October 15

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

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

Supplement to the Pennsylvania Evening Post (October 15, 1776).

“He likewise returns thanks to such of his friends who have been pleased to employ him.”

Henry Snelling apparently thought that advertising worked.  In the spring of 1776, the “WATCHMAKER from London” inserted an advertisement in the April 20 edition of the Pennsylvania Evening Post.  Three months later, he ran another advertisement on July 18.  Another three months after that, he placed yet another advertisement “to acquaint the public that he performs the said business in all its branches.”  He promised that customers who “will please to favour him with their commands, may depend on his care in executing the same.”

Pennsylvania Evening Post (April 20, 1776).

Comparing the format of the three advertisements reveals some of the decisions that Snelling made as he tinkered with the copy each time that he ran a new notice.  He retained nearly identical copy throughout the three advertisements, but he seemingly did not alert the printing office that he would likely run subsequent advertisements after the one that ran in April.  The printer broke down the type and set it again when Snelling resumed advertising in July.  The new advertisement featured identical copy, making it almost indistinguishable from the previous one except for differences in line breaks near the end.  In addition, Snelling added a note: “Clocks and Watches bought and sold by commission.”  A manicule directed attention to the addition.  Once again, Snelling apparently did not indicate that he planned to run the same advertisement again in a few months.  The October version had almost identical copy with a minor revision to the final note about buying and selling watches on commission.  Significant changes in format make it clear at a glance that the printer rest the type.  The new version had a drop cap for the “H” in “HENRY,” while the previous version had a drop cap for the “B” in “BEGS.”  The words “CHAINS” and “SEALS” appeared in all capitals in the October advertisement but not in the July version.  The manicule on the final line disappeared.  None of the line breaks repeated.

Pennsylvania Evening Post (July 18, 1776).

These changes in format demonstrate that Snelling made new decisions to invest in advertising once again, first in July and then in October.  If he did not consider his previous notices effective, he likely would not have continued to pay for additional advertisements, especially not a third time.  In the absence of market research that reveals the effectiveness of newspaper advertising in eighteenth-century America, the reiteration and updating of advertisements suggests that the advertisers at least believed that placing notices yielded results.

Slavery Advertisements Published October 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.

Dunlap’s Maryland Gazette (October 15, 1776).

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Dunlap’s Pennsylvania Packet (October 15, 1776).

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Dunlap’s Pennsylvania Packet (October 15, 1776).

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Dunlap’s Pennsylvania Packet (October 15, 1776).

October 14

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , ,

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

New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury [New York] (October 14, 1776).
“All kinds of business will be transacted on commission … in the manner practised in London.”

The British occupation of New York created opportunities for William Tongue to open a “MERCHANT BROKER’S OFFICE, AND AUCTION OR PUBLIC VENDUE ROOM … in Hanover-Square.”  The enterprising broker announced that he “arriv’d lately with his Majesty’s fleet from England,” yet also confided that he “has been a resident in this province 16 years, in the character of a merchant.”  Although he had recently taken up residence in New York when British forces took control of the city, he was not a newcomer to the colony (now state).  He had years of experience living in New York and working as a merchant, so clients could draw on his familiarity with the region.  Tongue underscored that he “has had such experience in London and America, as to have acquir’d a general knowledge of mercantile affairs, and from those advantages hopes to render this office of public utility.”

The broker sought to strike a balance between the experience he gained in London and his knowledge of American markets.  He stated that “all kinds of business will be transacted on commission either in buying, selling, or bartering European, West-India, or American merchandize.”  To that end, he promised, “Masters of vessels may immediately be inform’d the state of the market, and enabled to sell their cargoes to advantage.”  In addition, clients could utilize his services to sell enslaved people, ships, and “other articles … in the brokerage way in the manner practised in London.”  Tongue also emphasized his connections to “the officers of his Majesty’s guards, and the Hessian officers,” declaring that he supplied them with “the best of wines, Jamaica spirits, brandy,” and other items.  He hoped to leverage that aspect of his business to gain additional clients among “the other gentlemen of the army and navy.”

Tongue quickly set up shop after arriving in New York “with his Majesty’s fleet.”  He inserted two advertisements in the September 30 edition of the New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury published in the city at the behest of the British.  Hugh Gaine, the printer of that newspaper, had relocated to Newark, New Jersey, and resumed publication there, but the British, lacking a local newspaper, arranged for Ambrose Serle to publish an alternate New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury.   Tongue, who conducted business “At the house where Henry Wilmot lately liv’d, nearly opposite Mr. Gaine’s, printer,” quickly submitted copy for both advertisements.  The lengthy one that gave an overview of his new business ran for several weeks while a shorter one announced a sale of “SUNDRY articles of dry goods” and other items “THIS MORNING.”  Tongue wasted no time in launching his new brokerage office and auction house when the British occupied New York.

Slavery Advertisements Published October 14, 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 Courant (October 14, 1776).

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Connecticut Courant (October 14, 1776).

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New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury [New York] (October 14, 1776).

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New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury [New York] (October 14, 1776).

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New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury [New York] (October 14, 1776).

October 12

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

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

Providence Gazette (October 12, 1776).

“He flatters himself, that no one can finish or cut Cloaths with greater Elegance and Taste.”

When Richard Stevens, a “TAYLOR and HABIT-MAKER,” prepared to open a shop in the fall of 1776, he ran an advertisement in the Providence Gazette to launch his business.  Stevens announced that “all the various Branches of the Taylor’s Business will be executed in the most elegant Manner, with Fidelity and Dispatch,” deploying some of the most common appeals made by tailors and other artisans.  He emphasized skill, fashion, and customer satisfaction.

Then Stevens departed from the usual script that most tailors followed in their advertisements, declaring that he “does not aim at being pompous in his Advertisement, nor to detract from any Man’s Merit in his Profession; yet, he flatters himself, that no one can finish or cut Cloaths with greater Elegance and Taste.”  What started as a statement of humility and an acknowledgment of the fine work done by his competitors turned into a bold claim about his own abilities as a tailor.  Stevens practically challenged prospective customers to see for themselves whether he exaggerated his claim.  Perhaps he was a bit pompous, despite his claims to the contrary, but maybe clients could overlook (or even embrace) such pride if the tailor delivered on the “Elegance and Taste” that he so confidently declared.  In case that was not enough to entice readers to hire him, Stevens “also promises to pay for any Cloaths that should not fit.”  He offered a guarantee, giving prospective customers yet another reason to hire his services.  Other tailors promoted their skill, but rarely did they go as far as stating that they would refuse payment if their clients did not believe that their garments fit.

Following his innovative appeals, Stevens returned to standard language that appeared in so many advertisements for tailors and others who hawked goods and services.  He concluded by pledging that he “shall make it his Study to deserve the Favours of all those that should be so kind as to oblige him with their Work.”  Although he concluded with familiar language that could have appeared in other advertisements, Stevens distinguished himself from other tailors elsewhere in his notice, trumpeting the superior “Elegance and Taste” of clothing that he cut and finished and offering a guarantee that his clients would be satisfied or not pay for his work.

Slavery Advertisements Published October 12, 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 (October 12, 1776).

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New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury [Newark] (October 12, 1776).

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New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury [Newark] (October 12, 1776).

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New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury [Newark] (October 12, 1776).

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Pennsylvania Ledger (October 12, 1776).

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Pennsylvania Ledger (October 12, 1776).

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Pennsylvania Ledger (October 12, 1776).

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Providence Gazette (October 12, 1776).

October 11

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

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

Connecticut Gazette (October 11, 1776).

“Persons intrusted with PROPOSALS for Re-printing the Penitential Cries, are desired to return them in to Judah P. Spooner.”

Among the various advertisements in the October 11, 1776, edition of the Connecticut Gazette, one notice instructed “Those Persons intrusted with PROPOSALS for Re-printing the Penitential Cries … to turn them in to Judah P. Spooner, of Norwich at or before the first Day of November next.”  This followed a common practice for publishing books in the eighteenth century.  Before taking a book to press, printers distributed subscription proposals that promoted the work and gave details about publication (such as price and the quality of the paper and type).  They asked consumers to reserve copies by subscribing for them.  Printers or local agents acting on their behalf, compiled lists of subscribers.  Subscription proposals simultaneously drummed up demand for books and let printers know how many copies to print so they did not end up with surplus copies that resulted in taking a loss on the project.  Sometimes subscription proposals did not yield enough subscribers to make a project viable; in those cases, they were an important tool for conducting market research.

According to this advertisement, however, Spooner’s effort to publish Penitential Cries did attract “a sufficient number of Subscribers to incourage the Printing said Book.”  Now he needed to add any subscribers not yet brought to his attention to his list so he could print copies for all of them and perhaps a small number of unclaimed copies in hopes of making additional sales.  Spooner likely proposed publishing John Mason’s Spiritual Songs: Or, Songs of Praise with Penitential Cries to Almighty God, upon Several Occasions.  At least five editions had been printed in the colonies, including a “fifteenth edition corrected” printed by Thomas Fleet for bookseller Daniel Henchman in Boston in 1742 and, most recently, a “sixteenth edition corrected” printed by Thomas Fleet and John Fleet in Boston in 1774.  (References to the edition did not always align.  For instance, Hugh Gaine printed a “seventeenth edition, corrected,” in New York in 1765, nearly a decade before the Fleets published their “sixteenth edition corrected.”  Zachariah Fowle also published a “seventeenth edition, corrected,” in Boston in 1765.)

Seeking to publish a book was a bold venture in the fall of 1776.  The war caused all sorts of disruptions; in particular, printers scrambled for paper to continue publishing their newspapers.  They frequently ran advertisements calling for readers to provide rags to recycle into paper, sometimes warning that the fate of the newspaper itself depended on compliance with those requests.  Spooner apparently thought that he had access to the paper he needed in addition to “a sufficient number of Subscribers.”  If he did print the book, however, no copy survives.  The next known American edition was indeed printed in Norwich, but not until 1783 when John Trumbull, the printer of the Norwich Packet, published his “fifteenth edition.”  Spooner’s advertisement suggested that he was on the brink of successfully printing the book, but gathering attracting subscribers may not have been enough.  Other circumstances likely prevented him from finishing the project.

Slavery Advertisements Published October 11, 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 (October 11, 1776).

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Virginia Gazette [Dixon and Hunter] (October 11, 1776).

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Virginia Gazette [Dixon and Hunter] (October 11, 1776).

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Virginia Gazette [Dixon and Hunter] (October 11, 1776).

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Virginia Gazette [Dixon and Hunter] (October 11, 1776).

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Virginia Gazette [Dixon and Hunter] (October 11, 1776).

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Virginia Gazette [Dixon and Hunter] (October 11, 1776).

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Virginia Gazette [Dixon and Hunter] (October 11, 1776).

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Virginia Gazette [Purdie] (October 11, 1776).

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Virginia Gazette [Purdie] (October 11, 1776).

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Virginia Gazette [Purdie] (October 11, 1776).

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Virginia Gazette [Purdie] (October 11, 1776).

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Virginia Gazette [Purdie] (October 11, 1776).

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Virginia Gazette [Purdie] (October 11, 1776).

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Virginia Gazette [Purdie] (October 11, 1776).

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Virginia Gazette [Purdie] (October 11, 1776).

October 10

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , ,

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

Pennsylvania Evening Post (October 10, 1776).

“Excellent GREEN and BOHEA TEA.”

An advertisement in the October 10, 1776, edition of the Pennsylvania Evening Post alerted readers that a “SALE of a neat assortment of MERCHANDIZE, being the remains of a store,” would take place “at JOHN HART’s VENDUE store” on the following Tuesday.  The notice listed an array of textiles that rivaled many of the lists published in newspaper advertisements before the war, including “velvets and velverets, rattinets, shalloons, calimancoes, tammies, … white and embossed serges and flannels, chintzes, cottons, calicoes and printed linens.”  Eighteenth-century consumers could distinguish among that variety of fabrics and many more.

In addition to that “MERCHANDIZE,” the advertisement also highlighted “Excellent GREEN and BOHEA TEA.”  For a time, tea had been a prohibited item.  Patriots in Boston tossed tea into the harbor in December 1773 and made bonfires of tea in other communities to protest the duties and other regulations on colonial commerce imposed by Parliament.  Tea figured prominently in the Continental Association, a nonimportation and nonconsumption pact devised by the Second Continental Congress in the fall of 1774.  Advertisements for tea disappeared from American newspapers for a while, but circumstances changed once the war began.  Once the king declared the colonies in rebellion and ordered the closure of ports at the end of March 1776, nonimportation and nonconsumption testified to the effectiveness of the British blockade rather than the Continental Association.  In addition, some merchants claimed that they possessed tea that they smuggled into the colonies but did not have a chance to sell before the Continental Association went into effect.  On April 13, 1776, Congress allowed for selling and consuming tea.  Tea began to appear in newspaper advertisements once again, though not nearly as often as it had in the 1760s and early 1770s.  More tea hit the market as the result of privateers capturing British ships and their cargoes.  The advertisement for the sale of tea at Hart’s Vendue Store did not mention the origins of that tea, though the local committee of inspection may have cleared it for sale.

With the extensive list of textiles and the “Excellent GREEN and BOHEA TEA,” the advertisement for an upcoming sale of a “neat assortment of MERCHANDIZE” resembled advertisements that so frequently appeared in American newspapers before the war.  However sincere their political principles, consumers still desired all sorts of goods.  As the Continental Association eroded, they resumed their previous purchasing habits.

Slavery Advertisements Published October 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.

Independent Chronicle (October 10, 1776).

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Maryland Gazette (October 10, 1776).

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Pennsylvania Evening Post (October 10, 1776).