of French and Dutch Goods, which are ready for sale.”  He did not explain how he acquired that shipment, though he certainly expected promoting “French and Dutch GOODS” would resonate with consumers in Boston and the surrounding towns.  After all, the Declaration of Independence so recently adopted by the Continental Congress and published in the Boston-Gazette included “full Power to … establish Commerce” among the “Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do.”  When Massachusetts was a colony, Bicker and other entrepreneurs had been restricted to trading with Great Britain.  Retailers gave consumers access to “English Goods,” as they were so often described in newspaper advertisements.  Bicker knew that the origins of his merchandise distinguished his shop from others.  The “French and Dutch GOODS” he sold contrasted significantly with the “Variety of ENGLISH GOODS” offered in the advertisement that appeared immediately above his notice.

Slavery Advertisements Published August 19, 1776

Carl Robert Keyes Slavery Adverts 250 Project

The Slavery Adverts 250 Project chronicles the role of newspaper advertising in perpetuating slavery in the era of the American Revolution. The project seeks to reveal the ubiquity of slavery in eighteenth-century life from New England to Georgia by republishing advertisements about enslaved people – for sale as individuals or in groups, wanted to purchase or for hire for short periods, runaways who liberated themselves, and those who were subsequently captured and confined in jails and workhouses – in daily digests on this site as well as in real time via the @SlaveAdverts250 Twitter feed, utilizing twenty-first-century media to stand in for the print media of the eighteenth century.

The project aims to provide modern audiences with a sense of just how often colonizers encountered these advertisements in their daily lives. Enslaved men, women, and children appeared in print somewhere in the colonies almost every single day. Those advertisements served as a constant backdrop for social, cultural, economic, and political life in colonial and revolutionary America. Colonizers who did not purport to own enslaved people were still confronted with slavery as well as invited to maintain the system by purchasing enslaved men, women, and children or assisting in the capture of so-called “runaways” who sought to free themselves from bondage. The frequency of these newspaper advertisements suggests just how embedded slavery was in colonial and revolutionary American culture in everyday interactions beyond the printed page.

These advertisements also testify to the experiences of enslaved men, women, and children, though readers must consider that those experiences have been remediated through descriptions offered by enslavers rather than enslaved people themselves. Often unnamed in the advertisements, enslaved men, women, and children were not invisible or unimportant in early America.

These advertisements appeared in revolutionary American newspapers 250 years ago today.

Boston-Gazette (August 19, 1776).

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Boston-Gazette (August 19, 1776).

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Boston-Gazette (August 19, 1776).

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New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury (August 19, 1776).

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Newport Mercury (August 19, 1776).

August 18

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , , , ,

What was advertised in a revolutionary American newspaper 250 years ago this week?

Pennsylvania Ledger (August 17, 1776).

“Gentlemen who rent out farms will find their advantage in distributing them among their tenants.”

In the summer of 1776, James Humphreys, Jr., announced his intention to publish a Philadelphia edition of Arthur Young’s Rural Œconomy: Or Essays on the Practical Parts of Husbandry, originally published in London.  He claimed that he had not set about this venture on his own bit instead pursued the project “At the Request of a Number of GENTLEMEN, and particularly some reputable FARMERS.”  Mentioning those unnamed gentlemen and farmers served as an implicit endorsement of the work, a strategy for stimulating demand for it.

The subtitle of the book, which Humphreys deployed as copy in his advertisement, provided further justification for purchasing and consulting Rural Œconomy: it was “Designed to explain several of the most important Methods of conducting FARMS of various Kinds; including many useful Hints to GENTLEMEN FARMERS, relative to the œconomical Management of their Business.”  In addition, Humphreys composed original copy intended to encourage sales in the city as well as in the country.  “As this work if properly circulated must prove of general utility to this country,” the printer declared, “it is hoped it will not want for proper encouragement.  It it will worthy the perusal and particular attention of every inhabitant on the continent, citizens as well as countrymen.”  Hoping to increase sales, Humphreys even suggested that landlords should purchase copies to give to farmers who rented their land: “Gentlemen who rent out farms will find their advantage in distributing them among their tenants.”

When Humphreys ran his advertisement in the August 17, 1776, edition of the Pennsylvania Ledger, he had not yet taken Rural Œconomy to press.  His advertisement took the form of a subscription notice that called on readers to reserve copies in advance by subscribing for them.  Subscription notices helped printers incite demand, determine how many copies to print, and decide whether a proposed publication had a sufficient market to make it viable.  Not all subscription notices resulted in the publication of the advertised work, though Humphreys did publish his Philadelphia edition of Rural Œconomy in 1776.

The subscription notice indicated that “SPECIMENS” or samples “may be had of the Printer.”  Those short excerpts allowed prospective subscribers to examine the paper, type, and overall quality of the printing.  Subscribers received discounts compared to what Humphreys would charge for any surplus copies he printed.  They had a choice between an unbound copy “in blue boards” for one dollar or a bound copy for ten shillings.  Those who did not subscribe in advance, however, could expect to pay “not less than Twelve Shillings” for an unbound copy “in blue boards.”  Humphreys designed the pricing structure to create anxiety around missing out on the bargain rate.  For those landlords that he encouraged to give copies to their tenants as well as booksellers and shopkeepers who might stock the book, he offered a free thirteenth copy to those who subscribed for twelve books.

Humphreys hoped that these various appeals, separately or in combination, would convince readers to subscribe for copies of Rural Œconomy.  That he published the book does not necessarily testify to the effectiveness of any of those appeals, but their inclusion in his subscription notice indicates what kinds of marketing strategies the printer believed had some chance of working.

August 17

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

What was advertised in a revolutionary American newspaper 250 years ago today?

Pennsylvania Ledger (August 17, 1776).

“PHILADELPHIA MANUFACTURE.”

In the summer of 1776, Samuel Wetherill took to the pages of the Pennsylvania Ledger to hawk a variety of textiles produced at his “Manufactory in South-street” in Philadelphia.  He offered “Woolens, Linnens, and Cottons, particularly Corded Dimity’s,” to consumers, giving them an alternative to fabrics imported from England.  He emphasized that he sold “domestic manufactures” with a headline that proclaimed, “PHILADELPHIA MANUFACTURE.”  Wetherill elaborated on that point by noting the “great expence” he had undertaken in his “improve manufactures among us” and, in turn, expected “the public encouragement” for his endeavor.

Wetherill was one of many advertisers who made some sort of “Buy American” appeal during the era of the American Revolution.  As T.H. Breen explains in The Marketplace of Revolution, calls to produce and purchase goods made in America began even before the imperial crisis.  As colonizers participated in the transatlantic consumer revolution, some noticed the imbalance of trade that emerged within a commercial empire organized around Britain producing goods and the colonies consuming those goods.  Once Parliament imposed new regulations on trade, especially duties on imported goods, and the colonies responded with boycotts of those goods, establishing and supporting the production of goods in the colonies became even more important.  When the Second Continental Congress devised the Continental Association, a nonimportation and nonconsumption agreement adopted throughout the colonies, the eighth article stated, “That we will, in our several Stations, encourage Frugality, Economy, and Industry; and promote Agriculture, Arts, and the Manufactures of this Country, especially that of Wool.”  Producing (and consuming) goods produced in America became even more important after the Continental Congress declared independence.

Wetherill did his part and he used an advertisement in the Pennsylvania Ledger to let prospective customers in Philadelphia and the region know that he did.  Along with his “attempt to improve manufactures among us” came a reciprocal obligation for consumers to give their “public encouragement” by purchasing the textiles that Wetherill and his employees produced “at his Manufactory.”  He presented an opportunity to acquire “PHILADELPHIA MANUFACTURE,” goods produced in their own city or state as a means of strengthening the local economy.

Slavery Advertisements Published August 17, 1776

Carl Robert Keyes Slavery Adverts 250 Project

The Slavery Adverts 250 Project chronicles the role of newspaper advertising in perpetuating slavery in the era of the American Revolution. The project seeks to reveal the ubiquity of slavery in eighteenth-century life from New England to Georgia by republishing advertisements about enslaved people – for sale as individuals or in groups, wanted to purchase or for hire for short periods, runaways who liberated themselves, and those who were subsequently captured and confined in jails and workhouses – in daily digests on this site as well as in real time via the @SlaveAdverts250 Twitter feed, utilizing twenty-first-century media to stand in for the print media of the eighteenth century.

The project aims to provide modern audiences with a sense of just how often colonizers encountered these advertisements in their daily lives. Enslaved men, women, and children appeared in print somewhere in the colonies almost every single day. Those advertisements served as a constant backdrop for social, cultural, economic, and political life in colonial and revolutionary America. Colonizers who did not purport to own enslaved people were still confronted with slavery as well as invited to maintain the system by purchasing enslaved men, women, and children or assisting in the capture of so-called “runaways” who sought to free themselves from bondage. The frequency of these newspaper advertisements suggests just how embedded slavery was in colonial and revolutionary American culture in everyday interactions beyond the printed page.

These advertisements also testify to the experiences of enslaved men, women, and children, though readers must consider that those experiences have been remediated through descriptions offered by enslavers rather than enslaved people themselves. Often unnamed in the advertisements, enslaved men, women, and children were not invisible or unimportant in early America.

These advertisements appeared in revolutionary American newspapers 250 years ago today.

Freeman’s Journal (August 17, 1776).

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Pennsylvania Ledger (August 17, 1776).

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Pennsylvania Ledger (August 17, 1776).

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Providence Gazette (August 17, 1776).

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Virginia Gazette [Dixon and Hunter] (August 17, 1776).

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Virginia Gazette [Dixon and Hunter] (August 17, 1776).

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Virginia Gazette [Dixon and Hunter] (August 17, 1776).

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Virginia Gazette [Dixon and Hunter] (August 17, 1776).

August 16

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , ,

What was advertised in a revolutionary American newspaper 250 years ago today?

Connecticut Gazette (August 16, 1776).

“A DIALOGUE ON THE Slavery of the Africans.”

Newspapers published during the era of the American Revolution contributed to the perpetuation of slavery. Throughout the colonies and the new nation, newspapers regularly carried advertisements that presented enslaved people for sale or offered rewards for the capture and return of enslaved people who liberated themselves by running away from their enslavers.  News items and editorials also stoked fear of enslaved people to justify keeping them in bondage.

On occasion, however, the public prints carried advertisements, news, or editorials that advocated for the liberty of certain enslaved people or emancipating all enslaved people.  In April 1776, for instance, an advertisement announced that “DICK (a Negro) … [was] now made free from Slavery by the Charity of the People” of Middletown, Connecticut, “and by virtue of his Freedom, has Liberty to procure the necessaries of Life by his own Industry, as other free born Subjects have.”  In June 1775, William Henshaw published an advertisement on behalf of the Committees of Correspondence in Worcester County, Massachusetts.  Upon receiving a petition from “the NEGROES in the counties of Bristol and Worcester,” the Committees of Correspondence passed a resolution stating that “we abhor the enslaving of any of the human race, and particularly of the NEGROES in this county.”  They pledged to “use our influence” to aid in efforts for “emancipating the NEGROES.”  They applied the rhetoric of the American Revolution to the literal enslavement of Africans and African Americans instead of considering only the figurative enslavement of colonizers.

In the summer of 1776, Judah P. Spooner published and sold A Dialogue, Concerning the Slavery of the Africans: Shewing It To Be the Duty and Interest of the American Colonies to Emancipate All Their African Slaves at his printing office in Norwich Connecticut.  The book included “an ADDRESS to the Owners of such Slaves.”  The author, Samuel Hopkins, a Congregationalist minister in Newport, dedicated the volume “to the Honorable the Continental Congress.”  Like the Committees of Correspondence in Worcester County, Hopkins recognized the contradictions inherent in revolutionary rhetoric that espoused liberty for colonizers but did not include calling for the abolition of slavery.

That an advertisement for A Dialogue, Concerning the Slavery of Africans appeared in the August 16, 1776, edition of the Connecticut Gazette did not mean, however, that Timothy Green, the printer of that newspaper, endorsed anything that Hopkins wrote about slavery.  In the previous issue, Green published an advertisement that described Sy, “a Mustee Fellow,” and offered a reward to “Whoever takes up said Negro, and secures him, or returns him to his Master.”  Similarly, Spooner, the printer of both the Norwich Packet and A Dialogue, Concerning the Slavery of Africans, published a similar advertisement about “a Negro MAN Servant, named FORTEN,” in the August 5 issue and regularly generated revenue by printing other advertisements about enslaved people.  Even as Hopkins attempted to use the power of the press to advocate for abolition, enslavers and printers continued perpetuating slavery with the advertisements they published.

Slavery Advertisements Published August 16, 1776

Carl Robert Keyes Slavery Adverts 250 Project

The Slavery Adverts 250 Project chronicles the role of newspaper advertising in perpetuating slavery in the era of the American Revolution. The project seeks to reveal the ubiquity of slavery in eighteenth-century life from New England to Georgia by republishing advertisements about enslaved people – for sale as individuals or in groups, wanted to purchase or for hire for short periods, runaways who liberated themselves, and those who were subsequently captured and confined in jails and workhouses – in daily digests on this site as well as in real time via the @SlaveAdverts250 Twitter feed, utilizing twenty-first-century media to stand in for the print media of the eighteenth century.

The project aims to provide modern audiences with a sense of just how often colonizers encountered these advertisements in their daily lives. Enslaved men, women, and children appeared in print somewhere in the colonies almost every single day. Those advertisements served as a constant backdrop for social, cultural, economic, and political life in colonial and revolutionary America. Colonizers who did not purport to own enslaved people were still confronted with slavery as well as invited to maintain the system by purchasing enslaved men, women, and children or assisting in the capture of so-called “runaways” who sought to free themselves from bondage. The frequency of these newspaper advertisements suggests just how embedded slavery was in colonial and revolutionary American culture in everyday interactions beyond the printed page.

These advertisements also testify to the experiences of enslaved men, women, and children, though readers must consider that those experiences have been remediated through descriptions offered by enslavers rather than enslaved people themselves. Often unnamed in the advertisements, enslaved men, women, and children were not invisible or unimportant in early America.

These advertisements appeared in revolutionary American newspapers 250 years ago today.

Virginia Gazette [Purdie] (August 16, 1776).

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Supplement to the Virginia Gazette [Purdie] (August 16, 1776).

August 15

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , ,

What was advertised in a revolutionary American newspaper 250 years ago today?

New York Packet (August 15, 1776).

“SAMUEL LOUDON’s CIRCULATING LIBRARY.”

Like other early American printers, Samuel Loudon cultivated multiple revenue streams.  He sold subscription to the New York Packet and collected fees for the advertisements in that newspaper.  In addition, he sold a variety of books, pamphlets, and almanacs, only some of them produced in his printing office, as well as stationery and writing supplies.  Loudon also operated a circulating library, a venture that only a few printers and booksellers incorporated into their portfolios.  Clubs or corporations formed for the purpose of operating libraries oversaw most of those institutions established before and during the era of the American Revolution.

Loudon promoted his circulating library “CONSISTING of Two Thousand Vols. [of] well chosen books” in the August 15, 1776, edition of the New York Packet.  Unlike modern public libraries that allow access to books and other materials for free, circulating libraries charged subscription fees to readers.  Loudon offered discounts for those who subscribed for longer periods.  A three-month subscription cost eight shillings while a six-month subscription cost twelve shillings.  Subscribers gained access for an entire year for twenty shillings, a significant savings over purchasing consecutive subscriptions for shorter periods.  Rather than completely exclude readers who did not purchase subscriptions, Loudon allowed “occasional readers” to borrow books upon paying a fee of “one penny for each shilling the book they read is valued at.”  Readers interested in a particular title could peruse it for a lower price without having to make a larger investment in a subscription.

Loudon established some interesting guidelines for how long subscribers could borrow books, making the determination based on the sizes of the sheets (not to be confused with the length of the book).  “The time allowed for reading a folio,” he explained, “is four weeks,” but only two weeks for a quarto and just one week for “an octavo and under.”  Subscribers (and occasional readers) who kept their books longer had “to pay one penny a day for an octavo, and in proportion for larger volumes.”  Whatever the quirks of this system, it meant that readers could not hoard titles and make them unavailable to other subscriber, at least not without paying penalties for doing so.  In addition, borrowers had to pay for books that were “lost or abused.”

“SAMUEL LOUDON’s CIRCULATING LIBRARY” gave residents of New York access to thousands of books without having to purchase them, making them more accessible to many readers.  Loudon operated the library as a public service while simultaneously generating revenue to supplement his other ventures as a printer and bookseller.

Slavery Advertisements Published August 15, 1776

Carl Robert Keyes Slavery Adverts 250 Project

The Slavery Adverts 250 Project chronicles the role of newspaper advertising in perpetuating slavery in the era of the American Revolution. The project seeks to reveal the ubiquity of slavery in eighteenth-century life from New England to Georgia by republishing advertisements about enslaved people – for sale as individuals or in groups, wanted to purchase or for hire for short periods, runaways who liberated themselves, and those who were subsequently captured and confined in jails and workhouses – in daily digests on this site as well as in real time via the @SlaveAdverts250 Twitter feed, utilizing twenty-first-century media to stand in for the print media of the eighteenth century.

The project aims to provide modern audiences with a sense of just how often colonizers encountered these advertisements in their daily lives. Enslaved men, women, and children appeared in print somewhere in the colonies almost every single day. Those advertisements served as a constant backdrop for social, cultural, economic, and political life in colonial and revolutionary America. Colonizers who did not purport to own enslaved people were still confronted with slavery as well as invited to maintain the system by purchasing enslaved men, women, and children or assisting in the capture of so-called “runaways” who sought to free themselves from bondage. The frequency of these newspaper advertisements suggests just how embedded slavery was in colonial and revolutionary American culture in everyday interactions beyond the printed page.

These advertisements also testify to the experiences of enslaved men, women, and children, though readers must consider that those experiences have been remediated through descriptions offered by enslavers rather than enslaved people themselves. Often unnamed in the advertisements, enslaved men, women, and children were not invisible or unimportant in early America.

These advertisements appeared in revolutionary American newspapers 250 years ago today.

Continental Journal (August 15, 1776).

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Continental Journal (August 15, 1776).

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Maryland Gazette (August 15, 1776).

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Maryland Gazette (August 15, 1776).

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New-York Journal (August 15, 1776).

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New-York Journal (August 15, 1776).

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New-York Journal (August 15, 1776).

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New-York Journal (August 15, 1776).