October 7

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 7, 1776).
“JAMES DEAS … SINCE the late dreadful Fire has removed into the House he formerly lived in.”

In the weeks after the British took possession of New York in September 1776, Hugh Gaine removed to Newark, New Jersey, and printed the New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury there.  Without a newspaper in the city they just captured, the British tasked Ambrose Serle with publishing another New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury in New York.  The first issue featured Gaine’s name in the imprint, but it disappeared from subsequent issues until Gaine returned to the city and resumed publication there in November.  The October 7 edition was the first with a masthead that stated, “PRINTED AT THE BIBLE AND CROWN, IN HANOVER SQUARE,” without naming a printer.  The masthead continued to proclaim that the newspaper “Contain[ed] the freshest Advices Foreign and Domestick.”

In addition to news articles and letters, advertisements accounted for those “freshest Advices.”  James Deas, a “PERUKEMAKER and HAIR-DRESSER,” placed a short advertisement to inform the public of his new location.  “SINCE the late dreadful Fire,” he announced, he “has removed into the House he formerly lived in, at the Corner of Broad-Street, near the Exchange.”  He hoped that “his former Friends and Customers” would avail themselves of his services at his new (but familiar) location.  Deas referred to the fire that destroyed more than one-fifth of the city on the night of September 20 and into the morning of September 21, just as the British arrived.  Gaine provided the first coverage of the fire in his New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury printed in Newark on September 21, part of his promise to publish “the freshest Advices Foreign and Domestick” in that newspaper.  For his part, Deas did not comment on the fire beyond describing it as “dreadful.”  Instead, he focused on maintaining his clientele and rebuilding his business.  His advertisement did not reveal his politics, a savvy strategy considering recent events, but the fire raised lots of questions and speculation about whether the retreating American forces set it deliberately.  The fire may very well have been a topic of lively conversation between Deas and his clients as he dressed their hair or took their measurements at his new shop.

Slavery Advertisements Published October 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.

Connecticut Courant (October 7, 1776).

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New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury [New York] (October 7, 1776)

October 6

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , ,

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

Freeman’s Journal (October 5, 1776).

“Return or pay for it … or expect a visit from some one more inquisitive than polite.”

During the era of the American Revolution, newspapers frequently carried advertisements about thefts and burglaries, usually describing the items taken and offering rewards for bringing the culprits to justice.  If possible, the victims also wanted the stolen goods returned, asking readers to “stop” or confiscate them if they encountered them in the marketplace.  In some instances, the advertisements identified who had taken the items, but in most cases they relied on describing the goods as a means of identifying the burglars and thieves.  Such instances gave some people, both those who stole the goods and those who purchased them via what Serena Zabin has termed an “informal economy,” opportunities to participate in the transatlantic consumer revolution.

The victim of a theft in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, in the fall of 1776 seemed to know who had taken “a Piece of back Taffety Ribbon off the counter, in a shop in Queen Street.”  The unfortunate shopkeeper placed an advertisement in the October 5 edition of the Freeman’s Journal, informing the woman who absconded with the ribbon that “the proper owner is not at all disposed to give it to her.”  The shopkeeper advised the shoplifter “to return or pay for” the ribbon “without further notice” or else “expect a visit from some one more inquisitive than polite.”  Whether that person was the shopkeeper, someone with standing to arrest or prosecute the shoplifter, or someone with a more unsavory character, the advertisement did not specify, leaving it to the imagination of the woman who stole the ribbon.  The shopkeeper also noted that the shoplifter took the ribbon “between 12 and 1 o’clock at noon, on Friday the 20th” of September, giving such precise details to imply that the shopkeeper did indeed know the identity of the shoplifter and could dispatch “some one more inquisitive than polite” to visit her to remedy the matter.  Most advertisements about thefts and burglaries called on the public for assistance, but this advertisement about a shoplifter addressed a single reader, the shoplifter herself, as the shopkeeper took a different approach to using the power of the press to recover the stolen goods.

October 5

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

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

Pennsylvania Evening Post (October 5, 1776).

“A MAP of the present seat of war, with the harbours of New-York and Perth Amboy.”

In early October 1776, John Norman, a “print-seller and engraver,” announced that he had for sale a “MAP of the present seat of war, with the harbours of New-York and Perth Amboy” at his shop on Second Street in Philadelphia.  Such a map would have been of great interest to many readers, whether political leaders, military officers, or civilians, considering that it depicted the British invasion of Long Island and occupation of New York along with the retreat of the Continental Army in August and September.  The map, a visual depiction of the region overlaid with troop movements, served as an important supplement for understanding news about current events.

The phrase “JUST published” that opened Norman’s advertisement did not necessarily mean that he was the engraver or publisher of the map, but it seems likely since he had already established his reputation as an engraver when he produced American editions of architectural manuals and he eventually gained acclaim for engraving other maps depicting the Revolutionary War as well as portraits of Patriot leaders.  At the time of writing this entry, I cannot locate a surviving copy of any map by Norman showing “the present seat of war, with the harbours of New-York and Perth Amboy,” published in 1776.  By the end of the year, engravers and publishers in London issued similar maps, but Norman certainly did not advertise and sell any of those maps.  In addition, his purpose in producing and selling such maps would have been very different than the inspiration for the London editions.  Consider, for instance, The Seat of Action, between the British and American Forces: Or an Authentic Plan of the Western Part of Long Island, with the Engagement of the 27th August 1776 between the King’s Forces and the Americans published by Robert Sayer and John Bennett in London in November 1776.  The catalog entry for that map maintained by the George Washington Presidential Library at Mount Vernon explains that the map “contained recent information regarding the British campaign to take New York City.  Printed as a broadside, the information could be transmitted in a timely manner – in this case, two months after the events depicted on the map.  After an embarrassing defeat at Bunker Hill …, Britain was eager to transmit the news of the victory in New York … to an eager audience back in England.”  Considering that Norman previously marketed prints and political cartoons that supported the American cause, he probably sold this “MAP of the present seat of war” as a means of keeping the public informed about current events rather than as a piece of pro-British propaganda.

Slavery Advertisements Published October 5, 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 5, 1776).

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New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury [Newark] (October 5, 1776).

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New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury [Newark] (October 5, 1776).

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New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury [Newark] (October 5, 1776).

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Pennsylvania Evening Post (October 5, 1776).

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Pennsylvania Ledger (October 5, 1776).

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Providence Gazette (October 5, 1776).

October 4

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , ,

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

Essex Journal (October 4, 1777).

“The Sign of the Glove.”

In the fall of 1776, Timothy Dexter stocked a “Large assortment of Moose Leather, and Wash Leather Breeches, made after the best manner” at “his Shop … opposite Somerby’s Landing” in Newburyport, Massachusetts.  In an advertisement in the October 4 edition of the Essex Journal, he informed prospective customers that he would sell his wares “exceeding low for Cash” since he intended to leave the town and wished to liquidate his merchandise.  Readers unfamiliar with Dexter’s shop could look for the “Sign of the Glove” once they were in the vicinity of Somerby’s Landing.  Some towns and cities would introduce standardized street numbers by the end of the century, but until that happened shop signs aided in navigating the streets and identifying businesses.

Like many other shopkeepers in both urban ports and smaller towns, Dexter selected a device to identify his business.  As residents and visitors traversed the streets of Newburyport, they spotted the “Sign of the Glove” at Dexter’s shop and other signs that marked the locations of other shops, encountering a landscape of visual images deployed to facilitate commerce and consumption in eighteenth-century America.  Those signs served as precursors to the logos that companies would adopt in later centuries.  Some entrepreneurs used them as a rudimentary form of branding.  Dexter, for instance, not only used the “Sign of the Glove” to mark his location “opposite Somerby’s Landing” but also to promote his business in his notice in the Essex Journal.

Few shop signs from the eighteenth century survive today, yet newspaper advertisements reveal that they were common sights (and sites) in early America.  Not every shop had a sign, but the proprietors of those that did likely hoped that their signs would make their businesses more visible and more memorable.  In a competitive marketplace, every small advantage might help.

Slavery Advertisements Published October 4, 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 4, 1776).

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Virginia Gazette [Dixon and Hunter] (October 4, 1776).

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Virginia Gazette [Dixon and Hunter] (October 4, 1776).

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Virginia Gazette [Dixon and Hunter] (October 4, 1776).

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Virginia Gazette [Dixon and Hunter] (October 4, 1776).

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Virginia Gazette [Dixon and Hunter] (October 4, 1776).

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Virginia Gazette [Dixon and Hunter] (October 4, 1776).

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Virginia Gazette [Purdie] (October 4, 1776).

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Virginia Gazette [Purdie] (October 4, 1776).

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Virginia Gazette [Purdie] (October 4, 1776).

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Supplement to the Virginia Gazette [Purdie] (October 4, 1776).

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Supplement to the Virginia Gazette [Purdie] (October 4, 1776).

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Supplement to the Virginia Gazette [Purdie] (October 4, 1776).

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Supplement to the Virginia Gazette [Purdie] (October 4, 1776).

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Supplement to the Virginia Gazette [Purdie] (October 4, 1776).

October 13

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

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

Virginia Gazette [Dixon and Hunter] (October 11, 1776).
“THE VIRGINIA ALMANACK For the Year 1777.”

Among the advertisements in the October 11, 1776, edition of the Virginia Gazette, John Dixon and William Hunter promoted “THE VIRGINIA ALMANACK For the Year 1777.”  The printers informed the public that the helpful reference manual was “NOW IN THE PRESS, And in a few Days will be published.”  If they wished, customers could place orders for the forthcoming almanac or watch for a subsequent announcement that it was available for sale.  The initial advertisement helped readers make plans while inciting demand.  In their advertisement, Dixon and Hunter merely announced the imminent publication of the almanac.  Sometimes printers devoted significant amounts of space to listing the contents of almanacs, another strategy for generating interest among readers.

It was not the first advertisement for an almanac for 1777 to appear in the public prints in 1776, but it was one of the few.  Francis Bailey advertised “THE LANCASTER ALMANACK, for the year 1777,” in the Pennsylvania Gazette a month earlier.  Usually, printers in several cities and towns began advertising almanacs for the coming year as fall arrived, giving customers plenty of time to acquire them.  Those customers included retailers who purchased in volume to sell again in their own shops.  In other years, a few advertisements for almanacs began appearing in newspapers in late summer.  More ran in September and October, with the most in November and December.  Printers continued advertising surplus copies in January, with newspaper notices tapering off in February and March.  In the fall of 1776, however, the number and frequency of advertisements about the production and dissemination of almanacs lagged compared to previous years.  Upheavals caused by the war, including paper shortages, likely contributed to the disruption and delay in the annual rhythm of marketing almanacs in early American newspapers.  Certainly not the greatest concern of readers and consumers, this was still one way that the war altered their everyday experiences and routines.

October 3

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , ,

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

Independent Chronicle (October 3, 1776).

“The Printer is now waiting only for the names of a sufficient number of subscribers.”

In early October 1776, Isaiah Thomas took to the pages of the Independent Chronicle to provide an update about the newspaper he proposed publishing in Salem, Massachusetts.  In a previous notice, dated August 28, he announced that he “intends publishing a NEWS-PAPER, as soon as a sufficient Number of Subscribers appear to support it, which, it is supposed, will be in about four Weeks from the Date hereof.”

More than four weeks passed without Thomas printing and circulating the first issue of the newspaper.  He explained that he was “now waiting only for the names of a sufficient number of subscribers,” suggesting that his previous advertisements had not yielded as much demand as he anticipated.  Ther printer once again appealed to “THOSE Gentlemen and Ladies, who incline to encourage the publishing a News-Paper, in the Town of Salem … to send in their Names” and to do so “with all convenient speed.”  Subscribers could submit their names directly to Thomas “at his printing-office in the main-street” or to his associate, “Mr. M. Williams, Bookseller, in the main-street.”  The printer did not ask for any payment in advance but only upon “delivery of the first number.”  This time around, Thomas did not make any predictions about when subscribers would receive that “first number.”

He did, however, provide an overview of the price, which he had not done in his previous advertisement.  Perhaps he thought more “Gentlemen and Ladies” would subscribe upon learning that that the newspaper cost “Eight Shillings per annum, exclusive of Postage,” with only two shillings due each quarter.  Alternately, Thomas allowed for subscribers “who do not incline to advance any money beforehand” to pay a slightly higher rate of two pence for each weekly issue.  In the end, neither option enticed enough subscribers for Thomas to print the “first number” or any other issue of his proposed newspaper in Salem.  After a couple of years, he returned to Worcester and resumed printing the Massachusetts Spy after leasing that newspaper to other printers during his time in Salem.

Slavery Advertisements Published October 3, 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 3, 1776).

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Maryland Gazette (October 3, 1776).

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Pennsylvania Evening Post (October 3, 1776).

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Pennsylvania Evening Post (October 3, 1776).