Month: November 2019

Slavery Advertisements Published November 6, 1769

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 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.

Nov 6 - Boston Evening-Post Slavery 1
Boston Evening-Post (November 6, 1769).

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Nov 6 - Boston Evening-Post Slavery 2
Boston Evening-Post (November 6, 1769).

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Nov 6 - Boston-Gazette Slavery 1
Boston-Gazette (November 6, 1769).

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Nov 6 - Boston-Gazette Slavery 2
Boston-Gazette (November 6, 1769).

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Nov 6 - New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury Slavery 1
New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury (November 6, 1769).

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Nov 6 - New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury Slavery 2
New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury (November 6, 1769).

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Nov 6 - New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury Slavery 3
New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury (November 6, 1769).

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Nov 6 - New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury Slavery 4
New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury (November 6, 1769).

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Nov 6 - New-York Gazette or Weekly Post-Boy Slavery 1
New-York Gazette or Weekly Post-Boy (November 6, 1769).

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Nov 6 - Newport Mercury Slavery 1
Newport Mercury (November 6, 1769).

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Nov 6 - Newport Mercury Slavery 2
Newport Mercury (November 6, 1769).

November 5

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , ,

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

Nov 5 - 11:2:1769 South-Carolina and American General Gazette
South-Carolina and American General Gazette (November 2, 1769).

“TWO large and compleat Assortments of Goods.”

In advertisements that appeared regularly in newspapers published in Charleston, South Carolina, in the late 1760s, Atkins and Weston offered prospective customers the convenience of shopping at multiple locations. In an advertisement in the November 2, 1769, edition of the South-Carolina and American General Gazette, for instance, they advised consumers that they had “just imported … TWO large and compleat Assortments of Goods, one for their Store at STONO, and the other for their Store in CHARLESTOWN.”

That they described each shipment of goods as “large and compleat Assortments” communicated that they kept both shops well stocked rather than treating one as a satellite location that carried only the bare necessities. The shop in Stono was more than a mere outpost. Still, they did acknowledge that market considerations prompted them to make some items available at their Charleston location, in one of the largest and busiest ports in British mainland North America, which they did not carry at Stono. In particular, the inventory in Charleston included “a great variety of the most elegant and fashionable flowered and plain SILKS.” Atkins and Weston had been in business long enough, operating two stores, that they presumably figured out the most efficient means of distributing their merchandise given the market conditions at both locations.

Their advertisement testifies to the reach of the consumer revolution in eighteenth-century America. It extended beyond the largest urban ports and into the countryside. Atkins and Weston knew that there was a market for “large and compleat Assortments of Goods” outside of Charleston. With their advertisements, they also sought to stimulate even greater demand among consumers living outside of the colony’s largest city. Yet they also identified some items, the “flowered and plain SILKS,” as having the best prospect of selling in the city. Customers in Stono may have been able to send for samples to examine at that location, but Atkins and Weston concentrated their efforts for that merchandise at their urban location. Their advertisement operated at the intersection of convenience for customers and practicality for the vendors.

November 4

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , ,

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

Nov 4 - 11:4:1769 Providence Gazette
Providence Gazette (November 4, 1769).

“To be Sold … by the several Merchants and Shopkeepers of Providence and Newport.”

John Carter continued to advertise the New-England Almanack for 1770 in the November 4, 1769, edition of the Providence Gazette. A week earlier he launched his advertising campaign with a full-page advertisement, but he did not continue to give over as much space in subsequent issues of his newspaper. Instead, he condensed the advertisement, filling approximately three-quarters of a column. This made room for other content, especially paid notices that accounted for an important source of revenue for any newspaper printer.

Although the new version of the advertisement filled less space in the Providence Gazette, Carter still managed to insert almost everything than ran in the original. The new version left out only a note to retailers that had appeared at the end: “A considerable Allowance will be made to those who take a Quantity.” It also featured a slight revision to the list of sellers, which originally stated that the almanac was sold “At SHAKESPEAR’S HEAD, in PROVIDENCE, and by the AUTHOR.” The new advertisement made a nod to the popularity of the almanac and the distribution network that Carter devised. Prospective customers could purchase it at the printing office, from the author, of from any of “several Merchants and Shopkeepers of Providence and Newport.” Otherwise, the text of the advertisement did not change from one version to the next.

The addition of merchants and shopkeepers in Newport reveals two important aspects of early American print culture. First, it speaks to the distribution of the Providence Gazette beyond the city where it was printed. Carter expected that colonists who resided in Newport as well as those who lived closer to Newport than Providence would see the advertisement in the Providence Gazette and then obtain copies of the almanac from retailers in Newport.

Second, this strengthens the case that the original full-page advertisement also doubled as a broadside (or poster) that Carter displayed in his shop and posted around town. Business ledgers from eighteenth-century printing offices include records of apprentices hanging posters. (See, for instance, Robert Aitken’s ledger at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania.) Carter could have had boys from his shop post broadsides around Providence without incurring additional expenses or having to give complicated instructions. Making arrangements to have posters hung in Newport, on the other hand, would have been much more complicated and expensive. Thus the Newport merchants and shopkeepers were absent from the full-page advertisement that probably doubled as a broadside but did appear in a subsequent iteration that occupied less space in the newspaper and did not circulate separately. Carter altered the advertisement slightly, likely out of consideration that the two formats had different methods of distribution to prospective customers.

November 3

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , ,

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

Nov 3 - 11:3:1769 New-Hampshire Gazette
New-Hampshire Gazette (November 3, 1769).

“Tickets for Admission to be had … at the Printing-Office.”

The tour continued! In the fall of 1769 an itinerant performer traveled from city to city in New England, advertising in local newspapers at each stop along the way. His notices first appeared in the Providence Gazette on September 16, then in the Boston Chronicle and the Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Weekly News-Letter on September 28, and again in the Essex Gazette on October 10. To entice patrons, he announced that “His Stay will be short” when he arrived in Salem. An advertisement in the November 3 edition of the New-Hampshire Gazette revealed that his stay had indeed been short. Just a few weeks later he was performing, in his own distinctive fashion of reading portions and singing others, “An OPERA, call’d Love in a Village” at “Mr. Stavers’s Long ROOM” in Portsmouth. As usual in his advertisements, he informed local audiences that he “personates all the Characters, and enters into the different Humours or Passions, as they change from one to another throughout the Opera.”

The performer also included another standard element of his advertisements, instructions for prospective patrons to obtain “Tickets for Admission” either at the venue or at the local printing office. Printers played an integral role in his tour “of the great Towns in America.” They not only published the advertisements that informed audiences about upcoming performances, they also took served as an auxiliary box office, selling tickets and collecting money on behalf of the performer. Printing offices were hubs of activity in eighteenth-century America, places where colonists exchanged information in print, in manuscript, and in conversation … yet they exchanged more than just information in those busy spaces when printers took on additional responsibilities for their clients. Sometimes they served as local agents when colleagues issued subscription notices for proposed books. Other times they sold tickets and collected money on behalf of itinerant performers. The services provided by printers extended beyond the publications that came off their printing presses. Colonists regularly had to “enquire of the printer” for purposes other than acquiring information.

Slavery Advertisements Published November 3, 1769

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 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.

Nov 3 - New-London Gazette Slavery 1
New-London Gazette (November 3, 1769).

November 2

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , ,

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

Nov 2 - 11:2:1769 South-Carolina Gazette
South-Carolina Gazette (November 1, 1769).

“His printed CATALOGUE may be had.”

In an advertisement that ran on the front page of the November 2, 1769, edition of the South-Carolina Gazette, Nicholas Langford, “BOOKSELLER From LONDON,” informed prospective customers that he had just imported a collection of “CHOICE AND USEFUL BOOKS.” Calhoun Winton has documented Langford’s activities as a bookseller (and advertiser) in Charleston, noting that in January 1769 he advertised in the South-Carolina Gazette and the South-Carolina Gazette and Country Journal that “he was departing for London to secure” new inventory.[1] Eleven months later, he returned and once again turned to the public prints to promote his entrepreneurial activities.

This advertisement served as a preview since Langford was not yet ready to offer the books for sale. In a nota bene, he informed readers that “the earliest Notice will be given in all the Papers, when and where the [books] will be ready for Sale.” He offered another sort of preview, instructing interested parties to obtain copies of his “printed CATALOGUE” from several local merchants and artisans. As Winton explains, Langford “established a network … to assist him in purveying his books.”[2] The bookseller indicated that each of his associates accepted orders in addition to distributing his catalog.

The success of this network depended in large part on that catalog since it served as a substitute for browsing through the books themselves. It is not clear from Langford’s advertisement if he had the catalog printed in London before returning to the colonies or if he arrived in Charleston with a manuscript list of titles and had one of the local printers produce it. Either way, the catalog represented additional advertising revenue accrued to at least once printer. In addition to paying to have his advertisements inserted in Charleston’s newspapers, Langford also paid for job printing when he took this special order to a printing office. The catalog itself demonstrates that eighteenth-century advertisers utilized multiple forms of marketing media, not just newspaper advertisements, but it also testifies to the expenses that many entrepreneurs incurred in the process of promoting their wares.

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[1] Calhoun Winton, “The Southern Book Trade in the Eighteenth Century,” in The Colonial Book in the Atlantic World, ed. Hugh Amory and David D. Hall, vol. 1. A History of the Book in America (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press in association with the American Antiquarian Society, 2007).

[2] Winton, “Southern Book Trade.”

Slavery Advertisements Published November 2, 1769

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 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.

Nov 2 - Pennsylvania Gazette Slavery 1
Pennsylvania Gazette (November 2, 1769)

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Nov 2 - Pennsylvania Gazette Slavery 2
Pennsylvania Gazette (November 2, 1769)

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Nov 2 - South-Carolina and American General Gazette Slavery 1
South-Carolina and American General Gazette (November 2, 1769).

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Nov 2 - South-Carolina and American General Gazette Slavery 2
South-Carolina and American General Gazette (November 2, 1769).

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Nov 2 - South-Carolina and American General Gazette Slavery 3
South-Carolina and American General Gazette (November 2, 1769).

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Nov 2 - South-Carolina and American General Gazette Slavery 4
South-Carolina and American General Gazette (November 2, 1769).

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Nov 2 - South-Carolina and American General Gazette Slavery 5
South-Carolina and American General Gazette (November 2, 1769).

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Nov 2 - South-Carolina and American General Gazette Slavery 6
South-Carolina and American General Gazette (November 2, 1769).

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Nov 2 - South-Carolina and American General Gazette Slavery 7
South-Carolina and American General Gazette (November 2, 1769).

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Nov 2 - South-Carolina and American General Gazette Slavery 8
South-Carolina and American General Gazette (November 2, 1769).

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Nov 2 - South-Carolina Gazette Slavery 1
South-Carolina Gazette (November 2, 1769).

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Nov 2 - South-Carolina Gazette Slavery 2
South-Carolina Gazette (November 2, 1769).

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Nov 2 - South-Carolina Gazette Slavery 3
South-Carolina Gazette (November 2, 1769).

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Nov 2 - South-Carolina Gazette Slavery 4
South-Carolina Gazette (November 2, 1769).

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Nov 2 - South-Carolina Gazette Slavery 5
South-Carolina Gazette (November 2, 1769).

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Nov 2 - South-Carolina Gazette Slavery 6
South-Carolina Gazette (November 2, 1769).

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Nov 2 - South-Carolina Gazette Supplement Slavery 1
Supplement to the South-Carolina Gazette (November 2, 1769).

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Nov 2 - South-Carolina Gazette Supplement Slavery 2
Supplement to the South-Carolina Gazette (November 2, 1769).

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Nov 2 - South-Carolina Gazette Supplement Slavery 3
Supplement to the South-Carolina Gazette (November 2, 1769).

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Nov 2 - South-Carolina Gazette Supplement Slavery 4
Supplement to the South-Carolina Gazette (November 2, 1769).

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Nov 2 - South-Carolina Gazette Supplement Slavery 5
Supplement to the South-Carolina Gazette (November 2, 1769).

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Nov 2 - South-Carolina Gazette Supplement Slavery 6
Supplement to the South-Carolina Gazette (November 2, 1769).

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Nov 2 - Virginia Gazette Purdie and Dixon Slavery 1
Virginia Gazette [Purdie and Dixon] (November 2, 1769).

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Nov 2 - Virginia Gazette Purdie and Dixon Slavery 2
Virginia Gazette [Purdie and Dixon] (November 2, 1769).

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Nov 2 - Virginia Gazette Purdie and Dixon Slavery 3
Virginia Gazette [Purdie and Dixon] (November 2, 1769).

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Nov 2 - Virginia Gazette Purdie and Dixon Slavery 4
Virginia Gazette [Purdie and Dixon] (November 2, 1769).

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Nov 2 - Virginia Gazette Purdie and Dixon Slavery 5
Virginia Gazette [Purdie and Dixon] (November 2, 1769).

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Nov 2 - Virginia Gazette Purdie and Dixon Slavery 6
Virginia Gazette [Purdie and Dixon] (November 2, 1769).

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Nov 2 - Virginia Gazette Purdie and Dixon Slavery 7
Virginia Gazette [Purdie and Dixon] (November 2, 1769).

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Nov 2 - Virginia Gazette Purdie and Dixon Slavery 8
Virginia Gazette [Purdie and Dixon] (November 2, 1769).

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Nov 2 - Virginia Gazette Purdie and Dixon Slavery 9
Virginia Gazette [Purdie and Dixon] (November 2, 1769).

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Nov 2 - Virginia Gazette Purdie and Dixon Slavery 10
Virginia Gazette [Purdie and Dixon] (November 2, 1769).

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Nov 2 - Virginia Gazette Purdie and Dixon Slavery 11
Virginia Gazette [Purdie and Dixon] (November 2, 1769).

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Nov 2 - Virginia Gazette Purdie and Dixon Slavery 12
Virginia Gazette [Purdie and Dixon] (November 2, 1769).

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Nov 2 - Virginia Gazette Purdie and Dixon Slavery 13
Virginia Gazette [Purdie and Dixon] (November 2, 1769).

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Nov 2 - Virginia Gazette Rind Slavery 1
Virginia Gazette [Rind] (November 2, 1769).

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Nov 2 - Virginia Gazette Rind Slavery 2
Virginia Gazette [Rind] (November 2, 1769).

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Nov 2 - Virginia Gazette Rind Slavery 3
Virginia Gazette [Rind] (November 2, 1769).

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Nov 2 - Virginia Gazette Rind Slavery 4
Virginia Gazette [Rind] (November 2, 1769).

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Nov 2 - Virginia Gazette Rind Slavery 5
Virginia Gazette [Rind] (November 2, 1769).

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Nov 2 - Virginia Gazette Rind Slavery 6
Virginia Gazette [Rind] (November 2, 1769).

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Nov 2 - Virginia Gazette Rind Slavery 7
Virginia Gazette [Rind] (November 2, 1769).

November 1

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , ,

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

Nov 1 - 11:1:1769 Georgia Gazette
Georgia Gazette (November 1, 1769).

“PROPOSALS FOR PRINTING BY SUBSCRIPTION.”

When it came to generating revenue, eighteenth-century printers often found advertising more lucrative than subscriptions for their newspapers. James Johnston, printer of the Georgia Gazette, was fortunate to have so many advertisements for the November 1, 1769, edition that they filled more space than the news and editorials. He distributed the advertisements throughout the issue. Some ran on the first page, others on the second, and still more on the third. Advertisements comprised the entire final page. Readers could not peruse any portion of that issue without encountering paid notices inserted by other colonists.

Johnston gave a privileged place to a subscription proposal for a proposed book of essays about “the Indians on the Continent of North America … interspersed with useful Observations relating to the Advantages arising to Britain from her Trade with those Indians.” It appeared at the top of the second column on the first page, immediately below the masthead. In that position, it quite likely would have been the first advertisement that registered with readers. To further help draw attention, the word “PROPOSALS” appeared as a headline in larger font than almost anything else in the newspaper. Only the font for the masthead and Samuel Douglass’s name in his own advertisement on the fourth page rivaled the size of the font for “PROPOSALS.” A trio of legal notices appeared immediately below the subscription notice, making it the only advertisement that vied for consumers to make purchases. All of the other advertisements for various goods ran on other pages.

The “CONDITIONS” stated that the proposed book would “be put to Press in London as soon as a sufficient Number of Subscriptions are obtained.” Johnston was not himself the printer but instead a local agent. The final line of the advertisement advised that “SUBSCRIPTIONS are taken in by the Printer of this Gazette.” Even though the proposed book would not come off of Johnston’s press in Savannah, he was involved in its production, at least as far as marketing, acquiring a sufficient number of subscribers, and corresponding with the publisher were concerned. Quite likely he would also participate in the eventual distribution of the book, printing another advertisement to inform subscribers to send for their copies and perhaps collecting payment on behalf of the publisher. Serving as a local agent created opportunities for Johnston to profit, but it also allowed him to boost a fellow member of the book trades who was not a competitor. Placing the subscription notice in such a conspicuous spot very well could have been an in-kind service for an associate on the other side of the Atlantic.

Slavery Advertisements Published November 1, 1769

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 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.

Nov 1 - Georgia Gazette Slavery 1
Georgia Gazette (November 1, 1769).

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Nov 1 - Georgia Gazette Slavery 2
Georgia Gazette (November 1, 1769).

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Nov 1 - Georgia Gazette Slavery 3
Georgia Gazette (November 1, 1769).

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Nov 1 - Georgia Gazette Slavery 4
Georgia Gazette (November 1, 1769).

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Nov 1 - Georgia Gazette Slavery 5
Georgia Gazette (November 1, 1769).

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Nov 1 - Georgia Gazette Slavery 6
Georgia Gazette (November 1, 1769).

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Nov 1 - Georgia Gazette Slavery 7
Georgia Gazette (November 1, 1769).

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Nov 1 - Georgia Gazette Slavery 8
Georgia Gazette (November 1, 1769).