June 29

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

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

Providence Gazette (June 29, 1776).

“The Strength as well as the Growth of a State depends much upon the due Encouragement of Arts and Manufactories.”

Robert Newell undertook “all Kinds of Clothier’s Work … at his very convenient Works, near the Mill Bridge, in Providence.”  In an advertisement in the June 29, 1776, edition of the Providence Gazette, he informed the public that “every Branch of the Clothier’s Business is performed in great Perfection” when customers entrusted him their instructions for treating textiles.  For instance, he “dyes all Sorts of Colours, and dresses all Kinds of Cloth, in the neatest and best Manner.”  In addition, he “also dyes Cotton and Linen Yarn a fine Blue, and at a very short Notice.”  Newell made skill and quality centerpieces of his appeals to the public, yet he also emphasized price and customer service.  He declared that he “engaged punctually and faithfully to do” the work delivered to his “convenient Works,” pledging that “[t]hose who favour him with their Custom, may depend on having their Directions faithfully observed, and their Work done to Satisfaction, and at reasonable Rates.”

Artisans and others regularly made all those appeals in their newspaper advertisements.  Newell added one more that he believed would resonate with the public as they contemplated current events, especially the war and calls for the colonies to declare independence rather than seek redress of grievances within the British imperial system.  The clothier opened his notice with a pronouncement with wording that echoed the resolutions made by provincial congresses that appeared elsewhere in the public prints.  “WHEREAS the Strength as well as the Growth of a State depends much upon the due Encouragement of Arts and Manufactories,” Newell asserted, “upon this Principle the Subscriber requests the Favours of his former Customers, and the Public in general, in supplying him with all Kinds of Clothier’s Work.”  Beyond all his appeals concerning quality and customer service, Newell claimed that residents of Providence and other towns in the area had a civic duty to employ him if they wished for their country to prosper and thrive.  He deployed language similar to the eighth article of the Continental Association devised by the Second Continental Congress and adopted throughout the colonies: “we will, in our Several Stations, encourage Frugality, Economy, and Industry; and promote Agriculture, Arts, and the Manufactures of this Country.”  The decisions that colonizers made in the marketplace, as producers and as consumers, had political implications.  The Second Continental Congress made that clear.  Newell endorsed that position and sought to use it to his own advantage to attract customers for his “Clothier’s Business.”

Slavery Advertisements Published June 29, 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 (June 29, 1776).

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Constitutional Gazette (June 29, 1776).

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Pennsylvania Evening Post (June 29, 1776).

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Virginia Gazette [Dixon and Hunter] (June 29, 1776).

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Virginia Gazette [Dixon and Hunter] (June 29, 1776).

Advertisements for Common Sense Published June 29, 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.

Freeman’s Journal (June 29, 1776).

June 28

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , ,

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

Massachusetts Spy (June 28, 1776).

“Patent Medicines … Turlington’s Balsam of Life, Hooper’s Female Pills.”

In the summer of 1776, Benjamin Greene advertised a “compleat assortment of Drugs and Medicines” available “at his Store, a little to the Northward of the Meeting house,” in Worcester.  He listed some of the items he stocked, including “a quantity of excellent Peruvian Bark, best India Rhubarb, … British oil, [and] Essence of Pepper-Mint.”  Greene also carried popular patent medicines, such as “Turlington’s Balsam of Life, Hooper’s Female Pills, Anderson’s Pills, [and] Stoughtons Elixir.”  Consumers were so familiar with those products that he did not need to say anything about their uses.  In addition, Greene sold a variety of spices, from cinnamon and cloves to allspice and pepper.  Whatever illnesses readers experienced, Green could supply some sort of medicine to alleviate their symptoms.

Greene’s notice was one of the few advertisements that appeared in the June 28 edition of the Massachusetts Spy.  Isaiah Thomas had published the newspaper in Worcester for more than a year after relocating from Boston just as the Revolutionary War began, but, after the siege of Boston ended, he decided to seek opportunities in a larger town on the coast once again.  He opted for Salem rather than returning to Boston, perhaps because of a smallpox outbreak in the colony’s largest port.  William Stearns and Daniel Bigelow began printing the Worcester Spy on June 21.  Greene advertised in that issue and again the following week, one of the few who trusted that the Massachusetts Spy had a large enough circulation under new management to justify the fee for purchasing space in the newspaper.  He was the only purveyor of goods and services to place an advertisement in either issue.  Joseph Jaseph advertised a stolen horse on June 21 and Solomon Jones advertised a lost pocketbook on June 28.  The printers inserted a call for rags to recycle into paper in both issues, echoing their counterparts in towns throughout the colonies.  That meant that Stearns and Bigelow generated some revenue from advertisements, but not much.  Just as they had to convince residents of Worcester and other towns in central Massachusetts to become subscribers, they also had to build a clientele of advertisers following Thomas’s departure.  For a while, it had been uncertain whether the newspaper would continue so advertisers fell away during its suspension.  As they started the process, Greene experienced a lack of competition in the public prints, something that may have benefited his business as much as the advertising copy that he composed.

Slavery Advertisements Published June 28, 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 (June 28, 1776).

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Connecticut Gazette (June 28, 1776).

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Connecticut Gazette (June 28, 1776).

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Connecticut Gazette (June 28, 1776).

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Essex Journal (June 28, 1776).

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Essex Journal (June 28, 1776).

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Virginia Gazette [Purdie] (June 28, 1776).

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Virginia Gazette [Purdie] (June 28, 1776).

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Virginia Gazette [Purdie] (June 28, 1776).

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Virginia Gazette [Purdie] (June 28, 1776).

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Virginia Gazette [Purdie] (June 28, 1776).

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Virginia Gazette [Purdie] (June 28, 1776).

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Virginia Gazette [Purdie] (June 28, 1776).

Advertisements for Common Sense Published June 28, 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.

Essex Journal (June 28, 1776).

June 27

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

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

New York Packet (June 27, 1776).

“WRIGHT AND McALLISTER, FLAX WHEEL MAKERS, … OFFER their service to the encouragers of American Manufactories.”

Wright and McAllister, “FLAX WHEEL MAKERS,” marked their location “nearly opposite St. Paul’s Church, Broad-Way,” in New York with a sign depicting a spinning wheel.  The placed an advertisement in the June 27, 1776, edition of the New York Packet to “OFFER their service to the encouragers of American Manufactories.”  In so doing, they echoed the language that so often appeared in editorials about producing goods in the colonies rather than importing them from Great Britain, in advertisements that promoted such products, and in nonimportation agreements adopted as acts of resistance.  The eighth article of the Continental Association, the most significant of the nonimportation agreements, for instance, stated, “That we will, in our several Stations, encourage Frugality, Economy, and Industry; and promote Agriculture, Arts, and the Manufactures of this Country.”  That meant producing homespun textiles as alternatives to the array of imported fabrics that dominated newspaper advertisement for imported goods, yet colonizers could not focus solely on the final product.  Purchasing and wearing homespun depended on having the equipment necessary for producing it.

Wright and McAllister aimed to do their part in such a worthy endeavor.  They made “Wheels of different kinds” that they sold “at reasonable prices.”  Under other circumstances they might have described themselves as turners rather than “FLAX WHEEL MAKERS,” but they decided that “their attention will be chiefly engaged in this branch of the turning business” on the eve of the Second Continental Congress declaring independence.  They joined other entrepreneurs who marketed American-made equipment for producing textiles, including Robert White and David Poe, who both made spinning wheels, and Fergus McIllroy, who made looms.  Given the service that they undertook on behalf of the American cause, Wright and McAllister “hope[d] to merit the encouragement of the public” in New York as well as “answer any commissions they may be favoured with from the county.”  In turn, their work would enable others, especially women, to participate in politics through their activities in the marketplace, not only as consumers but also as producers of the thread necessary for producing homespun textiles.

Slavery Advertisements Published June 27, 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 (June 27, 1776).

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Maryland Gazette (June 27, 1776).

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Maryland Gazette (June 27, 1776).

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Maryland Gazette (June 27, 1776).

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Maryland Gazette (June 27, 1776).

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New-York Journal (June 27, 1776).

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New-York Journal (June 27, 1776).

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New-York Journal (June 27, 1776).

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New York Packet (June 27, 1776).

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Pennsylvania Evening Post (June 27, 1776).

Slavery Advertisements Published June 26, 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 (June 26, 1776).

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Constitutional Gazette (June 26, 1776).

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Constitutional Gazette (June 26, 1776).

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Pennsylvania Journal (June 26, 1776).

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Pennsylvania Journal (June 26, 1776).

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Pennsylvania Journal (June 26, 1776).

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Pennsylvania Journal (June 26, 1776).

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Pennsylvania Journal (June 26, 1776).

June 26

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

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

Pennsylvania Gazette (June 26, 1776).

“A COMPLETE TUTOR FOR THE FIFE.”

The June 26, 1776, edition of the Pennsylvania Gazette carried an advertisement in which Michael Hillegas announced the publication and sale of “A COMPLETE TUTOR FOR THE FIFE, comprehending the first Rudiments of Music, and of the Instrument, in an easy familiar Method.”  That was not all that was in the manual.  This American edition included “the Fife Duty, and the usual Collections of Lessons, Airs and Marches, in the English Edition, [and] a Variety of new favourite ones never before printed.”  Hillegas may have hoped that the promise of tunes not previously available would entice even customers who already knew how to play the fife or had a copy of another edition of the musical manual.

According to JoAnn Taricani, Hillegas is “[p]erhaps best known as the First Treasurer of the United States,” yet he “maintained a number of mercantile enterprises during his lifetime, one of which was the music store he operated from approximately 1759 to 1779.”  At the time he advertised an American edition of “A COMPLETE TUTOR FOR THE FIFE,” his music shop, “the first business devoted specifically to musical merchandise in Philadelphia” and “the only specialty store for music in the colonies prior to the Revolutionary war,” had been open for more than fifteen years, likely making it familiar to many residents of the busy urban port.  “Virtually all printed music had to be imported,” Taricani notes, with “only a few efforts at music printing … attempted prior to the war.”[1]  A series of nonimportation agreements interrupted trade before the war, prompting American entrepreneurs to produce and to promote “domestic manufactures” or goods made in the colonies.  Hillegas apparently joined that effort with an American edition of a manual for learning to play the fife, though the advertisement did not make clear whether he published “A COMPLETE TUTOR FOR THE FIFE” or merely sold copies of it.  Eighteenth-century readers knew to separate the phrases “JUST PUBLISHED” and “to be SOLD,” with the latter referring to the advertisers but not necessarily the former.  Taricani suggests that the partnership of Hall and Sellers, the printers of the newspaper in which the advertisement appeared, published the musical manual.[2]  While Hillegas did not print “A COMPLETE TUTOR FOR THE FIFE,” he may have collaborated with Hall and Sellers in publishing it.  Neither the advertisement nor the imprint allows for a definitive conclusion.  What they do reveal is that the publisher believed a market exited for an American edition of the manual as the Revolutionary War continued and Hillegas attempted to incite even greater demand.

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[1] JoAnn Taricani, “Musical Commerce in Eighteenth-Century Philadelphia: The Letters of Michael Hillegas,” Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 113, no. 4 (October 1989): 609-610.

[2] Taricani, “Musical Commerce,” 618.