Slavery Advertisements Published August 10, 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.

Pennsylvania Evening Post (August 10, 1776).

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Pennsylvania Ledger (August 10, 1776).

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Providence Gazette (August 10, 1776).

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Virginia Gazette [Dixon and Hunter] (August 10, 1776).

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Virginia Gazette [Dixon and Hunter] (August 10, 1776).

August 9

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , ,

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

Virginia Gazette [Purdie] (August 9, 1776).

“NEW BATH … has every accommodation necessary for gentlemen and ladies.”

A health tourism industry began developing in America before the American Revolution.  As Vaughn Scribner explains, “Americans relied on improvements in transportation, roads, and communication during the second half of the eighteenth century to push spa culture forward.  …  Such improvements caused colonists increasingly to view mineral springs – as well as the all-important spas that accompanied them – as a prime opportunity for fashionable ‘improvement’ and genteel leisure.”[1]  The proprietors of various baths, spas, and mineral springs placed newspaper advertisements inviting guests to visit their establishments.  Such notices continued appearing shortly after the Continental Congress declared impendence in July 1776.

Although “regions surrounding northeastern urban centers such as Philadelphia and Boston became especially popular for their well-dev eloped mineral spas,” entrepreneurs in other regions also established and advertised similar facilities.  In early August 1776, for example, Nathaniel Anderson placed an advertisement in Alexander Purdie’s Virginia Gazette.  “THE publick are hereby informed,” he announced, “that NEW BATH, in Louisa county, ten miles above the courthouse, is now in good repair,, and has every accommodation necessary for gentlemen and ladies who are inclinable to retire from the lower parts of the country, during the unhealthy season.”  While some clients might visit New Bath merely for leisure, the proprietor emphasized the health benefits for those afflicted with various maladies.  “The waters, from long experience,” Anderson confided, “have been found excellent for removing slow fevers, agues and fevers, and all lingering disorders.”  In addition, they provided “a speedy remedy for ulcers, inflammations,” and other afflictions.  No matter why clients traveled to New Bath, Anderson would extend exemplary hospitality, promising that the “the utmost diligence will be used to render the place agreeable.”  With his advertisement and his facilities at New Bath, Anderson contributed to a process of spas, “along with other ‘improving’ public spaces such as taverns, bowling greens, theaters, and pleasure gardens, … defin[ing] a region’s gentility, sociability, and, ultimately, civility” in the eighteenth century.[2]

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[1] Vaughn Scribner, “‘The happy effects of these waters’: Colonial Mineral Spas and the British Civilizing Mission,” Early American Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal 14, no. 3 (Summer 2016): 440.

[2] Scriber, “happy effects of these waters,” 440.

Slavery Advertisements Published August 9, 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.

Connecticut Gazette (August 9, 1776).

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Essex Journal (August 9, 1776).

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Supplement to the Virginia Gazette [Purdie] (August 9, 1776).

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Supplement to the Virginia Gazette [Purdie] (August 9, 1776).

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Supplement to the Virginia Gazette [Purdie] (August 9, 1776).

August 8

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

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

New-York Journal (August 8, 1776).

“DRUMS … equal to any that have been imported, for sound or beauty.”

The frequency that advertisements for drums appeared in American newspapers increased significantly after fighting commenced at Lexington and Concord in April 1775.  Drums, after all, were essential military equipment.  Advertisers who made or sold drums often did not consider it necessary to say much in their newspaper notices.  One brief advertisement, for instance, proclaimed, “AMERICAN MADE DRUMS, Sold by PHILIP PELTON, At the Foot of Cowfoot-hill, in NEW-YORK.”  Pelton made sure that prospective customers knew that his drums were made in America, but he did not make other appeals in that notice.

In a subsequent advertisement, however, he decided to go into more detail in hopes of convincing readers in the market for drums to choose the ones that he “MADE and sold” and provided to an associate, Daniel Pelton, likely a relation, to sell.  In case it was not enough that they were made in America, Pelton asserted that his drums were “equal to any that have been imported, for sound or beauty.”  His customers did not have to sacrifice quality when they purchased his drums.  They looked as good as imported alternatives and they sounded as good.  In addition, the Peltons had a “great variety on hand,” so “any gentlemen may be served at the shortest notice.”  Customers did not need to place orders and wait for Pelton to make their drums.  Instead, they could select from a wide inventory, making choices according to size and appearance and price.  No matter which drums customers chose, the Peltons sold them “on the most reasonable terms” or, in other words, for fair prices.  As an ancillary service, the Peltons pledged that “purchasers may depend upon having their Drums tun’d to sound well.”  That was yet another marketing appeal intended to resonate with prospective customers.  As Pelton had done when mentioning the sound and beauty of his drums earlier in the advertisement, he invited readers to engage their senses by imagining the sounds of drums “tun’d to sound well.”  This more elaborate advertisement gave prospective customers more reasons to purchase the drums that Pelton made and sold.

Slavery Advertisements Published August 8, 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 8, 1776).

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New-England Chronicle (August 8, 1776).

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New-York Journal (August 8, 1776).

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New-York Journal (August 8, 1776).

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New-York Journal (August 8, 1776).

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Pennsylvania Evening Post (August 8, 1776).

August 7

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , ,

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

Massachusetts Spy (August 7, 1776).

“He once more earnestly begs that those who are indebted to him for News-Papers … would immediately pay their respective ballances.”

When Isaiah Thomas transferred the Massachusetts Spy to William Stearns and Daniel Bigelow and returned to Boston in the summer of 1776, he had difficulty collecting payments from his former customers.  Even though he made several trips to Worcester to tie up loose ends, that was not enough so he resorted to placing advertisements in the newspaper he formerly printed.

“I. THOMAS, the late publisher of this Paper,” he declared, “is very sorry that so many of his Customers are so unkind as to neglect paying him the several small sums due to him for services already performed.”  In addition to newspaper subscriptions, those services likely ranged from job printing of handbills and blanks to purchases of books, pamphlets, stationery supplies, and even patent medicines.  Thomas may even have allowed credit for newspapers advertisements.  He expressed exasperation that he “made several journeys to Worcester on purpose to receive his just due” for the services he had rendered to the public in printing the first newspaper in the town and establishing its first printing office, “but, to his surprise, finds the old proverb verified, ‘Out of sight, out of mind.’”  In case his former customers considered what they owed so inconsequential that Thomas would not miss it, he made a plea that “that those who are indebted to him for News-Papers, &c. (if it is but two-pence) would immediately pay their respective ballances … as so many small sums when collected together will be of essential service” to him.  In contrast, “the want of which will be of great detriment” as he pursued new endeavors.

That advertisement, dated “Boston, July 22, 1776,” was not the first that Thomas ran in the Massachusetts Spy.  He previously inserted a shorter notice, dated “Worcester, June 14, 1776.”  When it did not have the desired effect, Stearns and Bigelow enclosed Thomas’s new advertisement with a border of ornamental type and gave it a privileged place as the first item in the first column on the first page of the July 24 edition of the Massachusetts Spy.  Thomas may have instructed or insisted that the inexperienced printers do so rather than leaving it completely to their discretion.  In subsequent issue, the notice moved to the final page, but the border remained, distinguishing the advertisement from all other content in the newspaper.  The format demanded the attention of readers who had treated Thomas as “Out of sight, out of mind.”

Slavery Advertisements Published August 7, 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.

Constitutional Gazette (August 7, 1776).

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Pennsylvania Gazette (August 7, 1776).

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Pennsylvania Gazette (August 7, 1776).

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Pennsylvania Gazette (August 7, 1776).

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Pennsylvania Gazette (August 7, 1776).

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Pennsylvania Journal (August 7, 1776).

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Pennsylvania Journal (August 7, 1776).

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Pennsylvania Journal (August 7, 1776).

August 6

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , ,

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

Pennsylvania Evening Post (August 6, 1776).

“No advertisement will be inserted in this paper, if the money be not sent with it.”

Benjamin Towne, the printer of the Pennsylvania Evening Post, published a dozen advertisements in the August 6, 1776, edition of his newspaper.  They appeared at the end of the issue, following “EXTRACTS from the Minutes of the Proceedings of the Convention for the State of Pennsylvania” held in Philadelphia shortly after the Continental Congress declared independence and news updates from Williamsburg, Boston, Providence, Newport, New Haven, and New York.  Immediately above the first advertisement, Towne issued instructions to prospective advertisers: “No advertisement will be inserted in this paper, if the money be not sent with it.”  The printer included three asterisks to call attention to his notice.

Historians of the early American press have long contended that newspaper printers extended generous credit to subscribers but insisted that advertisers had to pay in advance.  Printers, they explain, prioritized their circulation numbers as a means encouraging advertisers to purchase space in their newspapers.  In turn, revenue from advertising more than made up for losses from subscribers who did not pay.  Notices like this one from Towne likely contributed to that narrative.  Other printers sometimes ran similar notices … yet some also ran notices calling on advertisers to make payment, suggesting that they did not require advertisers to submit payment with the copy for their advertisements.  In addition, Towne’s notice indicates his policy for new advertisements that he anticipated receiving at his printing office but did not necessarily reflect the practice he previously adopted.  In an address to readers that ran in the first issue of the Pennsylvania Evening Post, Towne solicited advertisements, stating that they “shall be punctually and conspicuously inserted at the usual Rates,” but he did not specify those rates, nor did he demand payment in advance.  Perhaps Towne found it necessary to institute a new policy – payment in advance – only after too many advertisers neglected to pay for their notices in a timely fashion.

Slavery Advertisements Published August 6, 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 6, 1776).

August 5

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

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

Connecticut Courant (August 5, 1776).

“Old books he can metamorphose into new.”

When Nathaniel Patten, a bookseller, bookbinder, and stationer, “opened shop under the Printing-Office in Hartford” in the summer of 1776, he placed an advertisement in the Connecticut Courant.  He described himself as a “BOOK-BINDER and STATIONER from BOSTON” even though he had been pursuing those trades in Norwich, Connecticut, for more than two years.  He may have believed that prospective customers considered a bookbinder from Boston more qualified than one from Norwich.  He stated that he had been “regularly bred” to bookbinding; in other words, he received training as a youth, perhaps as an apprentice and perhaps in Boston.  That prompted Patten to confidently proclaim that he could “bind, gild, and letter books in as splendid a manner as if done in London.”  Consumers may have considered a bookbinder from Boston more likely to possess such skills than a bookbinder from Norwich.

Patten sought to dazzle prospective customers with a description of what he could do to their books when entrusted to him for new bindings.  “Old books,” he declared, “he can metamorphose into new.”  Yet that promise held only as long as the books remained on shelves to impress those who saw them, but not necessarily upon closer examination.  The bookbinder clarified that “the difference will not be perceptible to those who do not open them.”  Patten encouraged readers to judge a book by its cover … and by its binding and by the gilded edges of its pages.  Appearances mattered, at least according to the bookbinder seeking customers after arriving in a new town.

Patten had some experience making both appeals.  The copy in the first paragraph of his advertisement in the Connecticut Courant replicated copy from the advertisement in which he introduced himself to residents of Norwich and nearby towns in the Connecticut Journal two years earlier, suggesting that Patten clipped the notice from the newspaper or retained his correspondence with the printer.  He apparently considered the appeals effective since he deployed them again.  Artisans often touted their training and skill.  Patten merely adopted a popular marketing strategy when he did so.  His claim about transforming old books, however, was not one that other bookbinders used.  Patten seemingly devised it on his own when deciding the best way to market his services.