Month: December 2018

Slavery Advertisements Published December 21, 1768

Carl Robert Keyes Slavery Adverts 250 Project

GUEST CURATOR:  Megan Watts

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.

During the week of December 16-22, 2018, the Slavery Adverts 250 Project is guest curated by Megan Watts (2019), a History major at Assumption College in Worcester, Massachusetts.

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

Georgia Gazette (December 21, 1768).

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Georgia Gazette (December 21, 1768).

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Georgia Gazette (December 21, 1768).

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Georgia Gazette (December 21, 1768).

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Georgia Gazette (December 21, 1768).

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Georgia Gazette (December 21, 1768).

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Georgia Gazette (December 21, 1768).

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Georgia Gazette (December 21, 1768).

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Georgia Gazette (December 21, 1768).

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Georgia Gazette (December 21, 1768).

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Georgia Gazette (December 21, 1768).

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Georgia Gazette (December 21, 1768).

December 20

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

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

South-Carolina Gazette and Country Journal (December 20, 1768).

“He intends to carry on Business in his own Name alone.”

During the period that their partnership was in effect, Godfrey and Gadsden turned to the pages of the South-Carolina Gazette and Country Journal to advertise the assorted goods they sold. When their partnership came to an end, they inserted a different notice in the pages of that newspaper. They first thanked their “Friends and Customers” for their patronage, but then called on “those indebted to them” to settle accounts. Like many other merchants and shopkeepers, they threatened “disagreeable Consequences” for those who did not heed that request, though they did not linger on the possibility of legal action. Instead, they emphasized the many means of making payment, including accepting “Rice, Deer-Skins, and Indico … at the Market Price.”

Yet the advertisement did not just announce the expiration of Godfrey and Gadsden’s partnership. It also launched Thomas Gadsden’s new endeavor pursuing the business on his own in the new year. He sought to retain the customers that the partnership had cultivated, informing them that “he intends to carry on Business in his own Name alone … and will therefore be much obliged to them for a Continuance of their Favours.” To that end, he made several appeals. First, he emphasized consumer choice, pledging “to keep a good Assortment of such Goods as are usually imported into this Province.” He listed a few items currently available, such as “printed Linens and Cottons” and “a great variety of Linen Drapery Goods.” Not only did he offer prospective customers choices, he also sold his wares “at the most reasonable Rates.” Following the practice established with his former partner, Gadsden continued to accept rice, indigo, and deerskins at market price as payment.

Thomas Gadsden hoped to achieve a seamless transition from a partnership to a solo enterprise. That included maintaining his current customer base, yet also expanding on it if possible. His advertisement in the South-Carolina Gazette and Country Journal informed readers of his change in circumstances, while simultaneously offering assurances that he was prepared to conduct business on his own.

Slavery Advertisements Published December 20, 1768

Carl Robert Keyes Slavery Adverts 250 Project

GUEST CURATOR:  Megan Watts

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.

During the week of December 16-22, 2018, the Slavery Adverts 250 Project is guest curated by Megan Watts (2019), a History major at Assumption College in Worcester, Massachusetts.

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

South-Carolina Gazette and Country Journal (December 20, 1768).

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South-Carolina Gazette and Country Journal (December 20, 1768).

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South-Carolina Gazette and Country Journal (December 20, 1768).

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South-Carolina Gazette and Country Journal (December 20, 1768).

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South-Carolina Gazette and Country Journal (December 20, 1768).

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South-Carolina Gazette and Country Journal (December 20, 1768).

December 19

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , ,

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

Connecticut Courant (December 19, 1768).

“SAMUEL BROOME, and Co. have the following GOODS … at their Store in NEW-YORK.”

By the time it made its final appearance in the December 19, 1768, edition, regular readers of Hartford’s Connecticut Courant would have been quite familiar with Samuel Broome and Company’s lengthy advertisement for an assortment of goods available at their store in New York. Over the past five months the advertisement had appeared frequently, replicating its publication schedule in New Haven’s Connecticut Journal.

Broome and Company’s first inserted their advertisement in the August 1 edition of the Connecticut Courant. It then ran in alternating issues, appearing again on August 15 and 29, September 12 and 26, October 10 and 24, November 7 and 21, and December 5 and 19. It did not run on August 8 and 22, September 5 and 19, October 3, 17, and 31, November 14 and 28, and December 12. I have assumed that this advertisement did run on August 15, but not on October 31. Extant copies of those issues were not available to consult, but this would match the schedule throughout the five months the advertisement appeared in the Connecticut Courant. Furthermore, a similar schedule in the Connecticut Journal strongly suggests that Broome and Company’s advertisement did indeed consistently run in alternating issues for the final five months of 1768.

This advertising campaign was ambitious and probably expensive, not just for its frequency but also due to the length of the advertisement. It filled the better part of two out of three columns in the Connecticut Courant, dominating any page on which appeared. Similarly, it filled an entire column in the Connecticut Journal, a newspaper that featured only two columns per page. Despite its length, Broome and Company indicated that they also sold “many other articles too tedious to mention.”

Broome and Company also placed the same advertisement in the New-York Journal. Most merchants and shopkeepers in New York opted to advertise in one or more of the newspapers printed in that city, trusting the extensive circulation of those newspapers to distribute their commercial notices to towns and villages far beyond the city. Broome and Company took a more calculated approach to cultivating new customers and enlarging their share of the market. Their persistent advertising in newspaper published in Hartford and New Haven likely helped to establish greater name recognition on a regional level.

Slavery Advertisements Published December 19, 1768

Carl Robert Keyes Slavery Adverts 250 Project

GUEST CURATOR:  Megan Watts

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.

During the week of December 16-22, 2018, the Slavery Adverts 250 Project is guest curated by Megan Watts (2019), a History major at Assumption College in Worcester, Massachusetts.

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

Boston Evening-Post (December 19, 1768).

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Boston Evening-Post (December 19, 1768).

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Boston-Gazette (December 19, 1768).

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Newport Mercury (December 19, 1768).

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New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury (December 19, 1768).

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New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury (December 19, 1768).

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New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury (December 19, 1768).

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New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury (December 19, 1768).

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Supplement to the New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury (December 19, 1768).

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Supplement to the New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury (December 19, 1768).

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Supplement to the New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury (December 19, 1768).

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Supplement to the New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury (December 19, 1768).

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New-York Gazette: Or, the Weekly Mercury (December 19, 1768).

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New-York Gazette: Or, the Weekly Mercury (December 19, 1768).

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South-Carolina and American General Gazette (December 19, 1768).

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South-Carolina and American General Gazette (December 19, 1768).

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South-Carolina and American General Gazette (December 19, 1768).

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South-Carolina and American General Gazette (December 19, 1768).

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South-Carolina and American General Gazette (December 19, 1768).

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South-Carolina and American General Gazette (December 19, 1768).

December 18

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

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

New-York Journal (December 15, 1768).

“Subscriptions are taken by all the Booksellers at New-York, Philadelphia, Boston, and Charles-Town, South-Carolina.”

A subscription notice for publishing “THE WORKS OF THE CELEBRATED JOHN WILKES, Esq” appeared among the advertisements in the December 15, 1768, edition of the New-York Journal. Wilkes, a radical English politician and journalist considered a friend to American liberties, was widely recognized in the colonies, so much so that the publishers of the New-England Town and Country Almanack inserted his portrait as the frontispiece and emphasized its inclusion as part of their marketing efforts. News concerning Wilkes regularly appeared in newspapers throughout the colonies. As the imperial crisis unfolded, Wilkes became a hero to Americans who opposed Parliament’s attempts to tax and otherwise interfere in colonial affairs. Printers and booksellers sensed that a market for his collected works might exist, but it required proper cultivation.

Such was the purpose of the subscription notice. It deployed several strategies intended to incite demand. Among them, it constructed what Benedict Anderson has described as an “imagined community” of readers, a community drawn together through their engagement with the same printed materials despite members being geographically dispersed. The advertisement noted that “Subscriptions are taken by all the Booksellers at New-York, Philadelphia, Boston, and Charles-Town, South-Carolina.” Readers of the New-York Journal who encountered this advertisement and purchased Wilkes’s works would participate in an endeavor that was more than merely local. They would join with others in faraway places, people they likely would never meet but who were exposed simultaneously to the same ideas and ideals through common acts of purchasing and reading Wilkes’s works. The notice indicated that there were “but a few Sets left unsubscribed for,” suggesting that the community was already vast and those who had not yet reserved their copies risked their own exclusion. To further evoke a common sense of identity, the subscription notice pledged that “The Paper for this Edition was manufactured, and all the Printing performed in this Country.” This was an American edition, produced by colonists for colonists from New England to the Lower South.

In marketing this three-volume set of Wilkes’s works, the publisher resorted to more than invoking the politics of the imperial crisis. This subscription notice sought to foster a sense of belonging among prospective subscribers, suggesting that they formed a community that transcended residence in one colony or another. That common identity gave colonists a shared political purpose, but it also facilitated selling books.

December 17

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , ,

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

Providence Gazette (December 17, 1768).

“A NEW EDITION. … THE New-England TOWN and COUNTRY Almanack.”

With only two weeks remaining before the new year, John Carter placed the most extensive advertisement yet for the New-England Town and Country Almanack … for the Year of our Lord 1769 in the December 17, 1768, edition of the Providence Gazette. It filled an entire column. Carter and his former partner, Sarah Goddard, had previously advertised the almanac, commencing their promotional campaign in the final week of August with a notice that was almost as lengthy. Just a few weeks later they ran an updated advertisement announcing that they had published a second edition, implying significant demand for the New-England Town and Country Almanack. Their advertising efforts tapered off as fall continued.

Perhaps other concerns, especially Goddard’s retirement, the dissolution of their partnership, and Carter assuming sole responsibility for the Providence Gazette and the other operations of the printing office, took precedence over advertising an almanac that may have been selling quite well already. After all, this advertisement, even more extensive than any previous notice, proclaimed, “A NEW EDITION. Just PUBLISHED.” Steady demand may have prompted Carter to take the almanac to press once again, but he hedged his bets by making sure that readers of the Providence Gazette were aware that they could purchase it “Wholesale and Retail” at the printing office or from “the several Merchants and Shopkeepers of Providence and Newport.” For the past five weeks Carter ran his address “To the PUBLIC” in the newspapers that he now operated on his own. Publishing and promoting a new edition of the New-England Town and Country Almanack signaled that the transition had concluded.

The transition to sole proprietorship of the Providence Gazette and the printing office did not, however, lead to new strategies for marketing the almanac. Carter’s advertisement reiterated many of the appeals made in earlier notices, including lengthy descriptions of the contents to convince prospective customers of the almanac’s value. He once again emphasized the frontispiece, “a Portrait of the celebrated JOHN WILKES, Esq; engraved from an original Painting,” expecting that the portrait and “some Anecdotes of that most extraordinary Personage,” a defender of American liberties, would resonate with colonists. He did conclude with a new offer: “A considerable Allowance will be made to those who take a Quantity.” Such discounts were standard, but worth underscoring now that Carter had “A NEW EDITION” and only two weeks before the new year.

Almanacs were big business for colonial printers, comprising an important revenue stream. The potential profits may have convinced Carter to issue one more edition of the New-England Town and Country Almanack in hopes of getting his new enterprise off to a successful start. To that end, he devoted significant space in his own newspaper to promoting the almanac, filling an entire column that otherwise would have contained news content or paid notices. Doing so signaled his willingness to take reasonable risks and, ultimately, his confidence in operating the printing office as the sole proprietor.

December 16

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , ,

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

“Just come to Hand, and to be sold by Glen and Gregory.”

Connecticut Journal (December 16, 1768).

As fall turned to winter in 1768, the partnership of Glen and Gregory ran an advertisement for “A Neat Assortment of Goods suitable for the Season” in several consecutive issues of the Connecticut Journal and New-Haven Post-Boy. In the process of creating this advertisement, Glen and Gregory most likely wrote the copy and submitted it to the printing office. Then the compositor set the type, making all of the decisions about fonts, format, and other graphic design elements. Occasionally advertisers made specific requests concerning the visual appearance of paid notices, but in most instances they left that part of producing advertisements to the compositors.

In the case of Glen and Gregory’s advertisement, the compositor most likely made decisions about which words appeared in italics and which in larger font. The compositor also elected to center the first two lines of the advertisement, which served as a headline to draw attention. The compositor also made other decisions about the appearance of advertisements in the Connecticut Journal, moving beyond the copy submitted by Glen and Gregory and other advertisers. Lines of ornamental type separated many (but not all) of the advertisements in the December 16, 1768, edition and most other issues. Compositors at other newspapers also placed decorative borders above and below advertisements. In the same week that Glen and Gregory’s advertisement appeared in the Connecticut Journal, the compositors for the Boston-Gazette and Richard Draper’s Massachusetts Gazette also deployed this strategy for dressing up advertisements.

Doing so operated as an implicit advertisement for the services provided at the printing offices where these newspapers were published. In addition to publishing newspapers, printers solicited job printing orders for blanks, broadsides, handbills, and other items. The ornamental type that separated advertisements in newspapers alerted prospective clients to the possibilities of decorative printing for their own orders. Although they did not do so exhaustively, these borders served as specimens of type otherwise not widely incorporated into the news items, advertisements, and other content of colonial newspapers. They offered compositors an opportunity to play with the visual appearance of advertisements and challenged prospective clients to think about the possibilities for their own job printing orders.

Slavery Advertisements Published December 16, 1768

Carl Robert Keyes Slavery Adverts 250 Project

GUEST CURATOR:  Megan Watts

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.

During the week of December 16-22, 2018, the Slavery Adverts 250 Project is guest curated by Megan Watts (2019), a History major at Assumption College in Worcester, Massachusetts.

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

New-London Gazette (December 16, 1768).

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New-London Gazette (December 16, 1768).

December 15

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , ,

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

Pennsylvania Gazette (December 15, 1768).

“There may also be had at the same place … a great variety of millinery, made up in the newest and genteelest taste, by a person lately from London.”

Joseph Wood sold a variety of textiles, apparel, and millinery goods at his shop on the corner of Market and Second Streets in Philadelphia. Like many other merchants and shopkeepers, he published an extensive list of his wares to entice prospective customers. According to his advertisement in the December 15, 1768, edition of the Pennsylvania Gazette, he stocked everything from “scarlet and other serges” and “fine and coarse broadcloths, of all colours” to “mens and womens beaver and other gloves” and “mens and womens cotton and worsted hose” to “gold and silver basket buttons” and “newest fashioned gold and silver trimmings for gentlemen and ladies hats.”

Wood did not rely on this impressive assortment of merchandise alone to attract customers. Instead, he provided an additional service: a milliner on site. “There may also be had at the same place,” Wood proclaimed, “a great variety of millinery, made up in the newest and genteelest taste, by a person lately from London, who understands perfectly every branch of that business.” Whether the unnamed milliner was an employee or a tenant was not clear, but that mattered far less than the service available at Wood’s shop. In addition to acquiring materials, customers could also receive advice about “the newest and genteelest taste” in London, the cosmopolitan center of the empire, and even have their hats and other accessories made by a skilled milliner who was familiar with the most recent trends by virtue of having resided there until quite recently. Furthermore, prospective customers did not need to fret about the costs. Wood assured them that “they may depend upon being served on the most reasonable terms, and as cheap as in London.” He promised the same sophistication without inflated prices. Wood played on the anxieties and desires of residents of Philadelphia eager to demonstrate that they were fashionable and genteel despite their distance from London.

Other merchants and shopkeepers made appeals to price and fashion in their advertisements. They also emphasized consumer choice with their own lengthy lists of merchandise. Wood, however, adopted a business model and marketing strategy that distinguished his shop from the competition. He realized that more readers were likely to become customers if he did more than just sell goods but instead provided services that enhanced the shopping experience.