What was advertised in a colonial American newspaper 250 years ago today?
“ANNIVERSARY of the REPEAL of the STAMP-ACT … will be celebrated.”
Many colonizers commemorated events associated with the American Revolution even before the Revolutionary War. During the years of the imperial crisis, residents of Boston staged annual commemorations honoring those killed in the Boston Massacre and residents of New York held annual dinners to mark the anniversary of the repeal of the Stamp Act. To mark the eighth anniversary of the latter, colonizers in New York had choices about which celebration to attend in 1774. Advertisements for two of those events appeared in the March 14 edition of the New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury.
For one, “18th of MARCH” served as the headline. Many readers certainly recognized that date without having to peruse the rest of the advertisement. For those who did not, the notice provided a reminder of its significance: “ON Friday next … at the house of Mr. DE LA MONTAGNIE, will be celebrated the ANNIVERSARY OF THE REPEAL OF THE STAMP-ACT, by those gentlemen, and their friends, who associated there last year.” De la Montagnie hosted a celebration each year, promoting it in the public prints. In 1774, he served dinner three hours earlier than the previous year. Given recent developments, including the destruction of tea in Boston, perhaps he determined that his guests needed more time to commemorate the repeal of the Stamp Act and air their grievances about new abuses perpetrated by Parliament.
The other advertisement also deployed the date as the headline: “FRIDAY next, The 18th of MARCH.” It also clarified that was “the ANNIVERSARY of the REPEAL of the STAMP-ACT.” In this instance, the event “will be celebrated at PROTESTANT-HALL” and “all the SONS of LIBERTY are heartily invited.” While the two celebrations competed for guests, they worked in concert in cultivating a culture of commemoration among colonizers in New York. Many years after those events, John Adams famously asked in a letter to Thomas Jefferson, “What do WE mean by the Revolution?” Answering his own question, Adams asserted, “The Revolution was in the Minds of the People, and this was effected, from 1760 to 1775.” That occurred, in part, through the annual commemorations of significant events and promoting them in the public prints.