Month: March 2018

March 26

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

Who was the subject of an advertisement in a colonial American newspaper 250 years ago today?

Mar 26 - 3:26:1768 New-York Journal Supplement
Supplement to the New-York Journal (March 26, 1768).

“TO BE SOLD, A Likely young Negro Girl.”

John Holt published the New-York Journal on Thursdays in 1768. According to schedule, he distributed a standard four-page issue on Thursday, March 24. A two-page supplement filled mostly with news and a limited number of advertisements accompanied that issue. Two days later, Holt distributed an additional two-page supplement on Saturday, March 26. He explained that it contained “Articles left out of last for Want of Room,” apparently items that either could not wait for inclusion the following week or that would crowd out more recent news if held that long. The March 26 supplement consisted almost entirely of news items. One advertisement appeared at the bottom of the final column on the second page.

That advertisement offered a “Likely young Negro Girl about 13 Years of Age” for sale. It stood in stark juxtaposition to the remainder of the content of the supplement. Holt devoted four of the six columns to news from Boston, including several editorial pieces reprinted from the Boston-Gazette. One reprinted letter, signed “A TRUE PATRIOT,” warned that the colonists “soon will find themselves in chains” if they did not “support their own RIGHTS, and the Liberty of the PRESS” in the face of abuses by Parliament. Another correspondent, “POPULUS,” underscored that there was “nothing so justly TERRIBLE to tyrants, and their tools and abettors, as FREE PRESS.” The press played such an important role that “it is ever watched by those who are forming plans for the destruction of the people’s liberties, with an envious and malignant eye.”

In addition to these editorials, Holt inserted a circular letter “written by the hon. the House of Representatives” in Massachusetts “in the last Session of the General Assembly and sent to the respective Assemblies on the Continent.” In it, that body expressed “their humble opinion, which they express with the greatest deference to the wisdom of the parliament; that the acts made there, imposing duties on the people of this province, with the sole and express purpose of raising a revenue, are infringements on their natural and constitutional rights; because, as they are not represented in the British parliament, his Majesty’s commons in Britain, by those acts, grant their property without their consent.” In other words, colonists in Massachusetts objected to taxation without representation. Holt amplified their sentiments by reprinting their letter for readers in New York and its hinterlands.

All of this discussion of freedom of the press and theories of constitutional liberty took place alongside an advertisement for a “young Negro Girl.” The revenues generated from that advertisement contributed to the dissemination of the arguments voiced by “A TRUE PATRIOT,” “POPULUS,” and the assembly of the “Province of MASSACHUSETTS-BAY.” As white colonists fretted about their liberties, they also perpetuated a system that enslaved a “young Negro Girl” and countless others, holding their bodies in bondage even as they lamented potential challenges to their own speech. Resistance led to revolution as the imperial crisis intensified over the course of a decade, but many colonists were inconsistent in their conceptions of liberty and applying them to all who resided in the colonies. Even as they challenged Parliament to recognize their “natural constitutional right” colonists continued to purchase and peddle slaves from New England to George. The evidence for each appeared side-by-side in the pages of their newspapers.

Slavery Advertisements Published March 26, 1768

Carl Robert Keyes Slavery Adverts 250 Project

GUEST CURATOR:  Mary Bohane

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 for slaves – for sale, wanted to purchase, runaways, captured fugitives – 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 colonists 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. Colonists who did not own slaves were still confronted with slavery as well as invited to maintain the system by purchasing slaves or assisting in the capture of runaways. 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 slaveholders rather than the slaves themselves. Often unnamed in the advertisements, enslaved men, women, and children were not invisible or unimportant in early America.

These advertisements appeared in colonial American newspapers 250 years ago today.

Mar 26 - New-York Journal Supplement Slavery 1
Supplement to the New-York Journal (March 26, 1768).

March 25

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

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

Mar 25 - 3:25:1768 New-Hampshire Gazette
New-Hampshire Gazette (March 25, 1768).

“May be supplied with the NEW HAMPSHIRE GAZETTE &c. &c. for NINE SHILLINGS Lawful Money per Annum, Carriage included.”

Today’s advertisement provides a relatively rare glimpse of the subscription rates for an eighteenth-century newspaper. While a few printers inserted both subscription and advertising rates in the colophon on the final page, transforming the publication information into a final advertisement that appeared in each issue, most did not. Printers rarely mentioned the subscription rates in the pages of their newspapers, even as they frequently published notices calling on subscribers and advertisers to settle accounts.

An advertisement in the March 25, 1768, edition of the New-Hampshire Gazette included the subscription and delivery costs for residents of “the Towns of Kittery, Berwick, Somersworth, Rochester, Dover, Durhan, Newmarkett, and … Stratham.” In it, Daniel Fowle and Robert Fowle, printers of the newspaper, informed readers that “a Carrier or Post Rider” would begin delivering newspapers in those towns the following week. Those who wished to subscribe would be charged “NINE SHILLINGS Lawful Money per Annum, Carriage included.” They were expected to pay “at Entrance” rather than later become the subjects of subsequent notices calling on subscribers to pay their overdue accounts. While this notice indicated the total fees charged to subscribers serviced by the carrier who covered this route, it still obscured the base rate for subscriptions. The Fowles listed a fee with “Carriage included.” Was it the same rate as residents of Portsmouth paid for their annual subscriptions? Or had it been topped off to cover delivery expenses? Either way, the notice revealed the price of a subscription for residents of towns in Portsmouth’s hinterland, information that did not frequently appear in the pages of the New-Hampshire Gazette.

This notice also testified to the current and continuing dissemination of the newspaper beyond Portsmouth. Dated March 25, a Friday, and appearing in an issue of the same date, it advised that “FRIDAY next” the carrier would begin making deliveries along the proposed route. The Fowles invited “Those who incline to encourage so useful and advantagious a Person as a Carrier” to submit their names for a list “at the Printing Office in Portsmouth.” The printers expected that readers in those towns already had sufficient access to the New-Hampshire Gazette that they would see this notice and respond in less than a week. Even before the Fowles employed “a Carrier or Post Rider” for this particular route the news and advertising contained in the pages of their newspaper had wide distribution beyond Portsmouth. Establishing this new route only extended their efficiency and reach in disseminating information in the era of the American Revolution.

Slavery Advertisements Published March 25, 1768

Carl Robert Keyes Slavery Adverts 250 Project

GUEST CURATOR:  Mary Bohane

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 for slaves – for sale, wanted to purchase, runaways, captured fugitives – 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 colonists 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. Colonists who did not own slaves were still confronted with slavery as well as invited to maintain the system by purchasing slaves or assisting in the capture of runaways. 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 slaveholders rather than the slaves themselves. Often unnamed in the advertisements, enslaved men, women, and children were not invisible or unimportant in early America.

These advertisements appeared in colonial American newspapers 250 years ago today.

Mar 25 - New-London Gazette Slavery 1
New-London Gazette (March 25, 1768).

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Mar 25 - South-Carolina and American General Gazette Slavery 1
South-Carolina and American General Gazette (March 25, 1768).

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Mar 25 - South-Carolina and American General Gazette Slavery 2
South-Carolina and American General Gazette (March 25, 1768).

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Mar 25 - South-Carolina and American General Gazette Slavery 3
South-Carolina and American General Gazette (March 25, 1768).

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Mar 25 - South-Carolina and American General Gazette Slavery 4
South-Carolina and American General Gazette (March 25, 1768).

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Mar 25 - South-Carolina and American General Gazette Slavery 5
South-Carolina and American General Gazette (March 25, 1768).

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Mar 25 - South-Carolina and American General Gazette Slavery 6
South-Carolina and American General Gazette (March 25, 1768).

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Mar 25 - South-Carolina and American General Gazette Slavery 7
South-Carolina and American General Gazette (March 25, 1768).

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Mar 25 - South-Carolina and American General Gazette Slavery 8
South-Carolina and American General Gazette (March 25, 1768).

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Mar 25 - South-Carolina and American General Gazette Slavery 9
South-Carolina and American General Gazette (March 25, 1768).

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Mar 25 - South-Carolina and American General Gazette Slavery 10
South-Carolina and American General Gazette (March 25, 1768).

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Mar 25 - South-Carolina and American General Gazette Slavery 11
South-Carolina and American General Gazette (March 25, 1768).

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Mar 25 - South-Carolina and American General Gazette Slavery 12
South-Carolina and American General Gazette (March 25, 1768).

March 24

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

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

Mar 24 - 3:24:1768 Massachusetts Gazette
Massachusetts Gazette (March 24, 1768).

“Work will be taken in either at said Shop, or by Edward Wentworth, at Milton Bridge.”

In the early spring on 1768, Theophilus Chamberlain, a clothier, turned to the public prints to announce that he “HAS opened Shop near the Sign of the White-Horse in BOSTON.” Like many other artisans in the garment trades, he promoted both his skill and his prices, pledging that he did “the Clothier’s Business in the best and cheapest Manner.” Perhaps realizing that this did not sufficiently distinguish him from his competitors, Chamberlain supplemented those appeals by offering prospective customers a choice for dropping off and picking up textiles and garments. In a nota bene, he advised that “Work will be taken in either at said Shop, or by Edward Wentworth, at Milton Bridge; and may be had again at either Place as the Owner may choose.” By extending these options, the clothier marketed convenience to his clients. He acknowledged that his location might be attractive to some, but out of the way for others. In an effort to increase his clientele he made arrangements to serve them at two locations.

The typography of the advertisement highlighted the additional appeal made in the nota bene, placing special emphasis on the convenience that Chamberlain provided that his competitors did not. While the graphic design of the advertisement – indenting the entire nota bene so the additional white space on a page of dense text drew more attention to it – likely drew more eyes, it does not appear that Chamberlain made particular arrangements concerning the format of the advertisement. The advertisement immediately below it also featured a short nota bene and identical decisions concerning the layout.

Chamberlain carefully crafted the copy for his advertisement to entice readers of the Massachusetts Gazette to hire him to dress their textiles and garments, finishing them so as to give a nap, smooth surface, or gloss, depending on the fabric. He underscored price, his skill, and, especially, the convenience of multiple locations. Fortuitously for Chamberlain, the typography of the advertisement amplified the most unique of his appeals. Some of the innovation of his advertisement was intentional, but other aspects that also worked to his benefit seem to have been merely circumstantial since they depended on decisions made by the compositor independently of the advertiser.

Summary of Slavery Advertisements Published March 18-24, 1768

Carl Robert Keyes Slavery Adverts 250 Project

These tables indicate how many advertisements for slaves appeared in colonial American newspapers during the week of March 18-24, 1768.

Note:  These tables are as comprehensive as currently digitized sources permit, but they may not be an exhaustive account.  They includes all newspapers that have been digitized and made available via Accessible Archives, Colonial Williamsburg’s Digital Library, and Readex’s America’s Historical Newspapers.  There are several reasons some newspapers may not have been consulted:

  • Issues that are no longer extant;
  • Issues that are extant but have not yet been digitized (including the Pennsylvania Journal); and
  • Newspapers published in a language other than English (including the Wochentliche Philadelphische Staatsbote).

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Slavery Advertisements Published March 18-24, 1768:  By Date

Slavery Adverts Tables 1768 By Date Mar 18

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Slavery Advertisements Published March 18-24, 1768:  By Region

Slavery Adverts Tables 1768 By Region Mar 18

Slavery Advertisements Published March 24, 1768

Carl Robert Keyes Slavery Adverts 250 Project

GUEST CURATOR:  Jonathan Bisceglia

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 for slaves – for sale, wanted to purchase, runaways, captured fugitives – 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 colonists 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. Colonists who did not own slaves were still confronted with slavery as well as invited to maintain the system by purchasing slaves or assisting in the capture of runaways. 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 slaveholders rather than the slaves themselves. Often unnamed in the advertisements, enslaved men, women, and children were not invisible or unimportant in early America.

These advertisements appeared in colonial American newspapers 250 years ago today.

Mar 24 - Massachusetts Gazette Slavery 1
Massachusetts Gazette (March 24, 1768).

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Mar 24 - Massachusetts Gazette Supplement Slavery 1
Supplement to the Massachusetts Gazette (March 24, 1768).

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Mar 24 - New-York Journal Slavery 1
New-York Journal (March 24, 1768).

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Mar 24 - New-York Journal Slavery 2
New-York Journal (March 24, 1768).

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Mar 24 - New-York Journal Slavery 3
New-York Journal (March 24, 1768).

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Mar 24 - New-York Journal Supplement Slavery 1
Supplement to the New-York Journal (March 24, 1768).

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Mar 24 - Pennsylvania Gazette Slavery 1
Pennsylvania Gazette (March 24, 1768).

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Mar 24 - Pennsylvania Gazette Slavery 2
Pennsylvania Gazette (March 24, 1768).

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Mar 24 - Pennsylvania Gazette Slavery 3
Pennsylvania Gazette (March 24, 1768).

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Mar 24 - Pennsylvania Gazette Slavery 4
Pennsylvania Gazette (March 24, 1768).

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Mar 24 - Pennsylvania Gazette Slavery 5
Pennsylvania Gazette (March 24, 1768).

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Mar 24 - Pennsylvania Gazette Supplement Slavery 1
Supplement to the Pennsylvania Gazette (March 24, 1768).

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Mar 24 - Virginia Gazette Purdie and Dixon Slavery 1
Virginia Gazette [Purdie & Dixon] (March 24, 1768).

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Mar 24 - Virginia Gazette Rind Slavery 1
Virginia Gazette [Rind] (March 24, 1768).

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Mar 24 - Virginia Gazette Rind Slavery 2
Virginia Gazette [Rind] (March 24, 1768).

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Mar 24 - Virginia Gazette Rind Slavery 3
Virginia Gazette [Rind] (March 24, 1768).

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Mar 24 - Virginia Gazette Rind Slavery 4
Virginia Gazette [Rind] (March 24, 1768).

March 23

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

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

Mar 23 - 3:23:1768 Georgia Gazette
Georgia Gazette (March 23, 1768).

“MARTHA BAMFORD, Admrx. Who carries on the business as usual.”

Colonial newspapers, especially the advertisements, testify to the participation of women in the marketplace as producers, retailers, and suppliers rather than merely as consumers … but only if we make the effort to identify those women.

At a glance, today’s advertisement looks like a standard estate notice. Martha Bamford, the administratrix, called on “ALL persons indebted to the ESTATE of WILLIAM BAMFORD” to settle their accounts. She also invited “all those who have any demands” against the estate to submit requests for payment. In this regard, Bamford’s advertisement closely paralleled another inserted by Judith Carr in the same issue of the Georgia Gazette. It advised: “ALL persons indebted to the late Mark Carr, Esq deceased, are hereby required to make immediate payment and those who have any demands against the said Mark Carr are requested to deliver in the same, properly attested, to Grey Elliott, Esq. in Savannah, or at Blyth to JUDITH CARR, Executrix.” In both cases the widow (or a female relative who shared the deceased’s surname) placed an advertisement as part of fulfilling her responsibilities of administering an estate.

Yet that was not the only purpose of Martha Bamford’s notice. She informed “Ladies and Gentlemen,” whether they had business with the estate or not, that they “may be dressed; Tates and Wigs made in the neatest manner.” In offering these services, Bamford “carries on the business as usual.” Her choice of words suggests that she continued operating a business that had been William’s occupation before his death … or, perhaps more accurately, an occupation jointly pursued by both William and Martha but that had been considered his business via custom and law due to his role as the head of household. Wives, daughters, sisters, and other female relations often assisted or partnered in operating family businesses primarily associated with men but received little acknowledgment of their contributions, especially not in advertisements. For some, their participation in the marketplace as producers became apparent in the public prints only after they assumed sole responsibility for the family business after the death of a husband or other male relative. For many others, those who did not advertise at all, their work remains obscured, even if their friends and neighbors in the eighteenth century were fully aware of their contributions to the family business.

Slavery Advertisements Published March 23, 1768

Carl Robert Keyes Slavery Adverts 250 Project

GUEST CURATOR:  Jonathan Bisceglia

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 for slaves – for sale, wanted to purchase, runaways, captured fugitives – 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 colonists 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. Colonists who did not own slaves were still confronted with slavery as well as invited to maintain the system by purchasing slaves or assisting in the capture of runaways. 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 slaveholders rather than the slaves themselves. Often unnamed in the advertisements, enslaved men, women, and children were not invisible or unimportant in early America.

These advertisements appeared in colonial American newspapers 250 years ago today.

Mar 23 - Georgia Gazette Slavery 1
Georgia Gazette (March 23, 1768).

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Mar 23 - Georgia Gazette Slavery 2
Georgia Gazette (March 23, 1768).

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Mar 23 - Georgia Gazette Slavery 3
Georgia Gazette (March 23, 1768).

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Mar 23 - Georgia Gazette Slavery 4
Georgia Gazette (March 23, 1768).

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Mar 23 - Georgia Gazette Slavery 5
Georgia Gazette (March 23, 1768).

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Mar 23 - Georgia Gazette Slavery 6
Georgia Gazette (March 23, 1768).

March 22

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

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

Mar 22 - 3:22:1768 South-Carolina Gazette and Country Journal
South-Carolina Gazette and Country Journal (March 22, 1768.)

“MATTHIAS HUTCHINSON, CAHIR-MAKER, who served his time to Mr. HART.”

Matthias Hutchinson published an advertisement in the March 22, 1768, edition of the South-Carolina Gazette and Country Journal “to acquaint the public, and his friends in particular, that he has opened a shop in Queen-street.” Hutchinson, a “CHAIR-MAKER,” proclaimed that he would pursue his occupation “in all its branches,” signaling to prospective customers that he was prepared to undertake jobs involving any aspect of constructing chairs. He also advanced some of the most common appeals made by merchants, artisans, and shopkeepers in their advertisements for consumer goods and services during the eighteenth century. He promised fair prices (“reasonable terms”) and efficient service (“quickest dispatch”).

In addition to those marketing strategies, Hutchinson also adopted an appeal most frequently deployed by artisans: he promoted his qualifications, especially his training. He did not introduce himself to the public merely as a “CHAIR-MAKER” but instead as a “CHAIR-MAKER, who served his time to Mr. HART.” In other words, Hutchinson had completed an apprenticeship in Hart’s workshop. He assumed that readers of the South-Carolina Gazette and Country Journal were already familiar with Hart’s work and depended on his former master’s reputation as he attempted to cultivate his own professional identity among prospective customers in Charleston and beyond. Hutchinson considered this particularly imperative, opting to establish his credentials before he even mentioned his location or made appeals to price and customer service. Those credentials also enhanced his credibility when he assured potential clients that they “may depend on having their work done in the neatest and strongest manner.” His chairs were both attractive and sturdy, results produced thanks to the skills that Hutchinson developed via his training by Hart.

When he established his own workshop, Hutchinson identified his apprenticeship as an advantage that prospective customers would value when considering whether to entrust their business to the newcomer. Having labored in Hart’s workshop, he had participated in the production of chairs associated with his former master, contributing to the senior artisan’s reputation. Now Hutchinson sought to mobilize Hart’s reputation as a testament to his own qualifications and skill by noting that he had “served his time to Mr. HART.” More than any other appeal to prospective customers, Hutchinson made that the focal point of his identity as an artisan and entrepreneur.