What was advertised in a revolutionary American newspaper 250 years ago this week?
“EXTRACTS from the Proceedings of the AMERICAN CONTINENTAL Congress.”
In the first advertisement that readers encountered in the August 12, 1775, edition of the Providence Gazette, John Carter announced “On Tuesday next will be Published, and Sold by the Printer hereof, EXTRACTS from the Proceedings of the AMERICAN CONTINENTAL Congress, held at Philadelphia on the Tenth Day of May, 1775.” In the next issue, he inserted an updated advertisement confirming that he had indeed published the work and had copies available for sale. Carter also listed some of the contents to entice prospective customers: “An Address to the People of Ireland, an Address to the Assembly of Jamaica, a Letter to the Lord Mayor of London, and the Opinion of Congress on the boasted conciliatory Plan offered by Administration in Parliament, February 20, 1775.” Once again, the printer placed his notice first among the advertisements. That was not merely an attempt to increase sales by drawing more attention to it. In both instances, Carter treated his advertisement for Extracts from the Proceedings of the American Continental Congress as a bridge between news and advertising. The book he hawked provided more extensive coverage of the news that he published in his weekly newspaper.
Carter was the first printer to advertise extracts from the meeting of the Second Continental Congress. In the fall of 1774, printers throughout the colonies advertised local editions of a similar volume that documented the First Continental Congress’s meetings in September and October. William Bradford and Thomas Bradford, the printers of the Pennsylvania Journal, ran an advertisement almost as soon as the meetings adjourned. Newspaper notices radiated out from Philadelphia as printers in other towns acquired copies and produced local editions for their own customers. The Bradfords eventually published a Journal of the Proceedings of the Congress. Only one other printer, Hugh Gaine in New York, produced and advertised a local edition.
In this case, Carter was the first printer to publish and advertise extracts from the Second Continental Congress, doing so in faraway Providence rather than in Philadelphia where the delegates met. He did so during the brief adjournment that lasted from August 2 through September 13, 1775. His Extracts, a pamphlet of twenty-two pages, included only the items listed in his second advertisement. The Bradfords did publish a complete Journal of the Proceedings of the Congress that covered May 10 through August 1, but advertisements for that 239-page volume began appearing in December. The scope of the project meant that it took the Bradfords some time to accomplish it. The timing of the advertisements demonstrates that Carter did not merely reprint a set of extracts selected by printers in Philadelphia and then reproduced from town to town as local printing offices received copies. Instead, he acquired the contents of his Extracts through other means, chose which items to include, and marketed the pamphlet to readers in Rhode Island.