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

“ADVERTISEMENTS, of a moderate Length, are inserted for THREE SHILLINGS the first Week, and TWO SHILLINGS for every Week after.”

Today, the North-Carolina Gazette makes its first appearance in the Adverts 250 Project and the Slavery Adverts 250 Project.  Few copies of this colonial newspaper from New Bern survive.  Clarence Brigham provides an overview of the publication history of the North-Carolina Gazette, noting that James Davis likely founded it on May 27, 1768, “judging from the date of the earliest issue located, that of June 24, 1768, no. 5.”  The volume numbering also suggests that “publication was suspended for several months between 1769 and 1773 and again in 1776.”[1]  The last known issue appeared on November 30, 1778.  Edward Connery Lathem reports “no copies extant” for 1770, 1771, 1772, 1773, and 1776 “few numbers known (usually less than 25% of those issued)” for 1768, 1769, 1774, and “complete or extensive coverage exists” for 1775, 1777, and 1778.[2]  America’s Historical Newspapers includes only seven issues that have been digitized for greater accessibility, all of them published in 1774.

The March 24, 1774, edition is the first of those issues.  In addition to news, letters, and the “POETS CORNER,” that issue carried nine advertisements, including two concerning enslaved people, that accounted for a quarter of the content.  The colophon at the bottom of the fourth and final page provided information about both subscription costs and advertising fees: “All Persons may be supplied with this PAPER at SIXTEEN SHILLINGS per Annum.  ADVERTISEMENTS, of a moderate Length, are inserted for THREE SHILLINGS the first Week, and TWO SHILLINGS for every Week after.”  Throughout the colonies, printers took a variety of approaches when it came to regularly publishing such information in their mastheads or colophons.  Some did not do so at all, some included only annual subscription costs, some listed only advertising fees, and some, like Davis, provided both.  He happened to charge the same price for advertisements as William Dixon and John Hunter’s Virginia Gazette and John Pinkney’s Virginia Gazette, both published in Williamsburg, suggesting that was the going rate in the region.  For some colonial newspapers it remains difficult or impossible to determine what printers charged for advertising.  Davis, on the other hand, incorporated that information for the North-Carolina Gazette into the colophon, making readily apparent the advertising fees and how much they cost relative to subscriptions.

**********

[1] Clarence S. Brigham, History and Bibliography of American Newspapers, 1690-1820 (Worcester, MA: American Antiquarian Society, 1947), 770.

[2] Edward Connery Lathem, Chronological Tables of American Newspapers, 1690-1820 (Barre, MA: American Antiquarian Society and Barre Publishers, 1972), 8, 12.