Colin Wren is a senior at Assumption University in Worcester, Massachusetts. He is a History and Political Science double major, fascinated by the intimate relationship between the two disciplines. He loves learning about all types of history but is especially interested in the weapons and military tactics that have been used throughout human history. In his spare time, Colin enjoys playing tennis, being in the outdoors, and reading science fiction and fantasy.
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 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 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 colonial American newspapers 250 years ago today.
What was advertised in a colonial American newspaper 250 years ago this week?
Boston Evening-Post (December 16, 1771).
“Benjamin Willard, Clock-Maker.”
Benjamin Willard, one of the most prominent clockmakers in eighteenth-century America, placed an advertisement in the December 16, 1771, edition of the Boston Evening-Post to inform the public that he had moved from Lexington to Roxbury. He assured customers who had already purchased clocks from him with the intention that he would provide any necessary maintenance that they “still may have the same Care taken by applying to him at Roxbury.” He also directed customers to his original shop in Grafton, where an employee made clocks “as well as at Roxbury.” Like many other artisans, Willard promoted domestic manufactures, goods produced in the colonies, as alternatives to imported items. He declared that consumers acquired clocks made and sold at his shop “on much better Terms than those that are purchased from foreign Countries.” Accordingly, he advocated that colonists who needed clocks “as well as other kind of Mechanical Performances” should support his workshop, especially since “there have been large Sums of Money sent away for foreign Work which may be retained to the Emolument of this Country.” The clockmaker referenced trade imbalances with Great Britain that had played a role, along with duties imposed on certain goods, in inspiring nonimportation agreements in Boston and other towns in the late 1760s and early 1770s.
Today, a collection of more than eighty clocks constructed by Willard, his three younger brothers, and three generations of the Willard family are on display at the Willard House and Clock Museum in North Grafton, Massachusetts, the second site mentioned in the advertisement. Those clocks are exhibited “in the birthplace and original workshop of the Willard clockmakers, along with family portraits, furnishings, and other Willard family heirlooms.” This public history site allows visitors to “step back in time” (surely the pun was intended!) and “witness a unique and important part of America’s technological, artistic, and entrepreneurial history.”
What was advertised in a colonial American newspaper 250 years ago today?
Essex Gazette (December 17, 1771).
“An Elegant Assortment of English and India GOODS.”
John Cabot and Andrew Cabot sought to use typography to their advantage when they advertised in the Essex Gazette in December 1771. They began with a notice in the December 3 edition, one that likely attracted attention because the copy was arranged to form a diamond. The text ran upward diagonally with the longest line extending from the lower left corner to the upper right corner.
Two weeks later, they placed another advertisement that once again played with graphic design. It featured the same copy as the previous advertisement, but this time the compositor created a different shape. Not quite a diamond, it resembled a bulb. The names of the advertisers filled most of the upper portion, helping to draw the eyes of the readers, but the white space in each of the corners also distinguished this advertisement from others on the page.
Except for the masthead on the front page, this edition of the Essex Gazette did not feature any images. None of the advertisers opted to adorn their notices with woodcuts, yet the Cabots were not alone in their efforts to deploy typography to make their advertisement more conspicuous. Nathaniel Sparhawk’s advertisement included a list of goods available at his store, divided into two columns, but it did not consist entirely of text. Printing ornaments ran down the center, separating the columns. Such visual appeal differentiated that advertisement from one with a similar format, but no decorative type, placed by John Gould and Company.
In most cases, advertisers submitted copy and compositors made decisions about format, but for these advertisements it seems almost certain that Sparhawk and, especially, the Cabots issued instructions or otherwise participated in developing the designs for their notices. As they competed for customers with others who advertised similar goods, they likely hoped that savvy graphic design would prompt prospective customers to look more closely at their advertisements.
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 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 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 colonial American newspapers 250 years ago today.
Connecticut Courant (December 17, 1771).
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South-Carolina Gazette and Country Journal (December 17, 1771).
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South-Carolina Gazette and Country Journal (December 17, 1771).
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South-Carolina Gazette and Country Journal (December 17, 1771).
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South-Carolina Gazette and Country Journal (December 17, 1771).
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South-Carolina Gazette and Country Journal (December 17, 1771).
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South-Carolina Gazette and Country Journal (December 17, 1771).
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South-Carolina Gazette and Country Journal (December 17, 1771).
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South-Carolina Gazette and Country Journal (December 17, 1771).
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South-Carolina Gazette and Country Journal (December 17, 1771).
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South-Carolina Gazette and Country Journal (December 17, 1771).
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South-Carolina Gazette and Country Journal (December 17, 1771).
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South-Carolina Gazette and Country Journal (December 17, 1771).
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South-Carolina Gazette and Country Journal (December 17, 1771).
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South-Carolina Gazette and Country Journal (December 17, 1771).
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South-Carolina Gazette and Country Journal (December 17, 1771).
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Supplement to the South-Carolina Gazette and Country Journal (December 17, 1771).
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Supplement to the South-Carolina Gazette and Country Journal (December 17, 1771).
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Supplement to the South-Carolina Gazette and Country Journal (December 17, 1771).
Who was the subject of an advertisement in a colonial American newspaper 250 years ago today?
South-Carolina and American General Gazette (December 16, 1771).
“A CARGO OF Upward of NINETY Prime SLAVES.”
Advertisements in early American newspapers contain some of the most degrading language used towards fellow human beings. On December 16, 1771, the South-Carolina and American General Gazette published a listing for a large group of enslaved people to be sold, likely by auction. John Edwards and Company and Elias Vanderhorst stated, “To be sold … A CARGO of Upward NINETY Prime SLAVES, Being the first Choice out of a large Cargo at Barbados.” This choice of words signals to modern readers that racism was embedded in the United States from the very beginning.
The words “Choice” and “Prime” was often used in regards to goods. In essence, these men, women, and children were being described as objects, as commodities. The language in this advertisement stripped them of their identities, demonstrating that some people were valued less than others. This is contradictory to precious words written during the same era: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” Thomas Jefferson wrote those words less than five years after the men, women, and children in this “CARGO” were deprived of their liberty.
John Cheng, a historian who teaches at George Mason University, declares, “‘Race” explained why Africans were slaves, while slavery’s degradation supplied the evidence for their inferiority.” The repercussions of such ideology continue today as Black Lives Matter and other organizations have emerged to address the ongoing dehumanization that too often takes place in American society.
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ADDITIONAL COMMENTARY: Carl Robert Keyes
Rioux, as he prefers to be called, completed this entry in the spring of 2021 when he enrolled in my research methods class, a course required of all History majors before they take the capstone research seminar in their senior year. In addition to selecting an advertisement to feature for the Adverts 250 Project, he also served as the guest curator for the Slavery Adverts 250 Project this week. This advertisement about a “CARGO OF … Prime SLAVES” is one of the sixty-one advertisements about enslaved men, women, and children that appeared in colonial American newspapers from New England to South Carolina during the week of December 12-18, 1771. His classmates all undertook the same assignments: select one advertisement to feature on the Adverts 250 Project (not necessarily about slavery) and serve as guest curator of the Slavery Adverts 250 Project for a week. I incorporated the same assignments into my Revolutionary America, 1763-1815, class this semester.
I’m preparing Rioux’s entry for publication and writing my own commentary on the same day that I have devoted many hours to grading final projects for my Revolutionary America course. Many students confess to some initial trepidation about taking on these responsibilities when I first introduce the projects in class. After all, these are not the essays that they expected to write in a history class. Like Rioux, however, they become proficient at using databases of digitized eighteenth-century newspapers, identifying advertisements that belong in the project, and placing them in historical context. That they examine so many advertisements about enslaved men, women, and children certainly has an impact, much more than when I supplied representative examples for consideration during lectures and discussion. Encountering the advertisements in the original sources, seeing their frequency and their proximity to other contents of early American newspapers, helps my students understand the ubiquity of notices presenting enslaved people for sale or offering rewards for the capture and return of those who liberated themselves. When they do the research themselves, it becomes impossible for my students not to recognize how entrenched slavery was in everyday life throughout the colonies during the era of the American Revolution. Books, articles, and lectures make the same point, but many of my students report that it becomes more real when they see it for themselves as they examine newspapers from the period. This also allows them to reach their own conclusions as they test the arguments made by historians against what they find in original sources from early America.
Jonathan Rioux is a senior majoring in History and Criminology at Assumption University in Worcester, Massachusetts. Rioux, as he prefers to be called, is also involved in PALMS, a club on campus about raising men’s awareness of how they should conduct themselves in society. He is also on the football team. When residing in his hometown, Forked River, New Jersey, he enjoys working with his best friend installing appliances on behalf of Lowe’s. He is also an outdoorsman and likes video games.
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 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 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 colonial American newspapers 250 years ago today.
Boston Evening-Post (December 16, 1771).
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Boston Evening-Post (December 16, 1771).
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Boston-Gazette (December 16, 1771).
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New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury (December 16, 1771).
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New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury (December 16, 1771).
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New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury (December 16, 1771).
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South-Carolina and American General Gazette (December 16, 1771).
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South-Carolina and American General Gazette (December 16, 1771).
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South-Carolina and American General Gazette (December 16, 1771).
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South-Carolina and American General Gazette (December 16, 1771).
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South-Carolina and American General Gazette (December 16, 1771).
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South-Carolina and American General Gazette (December 16, 1771).
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South-Carolina and American General Gazette (December 16, 1771).
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South-Carolina and American General Gazette (December 16, 1771).
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South-Carolina and American General Gazette (December 16, 1771).
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South-Carolina and American General Gazette (December 16, 1771).
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South-Carolina and American General Gazette (December 16, 1771).
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South-Carolina and American General Gazette (December 16, 1771).
What was advertised in a colonial American newspaper 250 years ago this week?
Supplement to the Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Weekly News-Letter (December 12, 1771).
“To enumerate all the Articles would be … too expensive to the Advertiser.”
William Jackson sold an array of imported goods at his “Variety-Store … At the Brazen-Head” in Boston in the early 1770s. He regularly placed advertisements in local newspapers, including a notice in the supplement that accompanied the December 12, 1771, edition of the Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Weekly News-Letter. Unlike some of his competitors who published extensive lists of their inventory to demonstrate choices available to prospective customers, Jackson opted to name only a few items. He still made appeals to consumer choice, while also providing an explanation for his decision.
Jackson declared that he carried an “Assortment of Hard-Ware and English Piece Goods.” He listed less than a dozen items, concluding with assurances that he also had in stock “all other kinds of Goods suitable to any Season.” Most other advertisers who deployed similar language stated that they carried goods suitable to “the” season rather than “any” season. Even the name that the merchant gave his business, “Jackson’s Variety Store,” testified to consumer choice.
In addition, he added a nota bene to assure “Country Shopkeepers” that they “will see the best Assortment of Goods of any Store in the Town.” Jackson trumpeted that his inventory rivaled any in the bustling port of Boston. He also explained that “to enumerate all the Articles would be too tedious to the Reader.” Seeing his merchandise by “calling at the Store” would be much more satisfying. Jackson made one more comment about why he did not insert a lengthy list of goods, asserting that doing so would have been “too expensive to the Advertiser.” Rarely did advertisers acknowledge in print the reason they made a choice between cataloging their goods or not. Jackson may have done so to suggest that he made savvy decisions about how to spend his advertising budget. He also benefited from a significant number of competitors listing all kinds of goods, provided that prospective customers would accept his invitation to see for themselves that he carried “the best Assortment … of any Store in the Town.”
What was advertised in a colonial American newspaper 250 years ago today?
Providence Gazette (December 14, 1771).
“I intreat them to consider my late heavy, and grievous Misfortunes, and give their Custom to said Mill.”
In December 1771, Elisha Brown placed an advertisement in the Providence Gazette to inform readers that he would soon commence operations at his mill, “the nearest to the Town of Providence.” In preparation, he offered advice to prospective customers, explaining “the best Way of keeping their Grain, in order to make good Meal.” He lamented that sometimes “millers are blamed when they are not worthy of it, by Reason of the Grain’s being damp and unfit to grind.” That being the case, he gave extensive instructions for storing corn and grain in order to avoid collecting moisture that resulted in “sweaty Dampness” and, ultimately, meal of “a soft, clammy Quality, which will never make good Bread.” Prospective customers could save themselves a lot of grief if they followed Brown’s recommendations, though he likely aimed to spare himself from difficult interactions with dissatisfied customers as well.
Brown provided this guidance as a service to his customers. For those not enticed by such concern for their prospects of receiving good meal upon supplying grain that had been stored appropriately, he also attempted to play on their sympathies as a means of convincing them to choose his mill over those run by competitors. He had deployed a similar strategy several months earlier. Brown declared, “I intreat” residents of Providence “to consider my late heavy, and grievous Misfortunes, and give their Custom to said Mill.” He did not specify any particulars, assuming readers were already familiar with those events and might be inclined to assist him in overcoming those “Misfortunes.” To further justify employing him, Brown underscored his industriousness, proclaiming that “constant Attendance will be given … from before Sunrise, in the Morning, till the Mill be cleared in the Evening.” He planned to be on site as often as possible, but also arranged for Abner Thayer, a clothier, to tend the mill in his absence.
Whatever Brown’s “Misfortunes” may have been, he endeavored to recover from them, but he needed the assistance of customers who brought their grain to his mill. He attempted to help them avert misfortunes of their own, giving lengthy directions for the best methods to store grain in order to produce meal of good quality. In exchange for looking out for their welfare, he hoped that prospective customers would reward him by improving his own condition through their patronage at his mill.
