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

“WANTED to purchase, Five Thousand Weight of Hog’s Bristles, long and good.”

Cornelius Cooper, a “Brush Maker, from Philadelphia,” experimented with various marketing strategies when he relocated to Providence and placed advertisements in the Providence Gazette in the fall of 1775.  In an advertisement that ran for several weeks, he announced that the “makes and sells, Wholesale and Retail, Sweeping, Hearth, Cloaths, Shoe and Buckle-Brushes, and every other Article in the Brush Way.”  In other words, he produced every sort of brush for any sort of purpose that his customers needed.  He also made a pitch for local consumers to “Buy American,” asking that “every Friend to America, both in Town and Country, will encourage him occasionally” by making a purchase from his shop.  Only in the nota bene that concluded his advertisement did Cooper issue a call that “People will be careful to save their Hogs Bristles,” an essential material for making brushes, “for which he will give a good Price in Cash.”

In a subsequent advertisement, Cooper put his request for hog bristles front and center.  A headline in capital letters proclaimed, “READY CASH.”  The brushmaker explained that he sought to purchase “Five Thousand Weight of Hog’s Bristles, long and good,” and would pay six pence per pound.  Only after he caught readers’ attention with that offer did he list the inventory available at his shop in Providence.  Rather than name general categories of brushes, he made a display of the many kinds of brushes that he made and sold, including “Tanner’s and Currier’s Scouring and Blacking Brushes, Hatter’s Stopping and Planking Brushes, [and] best Weaver’s Sizing or Look Brushes.”  In addition to supplying consumers with brushes to use in their homes, Cooper aimed to supply artisans with brushes specific to their trades.  He also renewed his appeal for “a Lad about 14 Years of Age” to serve as an apprentice, but added that he “wanted, a smart active Negro Boy, about 14 Years of Age.”  Whether the enslaved youth would also learn how to make brushes or instead do other tasks in the workshop, Cooper did not specify.  He dropped the appeal to “every Friend in America,” though likely not because he noticed any discrepancy in advocating for the liberties of white colonizers and seeking to purchase an enslaved youth.  After all, acquiring bristles so he could stay in business seemed to be Cooper’s primary focus in his new advertisement.