What was advertised in a revolutionary American newspaper 250 years ago this week?
Freeman’s Journal (July 27, 1776).
“All persons coming from places infected with the Small Pox will stop to be properly smoaked.”
It was important news, but it appeared among the advertisements in the July 27, 1776, edition of the Freeman’s Journal, or New Hampshire Gazette. The selectmen for the town of Portsmouth placed the advertisement to “notify the public that a Smoak-house is erected at the Great Swamp, where it is expected all persons coming from places infected with the Small Pox,” such as Boston, “will stop to be properly smoaked and cleaned from infection.” In addition, the selectmen demanded “that no traveller coming from any infected place will presume to enter this town by any other way.”
The notice could have appeared with the local news from Portsmouth that Benjamin Dearborn, the printer of the Freeman’s Journal, selected for that issue. Instead, it ran as an advertisement in another column, to the right of the header for news from “PORTSMOUTH,” below an advertisement that offered a “LARGE commodious BRICK HOUSE in York” for rent, and above an advertisement about a horse left at the Globe Tavern. The notation at the end of the notice, “10—12,” indicated that it was indeed an advertisement. It first appeared in issue “No. 10” on July 27 and would run in each issue through “No. 12” on August 10 before being discontinued. The notation was meant for the compositor who set the type rather than for readers. Dearborn presumably generated revenue from the advertisement. Treating it as an advertisement had the benefit of disseminating such an important announcement multiple times and increasing the chances that travelers learned about the policy for entering Portsmouth before approaching the town. Still, Dearborn could have chosen to insert the notice among the news in several consecutive issues of the Freeman’s Journal rather than consigning it to the space reserved for advertisements. Instead, he followed the same practice as other early American printers who published newspapers. Within the past week, a notice concerning voting for delegates to attend a convention “for the express purpose of forming a New Government” in Maryland appeared as an advertisement in Dunlap’s Maryland Gazette and a notice instructing Committees of Safety in Worcester County to “transmit … the Names of such Persons … who are deemed to be notoriously inimical to the rights of America” ran as an advertisement in the Massachusetts Spy. Subscribers and other readers knew that important news updates sometimes took the form of advertisements. They perused notices placed for all sorts of purposes to keep informed about local news.
What was advertised in a revolutionary American newspaper 250 years ago today?
Providence Gazette (July 27, 1776).
“Certificates signed by the Gentlemen of the Faculty, whose Veracity will not be questioned, she can make appear.”
Mary Bass, a midwife, provided important services to the women of Providence and their families during the era of the American Revolution. She took to the pages of the July 27, 1776, edition of the Providence Gazette to announce that she “now resides at Dr. Thomas Truman’s, in Broadstreet, where any Person requiring her Assistance may apply.” She likely hoped that an affiliation with Truman, who had been practicing medicine in Providence for several years, would double as an endorsement or a recommendation.
She did not, however, rely on Truman’s reputation alone in her efforts to convince prospective patients that she provided competent medical care. Bass asserted that she “has studied under the Direction of some of the most eminent Professors in New England.” In addition to that training, she “since practised with Success” on her own, yet neither prospective patients nor the public had to rely solely on her word about her experience as a midwife. Instead, she possessed “Certificates signed by Gentlemen of the Faculty, whose Veracity will not be question,” that she could “make appear” on request. The combination of training and experience prepared her to provide medical care to pregnant women and their infants. Bass confidently stated that she “doubts not of giving Satisfaction to those who may employ her.”
Bass was not the only woman her made note of certificates that affirmed her skill, training, and experience when advertising her services as a midwife. When Mrs. Grant arrived in Charleston in 1768, she declared that she “studied that Art regularly, and practised it afterwards with success in EDINBURGH.” To that end, she “can produce” certificates “from the Gentlemen whose Lectures she attended, and likewise from the Professors of Anatomy and Practice of Physic in that City.” Whether or not anyone ever asked to see these certificates, both Bass and Grant made clear that they could present their credentials to prospective patients who wanted to confirm their qualifications as midwives.
Who was the subject of an advertisement in a revolutionary American newspaper 250 years ago today?
Virginia Gazette [Purdie] (July 26, 1776).“I HAVE in possession two negroes, NED, and JACOB.”
On July 26, 1776, Alexander Purdie’s Virginia Gazette became one of the last American newspapers to print the Declaration of Independence in its entirety. That issue and the supplement that accompanied it also carried several advertisements about enslaved people, yet it was not the only American newspaper that simultaneously disseminated the Declaration of Independence and published advertisements that contributed to the perpetuation of slavery in the new nation. Advertisements presenting enslaved people for sale, seeking to purchase enslaved people, offering rewards for the capture and return of enslaved people who liberated themselves by running away, and describing Black people imprisoned as suspected fugitives seeking freedom ran alongside the Declaration of Independence in newspapers from New Hampshire to Virginia. (All the newspapers in Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina had been suspended or ceased publication by July 1776. The South-Carolina and American General Gazette printed the Declaration of Independence when it resumed publication on August 2, 1776, but no copies of that exceptionally rare issue have been digitized for greater access. Given the content that usually appeared in that newspapers and others printed in Charleston, the August 2 edition almost certainly included advertisements about enslaved people.)
This timeline provides a census of advertisements about enslaved people that appeared in the same issues of American newspapers that printed the Declaration of Independence.
Dunlap’s Maryland Gazette; Or, the Baltimore General Advertiser printed the Declaration of Independence on the second page. On the first page, Thomas Nicholls described “Dickison, otherwise Joe,” an enslaved man “frequently used to both names” who liberated himself by running away. Nicholls offered “TWENTY DOLLARS REWARD” for the capture and return of Dickison.
The Constitutional Gazette, published in New York, printed the Declaration of Independence on the first and second pages. A reader wrote, “A Good thing” in the margin above the masthead on the first page of the copy digitized for America’s Historical Newspapers. On the fourth page, Goodheart Siegler advertised “a negro boy named PRINCE” who may have “entered into the Continental Army.” Siegler offered “FORTY SHILLING REWARD” to whoever “will bring [Prince] to his master.”
The Maryland Journal and the Baltimore Advertiser printed the Declaration of Independence on the first and second pages. It was one of the few newspapers to devise a separate headline: “THE THIRTEEN United STATES OF AMERICA, Have declared INDEPENDENCY.” Clement Brooke advertised “a negro man named GEORGE” on the fourth page. Brooke suspected that George might be “harboured by some person in the neighbourhood.”
The Pennsylvania Gazette, published in Philadelphia, printed the Declaration of Independence in the first two columns on the first page. Alexander McCallum’s advertisement describing “a dark Mulattoe Slave, named HARRY” and offering “TEN DOLLARS Reward” appeared in the third column on the same page as the Declaration of Independence. Another advertisement about an enslaved man who liberated himself by running away ran on the fourth page. In it, Charles Heath described Ben and offered “EIGHT DOLLARS Reward.” The advertisement immediately above it offered a “strong healthy NEGROE Man” for sale with instructions to “Enquire of the PRINTERS” for more information.
The Pennsylvania Journal, published in Philadelphia, printed the Declaration of Independence on the first and second pages. On the third page, Thomas Wild, the jailer in Dover, Delaware, described a Black man “who calls himself SAMBO” who had been captured and imprisoned as a suspected fugitive seeking freedom. Wild called on Sambo’s enslaver to claim him immediately “or else he will be sold out for his prison charges.” On the fourth page, George Slacom, Sr., advertised “THREE country born NEGRO MEN, all brothers,” who liberated themselves. He offered rewards for Tom, Jim, and Phill.
The Maryland Gazette, published in Baltimore, printed the Declaration of Independence on the third page. Three advertisements about enslaved men appeared on the fourth page. James Smith described “a negro man called PHIL” and offered a reward for his capture and return. Similarly, Alexander Ogg sought to enslave a “negro fellow named WILL” who had liberated himself by running away. Hugh Hopewell, the sheriff of St. Mary’s County, advertised that he held “Negro Adam,” who says he belongs to Levin Woolford,” in his custody.
John Holt printed the Declaration of Independence as a broadside within his newspaper, the New-York Journal, devoting the entire third page to it. Three advertisements offering rewards for enslaved men who liberated themselves by running away from their enslavers appeared on the fourth page. Those advertisements appeared on the same sheet of page, but on opposite sides. Jacob Wilkins described “a negro man named JACK,” William Conary, Jr., described “a negro man, named PRINCE,” and Benjamin Pitney described “a negro man named SAMSON.” They offered rewards varying from one dollar to ten dollars.
The New York Packet printed the Declaration of Independence on the second page. John Taylor described “a Negro Man, named BEN,” who liberated himself from his enslaver in New Germantown, New Jersey, in an advertisement on the fourth page. Taylor described the clothes Ben wore when he made his escape and the clothes that he took with him to aid readers in recognizing the fugitive for freedom if he changed his apparel or attempted to sell any of the items.
The Connecticut Gazette, published in New London, printed the Declaration of Independence in the second and third columns on the second page. The third column concluded with an advertisement in which Joseph Farnham, Jr., described “a negro man servant named JACK” who liberated himself by running away. Farnham warned that “all masters of vessels and others are hereby cautioned not to carry off nor conceal said negro.” That issue consisted of two pages rather than the usual four pages. The printer found room for both the Declaration of Independence and an advertisement placed for the purpose of re-enslaving Jack.
The New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury printed the Declaration of Independence on the first page. Three advertisements about enslaved people ran on the second page. Henry Wyckhoff described “two Negro Men.” Nathaniel and Jacob were brothers who worked together to liberate themselves from Wyckhoff, Nathaniel’s enslaver, and Jeromus Remsen, Jacob’s enslaver. Goodheart Siegler placed the same advertisement offering a reward for the capture and return of Prince that previously appeared in the Constitutional Gazette. An anonymous advertiser “WANTED, AN handsome well made Mulatto Waiting-Man, who can be recommended for his Honesty and Sobriety.” Anyone willing to sell such a slave was instructed to “Enquire of the Printer.”
Solomon Southwick, the printer of the Newport Mercury, announced the sale of a broadside edition of the Declaration of Independence in an advertisement near the bottom of the second column on the third page. He also noted that he would print the founding document in the newspaper within a week. The anonymous advertiser who placed the notice that started the next column sought to purchase an enslaved boy: “WANTED a likely, sprightly NEGRO BOY, about ten or twelve years old: – Inquire of the printer.”
The Norwich Packet; and the Connecticut, Massachusetts, New-Hampshire and Rhode Island Weekly Advertiser printed the Declaration of Independence on the second page. On the third page, facing the Declaration of Independence, Joshua Chappell offered a reward for the capture and return of “a Negro MAN Servant, named FORTEN.” He cautioned that “All Persons are forbid harbouring said Negro.”
The American Gazette, published in Salem, Massachusetts, printed the Declaration of Independence on the first and fourth pages. A woodcut depicting an enslaved person on the run adorned Benjamin Raymond’s advertisement about “a Negro Man named CAESAR” on the third page. Raymond offered “TWO DOLLARS Reward” for the capture and return of Caesar. In another advertisement on the third page, John White, Jr., announced that he “HAS a Negro Woman to part with” and instructed that “Any Person inclining to have her, may treat with him at his House in Salem.”
The Continental Journal, published in Boston, printed the Declaration of Independence on the first page. Three advertisements about enslaved people appeared on the fourth page. One offered “A Negro Woman” for sale, using the printer as an intermediary and broker in the transaction. The enslaved woman “understands Housework, common Cooking,” and other domestic tasks. Andrew Mitchel offered “EIGHT DOLLARS REWARD” for the capture and return of “a Negro Man named CATO.” He even designated local agents in Albany, Boston, and Pittsfield who would confine Cato if delivered to any of them. Another advertisement concerned plans to sell a brigantine “retaken” from the British and now at Portsmouth, New Hampshire. “There were four Negroes taken with said Brigantine,” a nota benebegan. It then listed two men, Adam and Scip, and two women, Bilinder and Brada, and identified the enslavers who could claim them.
In an extraordinary issue of the Newport Mercury, Solomon Southwick printed the Declaration of Independence on the second and third pages. He was the only printer to deviate from the usual publication schedule by issuing a supplement or extraordinary to disseminate the founding document to readers. The advertisement seeking “a likely, sprightly NEGRO BOY, about ten or twelve years old,” ran once again, this time immediately above the colophon on the fourth page.
Alexander Purdie’s Virginia Gazette, published in Williamsburg, printed the last three paragraphs of the Declaration of Independence as an “Abstract from the minutes of the General Congress” on the second page. Purdie promised that the entire document “will be published at full length in next week’s Gazette.” William Browne’s advertisement describing “a mulatto servant man, named John Newton,” and offering “TEN DOLLARS REWARD” appeared on the fourth page. Among Newton’s skills, he “shaves and dresses well.” The two-page supplement that accompanied that issue featured five more advertisements about enslaved people. One offered “about forty NEGROES” for sale at the same time as a “VALUABLE tract of land” and the livestock and equipment on that plantation. Two concerned enslaved men who liberated themselves by running away. John Nicholas advertised three “Virginia born NEGRO men slaves,” named Harry, York, and Adam, while Mungo Harvey offered a reward for the capture and return of “two men slaves, both Virginia born,” named Billy and Kitt. The other two advertisements concerned Black men who had been captured and committed to jail as suspected runaways. According to James Bowdrie, Abraham was “TAKEN up at Layton’s warehouse, in Essex county.” Abraham may have been “sent here in a ship with many others from Barbados … to fight for lord Dunmore,” the last royal governor of Virginia. John Harwood, the jailer “of Charles City county,” advertised that he held Hampton and Robert. He asked their enslavers “to fetch them away, and pay charges” for the expense of confining them.
The Declaration of Independence appeared as a broadside within a newspaper on the fourth page of the Freeman’s Journal, published in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. The notice concerning the captured brigantine and the four enslaved people aboard the vessel that previously appeared in the Continental Journal ran on the third page, the reverse side of the page devoted to the Declaration of Independence.
John Dixon and William Hunter printed the Declaration of Independence on the second page of their Virginia Gazette, published in Williamsburg. Printed on a smaller sheet than most other American newspapers, that issue consisted of six pages rather than the usual four. On the fourth page, Nicholas Scouvemont inserted and advertisement that described Bagley, “a Negro man” who “has several Relations in Gloucester County, and … may have gone that way.” Scouvemont offered “TEN SHILLINGS Reward” for the capture and return of Bagley. Two more advertisements about enslaved people appeared on the sixth page. William Brown described John Newton, “an Asiatic Indian by Birth” who had been “about twelve Months in Virginia.” Brown reported that Newton was “a good Barber and Hairdresser,” so “it is probable he many endeavour to follow those Occupations as a free Man.” John Nicholas published the advertisement about Harry, York, and Adam that previously appeared in Purdie’s Virginia Gazette, making a significant investment in recovering the Black men who had liberated themselves by running away.
The Boston-Gazette and Country Journal, published in Watertown, printed the Declaration of Independence on the first page. An anonymous advertisements instructing interested parties to “Enquire of the printer” offered a “strong healthy negro man” for sale on the third page. The notice concerning the captured brigantine and the four enslaved people aboard the vessel that previously appeared in the Continental Journal and the Freeman’s Journal ran on the fourth page.
As promised in the previous issue, Alexander Purdie printed the Declaration of Independence on the first and second pages of his Virginia Gazette. Two new advertisements about enslaved men appeared on the third page. Miles Selden described “a negro man named GEORGE” who took a horse with him when he liberated himself by running away from his enslaver. Selden offered rewards for both George and the horse. William Poynter gave descriptions of Ned and Jacob, two Black men in his custody in Charles City. According to Poynter, “they both say they came from South Carolina.” They tried to put as much distance as possible between themselves and their former enslavers. A two-page supplement accompanied that issue of Purdie’s Virginia Gazette. Each of them ran in the supplement the previous week: Thomas M. Randolph’s advertisement offering “about forty NEGROES” for sale, Bowdrie’s advertisement about Abraham, supposedly sent from Barbados to fight with Dunmore, and Nicholas’s advertisement about Harry, York, and Adam who liberated themselves from their enslavers together.
Overall, advertisements about enslaved people appeared in two-thirds of the issues of American newspapers that printed the Declaration of Independence. As newspapers reported on the dissemination and reception of the Declaration of Independence, especially public readings held in cities throughout the new nation, they continued to publish advertisements about enslaved people side by side the proclamations of liberty. Early American newspapers simultaneously promoted freedom (for some people) while helping to perpetuate slavery (for other people).
What was advertised in a revolutionary American newspaper 250 years ago today?
New-England Chronicle (July 25, 1776).
“A Variety of Blanks for the Use of Justices … never before published.”
Joseph Greenleaf, a printer and bookseller, placed an advertisement in the July 25, 1776, edition of the New-England Chronicle to advise prospective customers that he had for sale a “few Volums of the Abridgment of Burn’s Justices of the Peace and the Parish Officer” at his shoo “near the Conduit,” a water reservoir in Boston. He also stocked a “Variety of Blanks” (or forms) “for the Use of Justices, in almost every part of their Office, never before published.” Greenleaf did not explain what he meant by blanks “never before published.” Officials, attorneys, and merchants regularly purchased blanks for all sorts of legal, financial, and commercial transactions because they featured standardized language and thus saved the time and expense of writing everything out by hand. Instead, the interested parties filled in the blank spaces with the relevant information. Perhaps Greenleaf devised new blanks based on templates or instructions that appeared in the abridgement of Richard Burn’s manual for justices of the peace. Given the news that recently arrived from Philadelphia, he may have also included references to the state of Massachusetts in the wake of the Continental Congress declaring independence from Great Britain.
The printer and bookseller added a request at the end of his advertisement: “Said Greenleaf would esteem it as a Favour if the Subscribers for the American Magazine would discharge their several arearages.” Greenleaf acquired the Royal American Magazine from Isaiah Thomas in the summer of 1774. Thomas fell behind on publishing and distributing new issues as the imperial crisis intensified, especially after the Boston Port Act closed the harbor on June 1 of that year. Greenleaf worked diligently to serve subscribers, eventually catching up on the overdue issues, but then the outbreak of the war with the skirmishes as Lexington and Concord made it impossible for him to continue the magazine. Greenleaf fled from the city and made his way to Watertown as the siege of Boston began, advertising in the Essex Journal in June 1775 that he had been “driven from his house and business by the perfidious [General Thomas] Gage.” In that same notice, he asked for subscribers in “Newbury, Newbury-Port, and the vicinity” to pay what they owed for the magazines they received. A few months later, his son, Thomas, made a similar request to subscribers in “this and the neighbouring towns” in the Providence Gazette. Greenleaf tried once again in July 1776, his pleas echoing those of newspaper printers who so often called on subscribers who had not made payments in years.
What was advertised in a revolutionary American newspaper 250 years ago today?
Massachusetts Spy (July 24, 1776).
“Transmit … the Names of such Persons … notoriously inimical to the rights of America.”
It was another instance of an advertisement delivering news to newspaper readers. In this instance, Joseph Henshaw placed an advertisement in the Massachusetts Spy with instructions for the “Committees of Safety … for the several Towns in the county of Worcester” in central Massachusetts. Those committees “are hereby requested to transmit forthwith to the standing Committee the Names of such Persons in their respective Towns, who are esteemed to be notoriously inimical to the rights of America.” Henshaw and his committee decided to make the request on July 14, 1776, the same day that residents of Worcester may have participated in the first public reading of the Declaration of Independence in Massachusetts.
The notice (and the Declaration of Independence) appeared in the July 17, 1776, edition of the Massachusetts Spy, the next one that came off the press in the only printing office in Worcester. It ran at the bottom of the final column on the second page, immediately below news from Boston, dated July 11, and could have been mistaken for another news item selected by William Stearns and Daniel Bigelow except for the thick lines that traditionally separated news from paid notices. Even if the compositor inserted those lines in error, the notice would have run just once if Stearns and Bigelow considered it a news item. Instead, it ran again on July 24, this time at the bottom of the first column on the first page. It followed two other advertisements. The news for that issue began at the top of the next column. This suggests that Stearns and Bigelow treated the call to submit the names of people “esteemed to be notoriously inimical to the rights of America” as a paid notice, an advertisement that generated revenue, rather than as a news items published as a public service. In so doing, they took the same approach as the printers of Dunlap’s Maryland Gazette and the Maryland Journal who simultaneously published an advertisement with instructions for voting for delegates from Baltimore to attend a convention “for the express purpose of forming a New Government” for the state of Maryland.
What was advertised in a revolutionary American newspaper 250 years ago today?
Dunlap’s Maryland Gazette (July 23, 1776).
“All residents in said Town … are requested to attend and give in their votes.”
Newspaper advertisements sometimes made important announcements during the era of the American Revolution. An advertisement in the July 23, 1776, edition of Dunlap’s Maryland Gazette, for instance, informed readers that the most recent provincial convention “resolved, that Baltimore Town shall have two Representatives in a Convention to be held in August next, for the express purpose of forming a New Government,” a government established “by the authority of the people only” in the wake of the Continental Congress declaring independence from Great Britain. “Notice is hereby given,” the advertisement continued, “that an election will be held by open poll, on Monday the 5th day of August next, at the Court-House, to choose the two members aforesaid.” Furthermore, “all residents in said Town, who by law were intitled to vote for Delegates in Assembly, (except such as have been published as enemies to this country) are requested to attend and give in their votes.”
That notice appeared among the other advertisements in Dunlap’s Maryland Gazette, alongside employment notices, descriptions of indentured servants who ran away, and an advertisement for “KEYSER’s FAMOUS PILLS” and other patent medicines. The men who signed the notice – James Calhoun, John Merryman, Jr., and William Aisquith – apparently paid to insert it in Dunlap’s Maryland Gazette and in the Maryland Journal as well. The printers of those newspapers could have included such important information with the news that they selected to disseminate to readers. They could have even given the notice a prominent place on the front page, publishing it as a public service as the state created its “New Government, by the authority of the people.” Instead, they treated the notice as an advertisement rather than news, presumably generating revenue each time it appeared in their newspapers. Readers knew that news of various sorts, including legal notices, often ran as advertisements. They realized that the news in any issue of an early American newspaper did not necessarily end when the advertisements began.
What was advertised in a revolutionary American newspaper 250 years ago today?
Dunlap’s Pennsylvania Packet (July 22, 1776).
“EXTRACT from the WORK.”
John Dunlap devoted nearly half the space on the first page of the July 22, 1776, edition of Dunlap’s Pennsylvania Packet to an advertisement for his Philadelphia edition of Richard Price’s Observations on the Nature of Civil Liberty, the Principles of Government, and the Justice and Policy of the War with America. A month earlier, Thomas Fleet and John Fleet ran an advertisement for their Boston edition of the popular pamphlet. Rather than merely use the table of contents as the copy for their advertisement (as printers and booksellers often did), they added their own note that this “judicious and exceeding well wrote Pamphlet was published in London in March last and had had a very rapid Sale there.” Friends of the American cause “thought [the pamphlet] would tend much to open the Eyes of the Nation.” Accordingly, the Fleets considered the pamphlet “well worthy the Perusal of every lover of Civil Liberty and good Government in America; for which Reason the Printers propose to sell them at the moderate price of one shilling and six Pence each” compared to two shillings charged in London.
Dunlap inserted different commentary to demonstrate the reception and influence the pamphlet received and, in turn, attempt to incite demand among readers. “This learned, judicious and liberal author,” the advertisement declared, “had the thanks of the Common Council, and the Freedom of the City of London presented to him in a gold box, for this his much admired most excellent pamphlet on Civil Liberty.” In addition to that honor, “he also deserves the united thanks of America.” Yet Dunlap did even more to promote his Philadelphia edition of the pamphlet. He inserted an “EXTRACT from the WORK” that extended more than a column, giving readers a preview and enticing them to read more. In so doing, Dunlap reduced the amount of space for news items and paid notices in that issue of the newspaper, apparently considering the length of the advertisement, especially the “EXTRACT,” worth the investment. He may have also intended that the “EXTRACT” double as a letter to the editor in making the case in support of the American cause.
What was advertised in a revolutionary American newspaper 250 years ago this week?
Pennsylvania Ledger (July 20, 1776).
“Simes’s Military Guide for officers, 2 vol.”
After the Continental Congress voted to declare independence on July 2, 1776, and approved the Declaration of Independence two days later, the war that began with the skirmishes at Concord and Lexington in Massachusetts had a new purpose. Colonizers and subjects of George III no longer fought for redress of grievances within the British imperial system; instead, settlers and citizens of a new nation fought for independence from that empire. The military manuals that American printers had been printing, advertising, and selling for the past two years and longer were as important as ever. Printers and booksellers continued promoting them in newspaper advertisements.
In an advertisement in the first column on the first page of the July 20 edition of the Pennsylvania Ledger, for instance, James Humphreys, Jr., the printer of that newspaper, declared that “A few Copies of the Military Guide FOR YOUNG OFFICERS, By THOMAS SIMES … embellished with a Number of Copperplates … May be had of the PRINTER hereof.” Humphreys jointly published Simes’s military manual with Robert Aitken and Robert Bell. For several months he had been hawking the book. Bell also continued advertising and selling it. In his own advertisement on the last page of that issue of the Pennsylvania Ledger, he listed it among the “following MILITARY WORKS, some of them very valuable, and seldom to be met with, [that] may be had at R. BELL’s.” He also stocked “New System of Military Discipline, founded on Principle, by a General Officer,” a manual that Aitken printed and previously advertised, and “Hoste and Webster’s Mechanics, Fortification, Artillery, or Gunnery, adapted to the use of the Gentlemen of the Army and Navy.” Bell did not mention the copperplate engravings that illustrated Simes’s military manual, but he did note that “LE Blond’s Military Engineer, containing the attack and defence of all kinds of fortified places” came with “numerous and excellent copperplates.” He also carried copies of “ARCHITECTURE HYDRAULIQUE,” a manual on hydraulic architecture and “usage du cours des eaux dans les operations de la Guerre des Sieges & de Campaign” [utilizing watercourses in siege and field warfare operations], for readers who understood French. Not surprisingly, printers and booksellers highlighted military manuals in their newspaper advertisements during the Revolutionary War.
What was advertised in a revolutionary American newspaper 250 years ago today?
Freeman’s Journal (July 20, 1776).
“The Printing-Business, in it’s different branches carried on with care and fidelity.”
Like many other American printers, Benjamin Dearborn, the printer of the Freeman’s Journal, or New-Hampshire Gazette, used the colophon as an advertisement for the various services he provided. The colophon for the Freeman’s Journal ran across all three columns at the bottom of the last page, separated from other content by two lines. It stated: “PORTSMOUTH: Printed by BENJAMIN DEARBORN, near the Parade, where this Paper may be had at Eight Shillings L[awful]. M[oney]. per year, one half at entrance. The Printing- Business, in it’s different branches carried on with care and fidelity.” Whatever the other content, each issue concluded with an advertisement from the printer.
Usually that meant that news and paid notices appeared above the colophon, but only one other item ran on the final page of the July 20, 1776, edition of the Freeman’s Journal. Dearborn printed the entire “DECLARATION, By the Representatives of the UNITED STATES of AMERICA, In General Congress assembled,” approved on July 4. The Freeman’s Journal was one of the last American newspapers to print the Declaration of Independence, yet Dearborn delivered it in an especially attractive format for his subscribers. As the only item (except for the colophon) on the final page, it could be removed from the newspaper and displayed. John Holt, the printer of the New-York Journal, was the only other printer to present the Declaration of Independence as a broadside within a newspaper. He underscored that “a number of our Customers, … intend to separate it from the rest of the paper, and fix it up, in open view, in their Houses, as a mark of their approbation of the INDEPENDENT SPIRIT of their Representatives.” In making that observation, Holt delivered instructions to other subscribers that they should similarly display the broadside integrated into that issue in their homes, shops, or offices. Both Dearborn and Holt included a colophon or imprint at the bottom of the broadside Declaration of Independence in their newspapers. Subscribers could trim them before displaying the broadsides, but those who did not displayed advertisements for the printers as well as the founding document of the new nation.
What was advertised in a revolutionary American newspaper 250 years ago today?
Essex Journal (July 19, 1776).
“Sundry Advertisements, Articles of Intelligence, &c. omitted for want of room.”
On July 19, 1776, yet another printer informed readers that some items did not appear in that issue of his newspaper due to lack of space. This time it was John Mycall in the Essex Journal and New-Hamnpshire Packet, published in Newburyport, Massachusetts. He informed readers of “Sundry Advertisements, Articles of Intelligence, &c. omitted for want of room.” Six days earlier, the Providence Gazette carried a similar notice: “[Advertisements omitted will be in our next.]” A day before that, Timothy Green, the printer of the Connecticut Gazette, pledged that his newspaper “digested every material Occurrence that is come to Hand” even though it consisted of “only a Half Sheet Paper this Week.” In each instance, the newspapers carrying those notices printed the Declaration of Independence for subscribers and other readers to examine for themselves.
In this case, the Declaration of Independence appeared as the first item on the first page of the Essex Journal, followed immediately by “A PROCLAMATION, For a day of public humiliation, fasting and prayer” adopted by the Massachusetts Provincial Congress in Watertown on July 4, 1776. By July 19, almost every other newspaper published in New England had printed the Declaration of Independence, making the text of the document available to Mycall via an exchange network of printers. Except for Solomon Southwick and the Newport Mercury, no printers adjusted their weekly publication schedule or published a supplement or extraordinary issue to disseminate the Declaration of Independence. As a result, the founding document sometimes ran where space was available on the second or third page and other times had a prominent spot on the front page. It seemingly depended on when a printer received a copy compared to when the next issue went to press. The placement of the Declaration of Independence on the first page of the July 19, 1776, edition of the Essex Journal suggests that Mycall had a copy far enough in advance that he could have chosen to publish a supplement or extraordinary issue but instead opted to make it part of the standard issue. The amount of space required to do so meant less room for “Sundry Advertisements, [and] Articles of Intelligence.”
The same day, Alexander Purdie made a curious and quite different decision about publishing the Declaration of Independence in his Virginia Gazette in Williamsburg. Rather than print the entire document, he published an “Abstract from the minutes of the General Congress, of Thursday the 4th instant, declaring the United Colonies free and independent states.” Purdie promised that the Declaration of Independence “will be published at full length in next week’s Gazette,” but he did not explain why he chose not to publish it in that issue. The “Abstract” ran on the second page. Purdie had enough space to include the entire document if he left out other “Articles of Intelligence” or “Sundry Advertisements.” Instead, he explained that the “first part of the declaration is a recapitulation of injuries,” referring to the grievances against the king, “and it concludes as follows.” The final three paragraphs of the Declaration of Independence ran in the center column on the second page of Purdie’s Virginia Gazette.
When they acquired copies of the Declaration of Independence, printers made decisions about when to publish it and whether to displace other content to make the document available to the public. In most cases they did not deliver news of independence. That spread via word of mouth more quickly than printing presses, but the proliferation of printed copies of the Declaration of Independence in American newspapers allowed the public to engage with the rationale and results for themselves.
