Slavery Advertisements Published April 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.

Connecticut Gazette (April 19, 1776).

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Connecticut Gazette (April 19, 1776).

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Virginia Gazette [Purdie] (April 19, 1776).

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Supplement to the Virginia Gazette [Purdie] (April 19, 1776).

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Supplement to the Virginia Gazette [Purdie] (April 19, 1776).

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Supplement to the Virginia Gazette [Purdie] (April 19, 1776).

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Supplement to the Virginia Gazette [Purdie] (April 19, 1776).

Advertisements for Common Sense Published April 19, 1776

Carl Robert Keyes Special Features

Historians consider Thomas Paine’s Common Sense, published anonymously on January 9, 1776, the most influential political pamphlet that circulated in the colonies during the era of the American Revolution.  Written in plain language accessible to readers of all backgrounds, the pamphlet made a bold case for declaring independence at a time that many colonizers still sought a redress their grievances by George III and Parliament.  Paine’s pamphlet played a vital role in swaying public opinion in favor of declaring independence.

Common Sense was an eighteenth-century bestseller, though Paine wildly overestimated how many copies were published, claiming 150,000 circulated in 1776, and historians later made even more dubious claims that American printing presses produced as many as 500,000 copies.  Contrary to those exaggerations, American printers most likely published between 35,000 and 50,000 copies in 1776.  Scholars have identified twenty-five American editions, more than twice as many as any other American book or pamphlet published in the eighteenth century.

Colonizers certainly discussed Paine’s pamphlet … and printers, booksellers, and others advertised it widely.  As a special feature, the Adverts 250 Project chronicles those advertisements, starting with newspaper notices for Robert Bell’s first edition published in Philadelphia and then subsequent advertisements for that and other editions published and sold throughout the colonies.

These advertisements for Common Sense appeared in American newspapers 250 years ago today.

Connecticut Gazette (April 19, 1776).

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Essex Journal (April 19, 1776).

April 18

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

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

New-York Journal (April 18, 1776).

“The Sign of the THREE SUGAR LOAVES.”

George Webster, a grocer, kept shop “At the Sign of the THREE SUGAR LOAVES, in Leary-street,” in New York during the era of the American Revolution.  In an advertisement in the April 18, 1776, edition of the New-York Journal, he listed a variety of items, including “Best green citron, West-India sweet meats and pickles, a quantity of cloves, Ground ginger and Cayanne pepper, French and Italian olives and capers, [and] anchovies of a peculiar quality.”  He also stocked some housewares, such as “China bowls of different sizes, Chinas cups and saucers of various colours and sizes, with or without handles, [and] A few sets of tea table china complete, which he will sell lower than any in town by ten shillings on the set.”  That was a bargain for a tea seat, though colonizers were supposedly abstaining from drinking tea in protest of the Intolerable Acts.

The “Sign of the THREE SUGAR LOAVES” must have been a familiar sight for many residents of New York.  It had marked Webster’s location on Leary Street for several years.  In addition, the grocer commissioned a woodcut that depicted his sign to adorn some of his newspaper advertisements.  It featured a taller sugar loaf in the center, flanked by two shorter sugar loaves, all enclosed in a thin border with scalloped corners.  It may have replicated the sign that marked Webster’s location, creating a visual identity or brand through the consistency.  Webster used the woodcut in his advertisements in the fall of 1772 and then discontinued it for a few years before using it again in his advertisements in the spring of 1776.  Perhaps he retrieved it from the printing office and tucked it away at his shop, though he could have left it in the care of the printer during that time.  After all, the image was so tied to his business that it would not have been of much use to other advertisers.  Unlike some entrepreneurs who commissioned woodcuts and advertised in multiple newspapers, Webster did not collect his woodcut from one printing office and deliver it to another.  His advertisements in Rivington’s New-York Gazetteer in the fall of 1773 featured a decorative border and gave his location as “the THREE SUGAR LOAVES, In LEARY-STREET,” but did not include the woodcut.  When he revived the image, it helped distinguish his advertisement from others in the New-York Journal.  In the April 18 edition for instance, only one other advertisement included a woodcut.  A stock image of a horse, a fraction of the size of Webster’s woodcut, appeared in an advertisement offering the stud services of True Briton.  The “Sign of the THREE SUGAR LOAVES” at the top of Webster’s advertisement no doubt helped draw attention to it.

Slavery Advertisements Published April 18, 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.

New-York Journal (April 18, 1776).

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New-York Journal (April 18, 1776).

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New-York Journal (April 18, 1776).

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New York Packet (April 18, 1776).

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New York Packet (April 18, 1776).

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Pennsylvania Evening Post (April 18, 1776).

Advertisements for Common Sense Published April 18, 1776

Carl Robert Keyes Special Features

Historians consider Thomas Paine’s Common Sense, published anonymously on January 9, 1776, the most influential political pamphlet that circulated in the colonies during the era of the American Revolution.  Written in plain language accessible to readers of all backgrounds, the pamphlet made a bold case for declaring independence at a time that many colonizers still sought a redress their grievances by George III and Parliament.  Paine’s pamphlet played a vital role in swaying public opinion in favor of declaring independence.

Common Sense was an eighteenth-century bestseller, though Paine wildly overestimated how many copies were published, claiming 150,000 circulated in 1776, and historians later made even more dubious claims that American printing presses produced as many as 500,000 copies.  Contrary to those exaggerations, American printers most likely published between 35,000 and 50,000 copies in 1776.  Scholars have identified twenty-five American editions, more than twice as many as any other American book or pamphlet published in the eighteenth century.

Colonizers certainly discussed Paine’s pamphlet … and printers, booksellers, and others advertised it widely.  As a special feature, the Adverts 250 Project chronicles those advertisements, starting with newspaper notices for Robert Bell’s first edition published in Philadelphia and then subsequent advertisements for that and other editions published and sold throughout the colonies.

These advertisements for Common Sense appeared in American newspapers 250 years ago today.

New York Packet (April 18, 1776).

April 17

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

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

Pennsylvania Journal (April 17, 1776).

“Manufactured at BATSTO FURNACE.”

For months, an advertisement for goods “Manufactured at BATSTO FURNACE, In West-New-Jersey,” ran in the Pennsylvania Journal.  The notice advised prospective customers that they could select from among a “GREAT variety of iron pots, kettles, Dutch ovens, and oval fish kettles, either with or without covers, [and] skillets of different sizes” as well as “open and close stoves of different sizes, … pestles and mortars; sash weights, and forge hammers of the best quality.”

According to the public historians at Batsto Village in Hammonton, New Jersey, “Charles Read of Burlington constructed the Iron Furnace at Batsto in 1766.  The furnace produced cannons, munitions and other items to aid the patriots during their struggle with the British.  …  Following the Revolutionary War, the Batsto furnace produc[ed] a variety of items such as pots, kettles, stoves, and fireplace backing.”  Unfortunately, the furnace no longer stands today, though visitors may view an ore pile and a nineteenth-century ore boat.

The advertisements in the Pennsylvania Journal demonstrate that the Batsto Furnace produced an array of consumer goods during the first year of the Revolutionary War.  Read likely responded to calls for “domestic manufactures,” goods produced in the colonies as alternatives to items imported from England, that accompanied nonimportation agreements adopted in response to the Stamp Act in 1765 and 1766, the Townshend Acts in the late 1760s, and the Intolerable Acts in 1774.  The eight article of the Continental Association, a nonimportation, nonconsumption, and nonexportation pact devised by the Second Continental Congress in October 1774 and adopted throughout the colonies, stated, “That we will, in our several Stations, encourage Frugality, Economy, and Industry; and promote Agriculture, Arts, and the Manufactures of this Country.”  The thirteen article address prices: “That all Manufactures of this country to be sold at reasonable Prices, so that no undue Advantage be taken of a future scarcity of Goods.”  Given those provisions, the advertisement for the goods produced at the Batsto Furnace likely resonated with readers.  John Cox, the local agent who sold the pots, kettles, skillets, and other kitchenware in Philadelphia, described them as “much lighter, neater, and superior in quality to any imported from Great-Britain.”  He attempted to assure consumers that they did not need to sacrifice quality when they observed their political principles through buying goods made in the colonies.

Slavery Advertisements Published April 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.

Connecticut Journal (April 17, 1776).

Advertisements for Common Sense Published April 17, 1776

Carl Robert Keyes Special Features

Historians consider Thomas Paine’s Common Sense, published anonymously on January 9, 1776, the most influential political pamphlet that circulated in the colonies during the era of the American Revolution.  Written in plain language accessible to readers of all backgrounds, the pamphlet made a bold case for declaring independence at a time that many colonizers still sought a redress their grievances by George III and Parliament.  Paine’s pamphlet played a vital role in swaying public opinion in favor of declaring independence.

Common Sense was an eighteenth-century bestseller, though Paine wildly overestimated how many copies were published, claiming 150,000 circulated in 1776, and historians later made even more dubious claims that American printing presses produced as many as 500,000 copies.  Contrary to those exaggerations, American printers most likely published between 35,000 and 50,000 copies in 1776.  Scholars have identified twenty-five American editions, more than twice as many as any other American book or pamphlet published in the eighteenth century.

Colonizers certainly discussed Paine’s pamphlet … and printers, booksellers, and others advertised it widely.  As a special feature, the Adverts 250 Project chronicles those advertisements, starting with newspaper notices for Robert Bell’s first edition published in Philadelphia and then subsequent advertisements for that and other editions published and sold throughout the colonies.

These advertisements for Common Sense appeared in American newspapers 250 years ago today.

Constitutional Gazette (April 17, 1776).

April 16

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , ,

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

Dunlap’s Maryland Gazette (April 16, 1775).

“He finds himself obliged to raise the subscription to Fifteen Shillings a year instead of Ten.”

As Dunlap’s Maryland Gazette; or, the Baltimore General Advertiser neared the end of its first year of publication, John Dunlap, the printer, ran a notice addressed “TO THE SUBSCRIBERS.”  In the April 16, 1776, edition, just a couple of weeks shy of the anniversary of establishing the newspaper, that notice appeared first among the advertisements.  Dunlap exercised his discretion as printer to give his notice a privileged place.

“AS the price of Printing Paper is greatly encreased since the first Publication of the Maryland Gazette, and the labor an expence of Publishing and delivering it to the Subscribers much more than the Printer expected” he explained, “he finds himself obliged to raise the subscription to Fifteen Shillings a year instead of Ten.”  Dunlap happened to commence publication a couple of weeks after the battles at Lexington and Concord.  The Continental Association, a nonimportation agreement devised by the Second Continental Congress in protest of the Intolerable Acts, already disrupted the supply of paper.  The outbreak of war meant even more shortages, causing some printers in New England to make adjustments or to suspend publication.  Printers in other regions also commented on the scarcity of paper and its impact on their newspapers.  To make matters even more complicated, Dunlap continued publishing Dunlap’s Pennsylvania Packet in Philadelphia and entrusted his printing office in Baltimore to James Hayes, Jr.  They experienced other difficulties, including the theft of newspapers intended for delivering in Elk Ridge, Annapolis, and Alexandria in the summer of 1775.

Now Dunlap found it necessary to increase the annual subscription significantly, raising it from ten shilling to fifteen.  “Those who do not approve of this advance,” he advised, “are desired to call and pay off as speedily as possible.”  Those customers presumably dealt with Hayes in the printing office on Market Street in Baltimore rather than directly with Dunlap.  He also called on “they who think him not unreasonable in his Demands … to pay up their former subscriptions, which will prevent confusion hereafter.”  Whatever their decision about whether to continue receiving Dunlap’s Maryland Gazette, the printer wanted subscribers to check in to confirm their decision and, just as importantly, to pay what they owed for the past year.  Printers often allowed generous credit to subscribers and depended on advertising revenue to make their newspapers viable ventures.  Dunlap did brisk business in advertising, but he apparently wished for more security than those paid notices provided.  The issue that carried his notice also featured resolutions passed “In CONGRESS” in Philadelphia and a “Proclamation … by his Excellency General Washington, on his taking possession of the town of Boston.”  If subscribers wished to continue receiving such news, they needed to share the cost with advertisers by paying more for their subscriptions.

Slavery Advertisements Published April 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.

Dunlap’s Maryland Gazette (April 16, 1776).

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Pennsylvania Evening Post (April 16, 1776).