Month: October 2023

Slavery Advertisements Published October 15, 1773

Carl Robert Keyes Slavery Adverts 250 Project

The Slavery Adverts 250 Project chronicles the role of newspaper advertising in perpetuating slavery in the era of the American Revolution. The project seeks to reveal the ubiquity of slavery in eighteenth-century life from New England to Georgia by republishing advertisements about enslaved people – for sale as individuals or in groups, wanted to purchase or for hire for short periods, runaways who liberated themselves, and those who were subsequently captured and confined in jails and workhouses – in daily digests on this site as well as in real time via the @SlaveAdverts250 Twitter feed, utilizing twenty-first-century media to stand in for the print media of the eighteenth century.

The project aims to provide modern audiences with a sense of just how often colonizers encountered these advertisements in their daily lives. Enslaved men, women, and children appeared in print somewhere in the colonies almost every single day. Those advertisements served as a constant backdrop for social, cultural, economic, and political life in colonial and revolutionary America. Colonizers who did not purport to own enslaved people were still confronted with slavery as well as invited to maintain the system by purchasing enslaved men, women, and children or assisting in the capture of so-called “runaways” who sought to free themselves from bondage. The frequency of these newspaper advertisements suggests just how embedded slavery was in colonial and revolutionary American culture in everyday interactions beyond the printed page.

These advertisements also testify to the experiences of enslaved men, women, and children, though readers must consider that those experiences have been remediated through descriptions offered by enslavers rather than enslaved people themselves. Often unnamed in the advertisements, enslaved men, women, and children were not invisible or unimportant in early America.

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

New-Hampshire Gazette (October 15, 1773).

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New-London Gazette (October 15, 1773).

October 14

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

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

Massachusetts Spy (October 14, 1773).

“The encouragement they have had … renders a pompous advertisement unnecessary.”

Although they had operated a shop in Boston for quite some time, Thomas Courtney and Son continued to describe themselves as “TAYLORS, from LONDON,” when they advertised in the October 14, 1773, edition of the Massachusetts Spy.  Like many tailors, milliners, and other artisans, they believed that associating themselves with the cosmopolitan center of the empire conferred a certain amount of cachet in the eyes of prospective customers.  The tailors placed the notice to alert the public that they moved to a new location but continued to “carry on the different branches of the Taylor and Habit making business, in the truest and most elegant manner.”

Despite trumpeting their London origins in the headline of their advertisement, Courtney and Son asserted that they did not need to publish an extensive description of the quality of their work, the exceptional customer service they provided, or any of the other appeals that often appeared in notices placed by members of the garment trades.  Their work spoke for itself, as demonstrated by the longevity of their business and the clientele they cultivated during their time in Boston.  “The encouragement they have had for six years past in the town and province,” Courtney and Sons proclaimed, “is a flattering proof of the public approbation of their integrity and abilities.”

That being the case, the tailors considered “a pompous advertisement unnecessary.”  On occasion, eighteenth-century advertisers promoted their goods and services by critiquing the kinds of marketing that appeared in the public prints.  They suggested something unsavory in the manner that many of their competitors boasted of their abilities or told elaborate stories about their merchandise.  Courtney and Son cast suspicion on the extravagant prose presented in many advertisements, implying that those advertisers oversold what they could deliver to customers.  In the process, they attempted to enlist savvy consumers in expressing the same skepticism … and demonstrating that they could not be fooled with clever marketing by giving their business to Courtney and Son.  After all, the tailors insisted, their reputation spoke for itself.  Rather than publishing overzealous appeals to prospective customers, Courtney and Sons “sincerely thank[ed] their Friends and customers for past favours” and pledged to “continue to deserve their recommendation.”  They considered their reputation essential in marketing their business.

Slavery Advertisements Published October 14, 1773

Carl Robert Keyes Slavery Adverts 250 Project

The Slavery Adverts 250 Project chronicles the role of newspaper advertising in perpetuating slavery in the era of the American Revolution. The project seeks to reveal the ubiquity of slavery in eighteenth-century life from New England to Georgia by republishing advertisements about enslaved people – for sale as individuals or in groups, wanted to purchase or for hire for short periods, runaways who liberated themselves, and those who were subsequently captured and confined in jails and workhouses – in daily digests on this site as well as in real time via the @SlaveAdverts250 Twitter feed, utilizing twenty-first-century media to stand in for the print media of the eighteenth century.

The project aims to provide modern audiences with a sense of just how often colonizers encountered these advertisements in their daily lives. Enslaved men, women, and children appeared in print somewhere in the colonies almost every single day. Those advertisements served as a constant backdrop for social, cultural, economic, and political life in colonial and revolutionary America. Colonizers who did not purport to own enslaved people were still confronted with slavery as well as invited to maintain the system by purchasing enslaved men, women, and children or assisting in the capture of so-called “runaways” who sought to free themselves from bondage. The frequency of these newspaper advertisements suggests just how embedded slavery was in colonial and revolutionary American culture in everyday interactions beyond the printed page.

These advertisements also testify to the experiences of enslaved men, women, and children, though readers must consider that those experiences have been remediated through descriptions offered by enslavers rather than enslaved people themselves. Often unnamed in the advertisements, enslaved men, women, and children were not invisible or unimportant in early America.

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

Maryland Gazette (October 14, 1773).

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Maryland Gazette (October 14, 1773).

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Supplement to Rivington’s New-York Gazetteer (October 14, 1773).

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Virginia Gazette [Purdie and Dixon] (October 14, 1773).

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Virginia Gazette [Purdie and Dixon] (October 14, 1773).

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Virginia Gazette [Purdie and Dixon] (October 14, 1773).

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Virginia Gazette [Purdie and Dixon] (October 14, 1773).

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Virginia Gazette [Purdie and Dixon] (October 14, 1773).

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Virginia Gazette [Purdie and Dixon] (October 14, 1773).

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Virginia Gazette [Purdie and Dixon] (October 14, 1773).

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Virginia Gazette [Purdie and Dixon] (October 14, 1773).

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Virginia Gazette [Purdie and Dixon] (October 14, 1773).

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Virginia Gazette [Purdie and Dixon] (October 14, 1773).

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Virginia Gazette [Purdie and Dixon] (October 14, 1773).

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Virginia Gazette [Purdie and Dixon] (October 14, 1773).

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Virginia Gazette [Purdie and Dixon] (October 14, 1773).

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Virginia Gazette [Purdie and Dixon] (October 14, 1773).

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Virginia Gazette [Purdie and Dixon] (October 14, 1773).

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Virginia Gazette [Rind] (October 14, 1773).

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Virginia Gazette [Rind] (October 14, 1773).

October 13

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

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

Pennsylvania Journal (October 13, 1773).

“He therefore flatters himself, that he, a young beginner, will receive suitable encouragement from the generous public.”

Benjamin January, a “BOOK-BINDER and STATIONER,” offered his services to residents of Philadelphia in an advertisement in the October 13, 1773, edition of the Pennsylvania Journal.  He declared that he had recently opened a shop “where he carries on the BOOK-BINDING BUSINESS … and where Merchants, Shop-keepers, and others, may be supplied with all sorts of account books, and and ruled to any pattern, at the lowest price.”  He also listed a variety of stationery and writing supplies available for sale.  Like many other advertisers, January emphasized customer service as an important part of his business.  He promised that “he shall make it his peculiar study to merit the approbation of all such, who please to employ him, so shall it be his constant endeavour to give, to the utmost of his power, entire satisfaction.”  In a final plea to prospective customers, the bookbinder and stationer emphasized that he was “a young beginner” who would benefit “suitable encouragement from the generous public.”  He suggested that consumers had a duty to reward him for his enterprising spirit.

Benjamin January, Trade Card (Philadelphia, ca. 1783-87).  Courtesy American Antiquarian Society.

That “young beginner” apparently convinced prospective customers to give him a chance, at least for a time.  In the 1780s, he remained in business and continued to advertise by distributing an engraved trade card that gave his location as “the sign of the Bible & Dove” with “in Front Street” written in a blank space.  The bookbinder and stationer could change locations, retain the sign associated with his shop, and update his trade card accordingly.  He first listed Front Street as his location in an advertisement for a lost pocketbook in the May 3, 1780, edition of the Pennsylvania Gazette, but did not make reference to “the sign of the Bible and Dove” until advertising in the June 5, 1783, edition of the Pennsylvania Packet.  Advertising did not guarantee success.  The December 3, 1787, edition of the Independent Gazetteer carried a bankruptcy notice “issued forth against Benjamin January, of the city of Philadelphia, Bookbinder and Stationer.”  Following that setback, January tried again, soliciting “a continuance of the favours of his former employers, and of all others who wish to encourage him” at his new location on Chestnut Street in an advertisement in the February 13, 1788, edition of the Independent Gazetteer.  He continued advertising in newspapers throughout the remainder of the 1780s and into the 1790s.

Whatever the difficulties that January encountered, he joined several merchants, shopkeepers, and artisans in marketing efforts that extended beyond newspaper notices, the most common form of advertising in eighteenth-century America.  His trade card resembled those that circulated in London and urban ports in the colonies.  An ornate border depicted books, ink wells, shakers, quills, and desk accessories.  A ribbon woven throughout the border listed other wares, including “INK POWDER,” “SLATES,” “WAFERS,” “PENCILS,” “WAX,” and “PAPER.”  In the text contained within the border, January advanced some of the same appeals he deployed when he introduced himself to readers of the Pennsylvania Journal and other newspapers published in Philadelphia.  He asserted “all Sorts of Account Books are Made & Ruled to any Pattern” and sold “all Sorts of stationary wares at the Lowest Rates.”  Such a fine trade card signaled initiative and industriousness, though January may not have received the return on this investment that he hoped.  Still, his trade card testifies to the rich visual landscape of advertising media that circulated in Philadelphia during the era of the American Revolution.

Slavery Advertisements Published October 13, 1773

Carl Robert Keyes Slavery Adverts 250 Project

The Slavery Adverts 250 Project chronicles the role of newspaper advertising in perpetuating slavery in the era of the American Revolution. The project seeks to reveal the ubiquity of slavery in eighteenth-century life from New England to Georgia by republishing advertisements about enslaved people – for sale as individuals or in groups, wanted to purchase or for hire for short periods, runaways who liberated themselves, and those who were subsequently captured and confined in jails and workhouses – in daily digests on this site as well as in real time via the @SlaveAdverts250 Twitter feed, utilizing twenty-first-century media to stand in for the print media of the eighteenth century.

The project aims to provide modern audiences with a sense of just how often colonizers encountered these advertisements in their daily lives. Enslaved men, women, and children appeared in print somewhere in the colonies almost every single day. Those advertisements served as a constant backdrop for social, cultural, economic, and political life in colonial and revolutionary America. Colonizers who did not purport to own enslaved people were still confronted with slavery as well as invited to maintain the system by purchasing enslaved men, women, and children or assisting in the capture of so-called “runaways” who sought to free themselves from bondage. The frequency of these newspaper advertisements suggests just how embedded slavery was in colonial and revolutionary American culture in everyday interactions beyond the printed page.

These advertisements also testify to the experiences of enslaved men, women, and children, though readers must consider that those experiences have been remediated through descriptions offered by enslavers rather than enslaved people themselves. Often unnamed in the advertisements, enslaved men, women, and children were not invisible or unimportant in early America.

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

Pennsylvania Gazette (October 13, 1773).

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Pennsylvania Gazette (October 13, 1773).

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Pennsylvania Gazette (October 13, 1773).

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Pennsylvania Gazette (October 13, 1773).

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Pennsylvania Gazette (October 13, 1773).

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Pennsylvania Journal (October 13, 1773).

October 12

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , ,

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

South Carolina Gazette and Country Journal (October 12, 1773).

“A great variety of articles in the highest taste.”

In his efforts to sell his merchandise to prospective customers in Charleston and nearby town in the fall of 1773, James McCall emphasized the array of choices available at his shop.  Like many other purveyors of consumer goods, he listed many of his wares in a newspaper advertisement.  His merchandise included everything from “superfine bright scarlet broad-cloth” and “rich black Genoa velvet” to “elegant china” and “neat portmantua and other trunks” to “handsome tall candlesticks” and chamber and street lamps.”  He stocked “Morocco slippers” in a range of colors, including “red, blue, green, and yellow.”  Similarly, customers could choose “mens velvet caps, with and without tassels,” to suit their tastes.

McCall introduced consumers to his catalog of goods by describing his inventory as a “very large ASSORTMENT” and explaining that he included only certain items in his advertisement.  The list commenced with “AMONG OTHER ARTICLES” and concluded with a promise of “a great variety of articles in the highest taste.”  The word “variety” also appeared elsewhere in the advertisement, “a variety of pewter, copper, tin, and iron ware” and “writing, printing, and [a] variety of paper,” to encourage prospective customers to imagine the items on his shelves and visit his shop to see for themselves.  In addition, “&c.” (an abbreviation for et cetera), deployed more than once in the advertisement, suggested even more choices.  In case that did not lure readers, the shopkeeper expected “Further supplies in the next vessels” to arrive in port.

The competition for customers sometimes manifested itself in competitions for placing the longest newspaper advertisements.  Listing dozens of items and occupying approximately one-third of a column, McCall’s advertisement matched others that ran in the October 11 edition of the South-Carolina Gazette and the October 12 edition of the South-Carolina Gazette and Country Journal.  On other occasions, however, that advertisement would have seemed brief in comparison to those placed by other merchants and shopkeepers.  In listing so many choices, McCall and others may not have merely attempted to meet consumer demand.  Instead, they may have intended for their catalogs of goods to incite greater demand by demonstrating many of the available choices and prompting prospective customers to envision selecting among them.

Slavery Advertisements Published October 12, 1773

Carl Robert Keyes Slavery Adverts 250 Project

The Slavery Adverts 250 Project chronicles the role of newspaper advertising in perpetuating slavery in the era of the American Revolution. The project seeks to reveal the ubiquity of slavery in eighteenth-century life from New England to Georgia by republishing advertisements about enslaved people – for sale as individuals or in groups, wanted to purchase or for hire for short periods, runaways who liberated themselves, and those who were subsequently captured and confined in jails and workhouses – in daily digests on this site as well as in real time via the @SlaveAdverts250 Twitter feed, utilizing twenty-first-century media to stand in for the print media of the eighteenth century.

The project aims to provide modern audiences with a sense of just how often colonizers encountered these advertisements in their daily lives. Enslaved men, women, and children appeared in print somewhere in the colonies almost every single day. Those advertisements served as a constant backdrop for social, cultural, economic, and political life in colonial and revolutionary America. Colonizers who did not purport to own enslaved people were still confronted with slavery as well as invited to maintain the system by purchasing enslaved men, women, and children or assisting in the capture of so-called “runaways” who sought to free themselves from bondage. The frequency of these newspaper advertisements suggests just how embedded slavery was in colonial and revolutionary American culture in everyday interactions beyond the printed page.

These advertisements also testify to the experiences of enslaved men, women, and children, though readers must consider that those experiences have been remediated through descriptions offered by enslavers rather than enslaved people themselves. Often unnamed in the advertisements, enslaved men, women, and children were not invisible or unimportant in early America.

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

Connecticut Courant (October 12, 1773).

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South-Carolina Gazette and Country Journal (October 12, 1773).

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South-Carolina Gazette and Country Journal (October 12, 1773).

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South-Carolina Gazette and Country Journal (October 12, 1773).

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South-Carolina Gazette and Country Journal (October 12, 1773).

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South-Carolina Gazette and Country Journal (October 12, 1773).

October 11

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

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

Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Post-Boy (October 11, 1773).

“Positively the last Time here. MR. BATES Will perform To-Morrow.”

On the eve of his final performance in Boston, Mr. Bates once again published newspaper advertisements in hopes of drawing crowds for his feats of horsemanship.  His performances spanned about five weeks in September and October, only a limited time for audiences to witness his exhibitions of what he described as a “MANLY ART” in newspaper notices and as “Manly Exercises never seen here” on a handbill.  The performance on October 12 would be their last chance to see the spectacle or see it again, “Positively the last Time here.”  Like other itinerant performers, Bates attempted to harness the power of the press for his advantage, advertising widely in several newspapers during his time in Boston.  Both the Boston-Gazette and the Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Post-Boy carried his notice on the day before his last performance.

Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Post-Boy (October 11, 1773).

Perhaps to Bates’s chagrin … or perhaps to his delight, if he considered any sort of publicity good publicity likely to turn out the curious … the Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Post-Boy also featured an advertisement for a pamphlet, “Mr. Bates and his Horses, WEIGHED IN THE BALANCE.”  The notice promised that the pamphlet would demonstrate “that his Exhibitions in Boston, are impoverishing, disgraceful to human Nature, and downright Breaches of the Sixth Commandment.”  Unlike an earlier advertisement that stated that the pamphlet would be printed “In a few Days,” this one declared that it was “THIS DAY PUBLISHED, And to be SOLD at the New Printing-Office” on Hanover Street.  Whatever the sales and circulation of the pamphlet may have been in October 1773, it proved more ephemeral than the handbill that the daredevil distributed to promote his show.  No known copy survives in a research library, historical society, or private collection.

The performer did not acknowledge any sort of controversy in his advertisements.  Instead, he offered his appreciation to his audiences, proclaiming that he “is extremely obliged to the Gentlemen of Boston, who have countenanced him in his Performances.”  He had gained enough celebrity (or perhaps notoriety) that he merely advised “TICKETS to be had at the usual Places,” without listing his local agents for readers.  Short of the authorities shutting down his show, Bates may have welcomed any sort of attention that raised the visibility of his show among prospective audiences.

Slavery Advertisements Published October 11, 1773

Carl Robert Keyes Slavery Adverts 250 Project

The Slavery Adverts 250 Project chronicles the role of newspaper advertising in perpetuating slavery in the era of the American Revolution. The project seeks to reveal the ubiquity of slavery in eighteenth-century life from New England to Georgia by republishing advertisements about enslaved people – for sale as individuals or in groups, wanted to purchase or for hire for short periods, runaways who liberated themselves, and those who were subsequently captured and confined in jails and workhouses – in daily digests on this site as well as in real time via the @SlaveAdverts250 Twitter feed, utilizing twenty-first-century media to stand in for the print media of the eighteenth century.

The project aims to provide modern audiences with a sense of just how often colonizers encountered these advertisements in their daily lives. Enslaved men, women, and children appeared in print somewhere in the colonies almost every single day. Those advertisements served as a constant backdrop for social, cultural, economic, and political life in colonial and revolutionary America. Colonizers who did not purport to own enslaved people were still confronted with slavery as well as invited to maintain the system by purchasing enslaved men, women, and children or assisting in the capture of so-called “runaways” who sought to free themselves from bondage. The frequency of these newspaper advertisements suggests just how embedded slavery was in colonial and revolutionary American culture in everyday interactions beyond the printed page.

These advertisements also testify to the experiences of enslaved men, women, and children, though readers must consider that those experiences have been remediated through descriptions offered by enslavers rather than enslaved people themselves. Often unnamed in the advertisements, enslaved men, women, and children were not invisible or unimportant in early America.

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

Boston Evening-Post (October 11, 1773).

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Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Post-Boy (October 11, 1773).

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Newport Mercury (October 11, 1773).

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New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury (October 11, 1773).

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New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury (October 11, 1773).

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New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury (October 11, 1773).

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New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury (October 11, 1773).

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Supplement to the New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury (October 11, 1773).

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Supplement to the New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury (October 11, 1773).

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Supplement to the Pennsylvania Packet (October 11, 1773).

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South-Carolina Gazette (October 11, 1773).

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South-Carolina Gazette (October 11, 1773).

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South-Carolina Gazette (October 11, 1773).

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South-Carolina Gazette (October 11, 1773).

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South-Carolina Gazette (October 11, 1773).

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South-Carolina Gazette (October 11, 1773).

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South-Carolina Gazette (October 11, 1773).

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South-Carolina Gazette (October 11, 1773).

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South-Carolina Gazette (October 11, 1773).

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South-Carolina Gazette (October 11, 1773).

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South-Carolina Gazette (October 11, 1773).

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South-Carolina Gazette (October 11, 1773).

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South-Carolina Gazette (October 11, 1773).

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South-Carolina Gazette (October 11, 1773).

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South-Carolina Gazette (October 11, 1773).

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South-Carolina Gazette (October 11, 1773).

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Supplement to the South-Carolina Gazette (October 11, 1773).

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Supplement to the South-Carolina Gazette (October 11, 1773).

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Supplement to the South-Carolina Gazette (October 11, 1773).

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Supplement to the South-Carolina Gazette (October 11, 1773).

October 10

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

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

Rivington’ New-York Gazetteer (October 7, 1773).

“The usual genteel accommodation for set CLUBS, and other private companies large or small.”

Samuel Fraunces (or Samuel Francis) was one of the most prominent American tavernkeepers and restaurateurs in the late eighteenth century.  He remains famous today, in part because Fraunces Tavern at 54 Pearl Street in New York City continues to welcome visitors in a building listed on the National Register of Historic Places.  A tavern and restaurant occupy the first floor and the Sons of the Revolution in the State of New York operate a museum on the second and third floors.

Fraunces frequently advertised during the era of the American Revolution.  In the fall of 1773, for instance, he inserted a notice in Rivington’s New-York Gazetteer to promote the “QUEEN’s HEAD TAVERN, Near the Exchange in Broad-street.”  The industrious entrepreneur presented a visit to the tavern as an experience that incorporated food, drink, entertainment, service, and atmosphere.  He invited “the respectable inhabitants of this city” to dine and socialize in the “large commodious room” that he outfitted for “the reception and entertainment” of his guests.  He encouraged them “to regale themselves with fine ALE of this country produce, equal to any imported,” though he also had on hand “draft, or bottled porter from London, of the first quality” as well as an assortment of wines, punch, and spirits.  Fraunces wanted his patrons to eat as well as drink, serving “beef stakes, mutton or pork chops, veal stakes or cutlets, fry’d oysters,” and other fare throughout the day and evening.

New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury (June 13, 1772).

The tavernkeeper placed a premium on service.  In addition to his staff preparing and serving the food “in the neatest manner,” Fraunces undertook “every other necessary requisite to give general satisfaction” to his customers, “particularly, the best attendance, the most respectful behaviour, and a hearty acknowledgment of those favours” from his patrons.  Fraunces depicted the Queen’s Head Tavern as an exceptional venue, not only for “one or more persons” who wished to drink and dine together but also for “CLUBS, and other private companies large or small” who wished to hold their gatherings within the “genteel accommodation” he worked so hard to cultivate.  As an additional inducement to visit the tavern, Fraunces moved the “elegant WAX-FIGURES” (that he described in newspaper advertisements than ran a year earlier) from Vaux-Hall Garden to the tavern.  His staff included “proper attendants to shew” the wax figures at “any hour of the day or evening.”  The Queen’s Head Tavern was not just any watering hole.  Fraunces exerted great effort in marketing it as a destination.

New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury (August 17, 1772).