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

“Tea, Snuff, and sundry Sorts of Dry GOODS.”

As the summer of 1776 came to a close, Asa Spalding of Stonington took to the pages of the Connecticut Gazette to advertise that he sold “Tea, Snuff, and sundry Sorts of Dry GOODS.”  It was a rare advertisement for tea, even though the prohibition on selling and consuming tea had been relaxed several months earlier.  In a resolution enacted on April 13, 1776, the Second Continental Congress stated that “it was originally the design of Congress, that all India Tea, which had been imported agreeable to the [Continental] Association, might be sold and consumed.”

The time allowed for doing so had been too short, so the Second Continental Congress allowed that “all India Tea, imported as aforesaid [under the provisions of the Continental Association], expressly excepting all Teas imported by, or on account of the East India Company, now remaining on hand in these colonies, be sold and used.”  In addition, the resolution set prices to prevent sellers from gouging their customers since tea had become scarce.  Even though they allowed for selling and consuming tea already on hand, the Second Continental Congress continued to prohibit “the importation of India Tea from any part of the world; … except such as may make part of the cargoes of prizes taken by the ships of war or privateers belonging to these Colonies.”

The new rules for selling and drinking tea did not yield much advertising for tea.  The commodity did not often appear in newspaper advertisements.  Spaulding did elaborate on the origins of the tea (or the snuff and dry goods) that he sold, perhaps believing that prospective customers did not wish to probe too deeply.  After all, a resolution allowed for selling and consuming tea that met certain conditions.  It may have been most convenient for all parties to assume that the tea that Spaulding advertised had been imported under the conditions of the Continental Association or captured by an American vessel during the war.