Daily Advert Update

August 17

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

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

Pennsylvania Ledger (August 17, 1776).

“PHILADELPHIA MANUFACTURE.”

In the summer of 1776, Samuel Wetherill took to the pages of the Pennsylvania Ledger to hawk a variety of textiles produced at his “Manufactory in South-street” in Philadelphia.  He offered “Woolens, Linnens, and Cottons, particularly Corded Dimity’s,” to consumers, giving them an alternative to fabrics imported from England.  He emphasized that he sold “domestic manufactures” with a headline that proclaimed, “PHILADELPHIA MANUFACTURE.”  Wetherill elaborated on that point by noting the “great expence” he had undertaken in his “improve manufactures among us” and, in turn, expected “the public encouragement” for his endeavor.

Wetherill was one of many advertisers who made some sort of “Buy American” appeal during the era of the American Revolution.  As T.H. Breen explains in The Marketplace of Revolution, calls to produce and purchase goods made in America began even before the imperial crisis.  As colonizers participated in the transatlantic consumer revolution, some noticed the imbalance of trade that emerged within a commercial empire organized around Britain producing goods and the colonies consuming those goods.  Once Parliament imposed new regulations on trade, especially duties on imported goods, and the colonies responded with boycotts of those goods, establishing and supporting the production of goods in the colonies became even more important.  When the Second Continental Congress devised the Continental Association, a nonimportation and nonconsumption agreement adopted throughout the colonies, the eighth article stated, “That we will, in our several Stations, encourage Frugality, Economy, and Industry; and promote Agriculture, Arts, and the Manufactures of this Country, especially that of Wool.”  Producing (and consuming) goods produced in America became even more important after the Continental Congress declared independence.

Wetherill did his part and he used an advertisement in the Pennsylvania Ledger to let prospective customers in Philadelphia and the region know that he did.  Along with his “attempt to improve manufactures among us” came a reciprocal obligation for consumers to give their “public encouragement” by purchasing the textiles that Wetherill and his employees produced “at his Manufactory.”  He presented an opportunity to acquire “PHILADELPHIA MANUFACTURE,” goods produced in their own city or state as a means of strengthening the local economy.

August 16

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , ,

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

Connecticut Gazette (August 16, 1776).

“A DIALOGUE ON THE Slavery of the Africans.”

Newspapers published during the era of the American Revolution contributed to the perpetuation of slavery. Throughout the colonies and the new nation, newspapers regularly carried advertisements that presented enslaved people for sale or offered rewards for the capture and return of enslaved people who liberated themselves by running away from their enslavers.  News items and editorials also stoked fear of enslaved people to justify keeping them in bondage.

On occasion, however, the public prints carried advertisements, news, or editorials that advocated for the liberty of certain enslaved people or emancipating all enslaved people.  In April 1776, for instance, an advertisement announced that “DICK (a Negro) … [was] now made free from Slavery by the Charity of the People” of Middletown, Connecticut, “and by virtue of his Freedom, has Liberty to procure the necessaries of Life by his own Industry, as other free born Subjects have.”  In June 1775, William Henshaw published an advertisement on behalf of the Committees of Correspondence in Worcester County, Massachusetts.  Upon receiving a petition from “the NEGROES in the counties of Bristol and Worcester,” the Committees of Correspondence passed a resolution stating that “we abhor the enslaving of any of the human race, and particularly of the NEGROES in this county.”  They pledged to “use our influence” to aid in efforts for “emancipating the NEGROES.”  They applied the rhetoric of the American Revolution to the literal enslavement of Africans and African Americans instead of considering only the figurative enslavement of colonizers.

In the summer of 1776, Judah P. Spooner published and sold A Dialogue, Concerning the Slavery of the Africans: Shewing It To Be the Duty and Interest of the American Colonies to Emancipate All Their African Slaves at his printing office in Norwich Connecticut.  The book included “an ADDRESS to the Owners of such Slaves.”  The author, Samuel Hopkins, a Congregationalist minister in Newport, dedicated the volume “to the Honorable the Continental Congress.”  Like the Committees of Correspondence in Worcester County, Hopkins recognized the contradictions inherent in revolutionary rhetoric that espoused liberty for colonizers but did not include calling for the abolition of slavery.

That an advertisement for A Dialogue, Concerning the Slavery of Africans appeared in the August 16, 1776, edition of the Connecticut Gazette did not mean, however, that Timothy Green, the printer of that newspaper, endorsed anything that Hopkins wrote about slavery.  In the previous issue, Green published an advertisement that described Sy, “a Mustee Fellow,” and offered a reward to “Whoever takes up said Negro, and secures him, or returns him to his Master.”  Similarly, Spooner, the printer of both the Norwich Packet and A Dialogue, Concerning the Slavery of Africans, published a similar advertisement about “a Negro MAN Servant, named FORTEN,” in the August 5 issue and regularly generated revenue by printing other advertisements about enslaved people.  Even as Hopkins attempted to use the power of the press to advocate for abolition, enslavers and printers continued perpetuating slavery with the advertisements they published.

August 15

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , ,

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

New York Packet (August 15, 1776).

“SAMUEL LOUDON’s CIRCULATING LIBRARY.”

Like other early American printers, Samuel Loudon cultivated multiple revenue streams.  He sold subscription to the New York Packet and collected fees for the advertisements in that newspaper.  In addition, he sold a variety of books, pamphlets, and almanacs, only some of them produced in his printing office, as well as stationery and writing supplies.  Loudon also operated a circulating library, a venture that only a few printers and booksellers incorporated into their portfolios.  Clubs or corporations formed for the purpose of operating libraries oversaw most of those institutions established before and during the era of the American Revolution.

Loudon promoted his circulating library “CONSISTING of Two Thousand Vols. [of] well chosen books” in the August 15, 1776, edition of the New York Packet.  Unlike modern public libraries that allow access to books and other materials for free, circulating libraries charged subscription fees to readers.  Loudon offered discounts for those who subscribed for longer periods.  A three-month subscription cost eight shillings while a six-month subscription cost twelve shillings.  Subscribers gained access for an entire year for twenty shillings, a significant savings over purchasing consecutive subscriptions for shorter periods.  Rather than completely exclude readers who did not purchase subscriptions, Loudon allowed “occasional readers” to borrow books upon paying a fee of “one penny for each shilling the book they read is valued at.”  Readers interested in a particular title could peruse it for a lower price without having to make a larger investment in a subscription.

Loudon established some interesting guidelines for how long subscribers could borrow books, making the determination based on the sizes of the sheets (not to be confused with the length of the book).  “The time allowed for reading a folio,” he explained, “is four weeks,” but only two weeks for a quarto and just one week for “an octavo and under.”  Subscribers (and occasional readers) who kept their books longer had “to pay one penny a day for an octavo, and in proportion for larger volumes.”  Whatever the quirks of this system, it meant that readers could not hoard titles and make them unavailable to other subscriber, at least not without paying penalties for doing so.  In addition, borrowers had to pay for books that were “lost or abused.”

“SAMUEL LOUDON’s CIRCULATING LIBRARY” gave residents of New York access to thousands of books without having to purchase them, making them more accessible to many readers.  Loudon operated the library as a public service while simultaneously generating revenue to supplement his other ventures as a printer and bookseller.

August 14

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , , , , ,

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

Massachusetts Spy (August 14, 1776).

“The freshest and most important intelligence from the Grand Continental Army at New-York.”

An advertisement in the August 14, 1776, edition of the Massachusetts Spy promoted the services of a “Post Rider to Fitchburg,” a town twenty-five miles north of Worcester.  The unnamed post rider stressed that there was no quicker way for residents of that town and others in the vicinity to receive the latest news, especially updates about the war being waged for independence.

The post rider explained that he set out from Worcester on Wednesdays, the same day that William Stearns and Daniel Bigelow published a new issue of the Massachusetts Spy, and “arrive[d] in … Fitchburg every Wednesday night,” supplying the “freshest and most important intelligence from the Grand Continental Army at New-York.”  Readers could depend on it being the latest news because Stearns and Bigelow printed the Massachusetts Spy “the next morning after the arrival of the Southern Mail” on Tuesdays, giving them just enough time to glean the most significant news to include in new issues on Wednesdays.  The letters and newspapers the printers received “contain[ed] ALL the LATEST advices from the grand seat of military operation” as well as “the latest news by the Government Post from Ticonderoga.”  Stearns and Bigelow likely collaborated with the post rider in providing this service as well as in writing an advertisement that promoted the Massachusetts Spy to readers throughout central Massachusetts and southern New Hampshire.  The Massachusetts Spy competed with newspapers published in Boston and Watertown in Massachusetts and Exeter and Portsmouth in New Hampshire, yet subscribers who received the Massachusetts Spy via the “Post Rider to Fitchburg” would “obtain the freshest news much Sooner and Cheaper, than from any other part of the Continent.”  An annual subscription with delivery cost “Ten Shillings per annum (Postage included)” or two shillings more than the base price, “Eight Shillings, per Annum, exclusive of Postage,” listed in the newspaper’s colophon.

The Massachusetts Spy carried all sorts of news, including updates from the Continental Congress in Philadelphia, yet the printers and the post rider believed that readers were most interested in the latest news about the progress of the war. Better than any other newspaper printed in Massachusetts or New Hampshire, the Massachusetts Spy and the “Post Rider to Fitchburg” could deliver that news to subscribers and other readers.

August 13

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , ,

Who was the subject of an advertisement in revolutionary American newspaper 250 years ago today?

Dunlap’s Pennsylvania Packet (August 13, 1776).

“IN MENS CLOTHES … a Mulatto woman slave, named MARIA.”

What kind of story would Maria have told about herself if she had the opportunity to record it in print?  How would it have differed from the account that appeared in an advertisement on the first page of the August 13, 1776, edition of Dunlap’s Pennsylvania Packet?

That advertisement described Maria as “a Mulatto woman slave” who “RAN AWAY … from the Jerseys to Philadelphia or New York” at the end of July.  Maria likely thought of that act as freeing herself from her enslavers rather than running away from “a good master and mistress.”  The enslavers who applauded themselves for their supposed benevolence condemned Maria for “going towards New-York after a married white man, who is a soldier in the Continental army there.”  In doing so, she “left behind her three young children.”  They also noted that Maria was “hardly discernable from a white woman,” yet that was not the only form of passing as someone else that threatened the social order or their attempt to exert authority over her.  The headline for the advertisement proclaimed, “IN MENS CLOTHES,” indicating that Maria might make good on her escape by disguising both her sex and her race.  That compounded her transgressions.

Maria’s unnamed enslavers certainly cast her in a negative light, yet just because their account appeared in print did not make them reliable narrators.  That they portrayed themselves as “a good master and mistress” already demonstrated their bias.  They told a lively story, one that probably stunned or distressed many readers, but Maria certainly would have given a much different version of what occurred had she been given the opportunity.  There are too many possibilities to conjecture about the “married white man” or “her three young children” or any of Maria’s relationships except to say that they had to have been more complex than what her unnamed enslavers insinuated in a brief newspaper advertisement.  During the era of the American Revolution, Maria made choices of her that deserve much more consideration than the few lines that her unnamed enslavers published in an advertisement seeking her capture and return.

August 12

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , , , ,

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

Norwich Packet (August 12, 1776).

“A NUMBER OF ELEGANT POCKET-BOOKS, TO BE SOLD AT THE PRINTING-OFFICE.”

More than a dozen advertisements appeared in the August 12, 1776, edition of the Norwich Packet.  Among them, Leonard Hills, a post rider, called on delinquent customers to pay for his services, William Mansfield sought to hire a journeyman shoemaker, and John Baker Brimmer solicited “Small Furrs, Bees-Wax, OLD COPPER AND PEWTER.”  In separate advertisements, Peabody Clement and Peter Lanman each offered rewards for the return of lost pocketbooks, while Thomas Adams advertised that he had “TAKEN up … a bay Mare” and would return it to the owner upon “proving his Property” and paying for expenses.

Norwich Packet (August 12, 1776).

Even though the compositor used a variety of fonts to draw attention to each advertisement, only two of them featured borders made of decorative type.  Both concerned business conducted “AT THE PRINTING-OFFICE IN NORWICH.”  One announced, “A NUMBER of ELEGANT POCKET-BOOKS, TO BE SOLD AT THE PRINTING OFFICE.”  If they checked the newspaper to confirm that their advertisements did indeed appear, Clement and Lanman likely spotted the notice that informed them where they could purchase replacements for their lost pocketbooks, though John Trumbull, the printer, certainly hoped to attract other customers as well.  The other decorative border enclosed a call for “CLEAN LINEN RAGS” that the printer would recycle at the paper mill and, in turn, use to publish subsequent issues of theNorwich Packet.  Trumbull promised “CASH … FOR Clean Linen Rags.”  Similar notices appeared in newspapers throughout the new nation, though not usually spruced up with printing ornaments.  In addition, the advertisements with borders did not run on the same page.  That further distinguished each of them since readers would spot only one at a time.  Neither border was especially sophisticated, but they did not need to be to serve their purpose.  They only needed to create visual interest that enhanced their visibility compared to news and other advertisements.  Trumbull exercised his discretion as printer to give his notices an advantage.

August 11

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , ,

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

Freeman’s Journal (August 10, 1776).

“The Acts and Laws Of this State, passed since the new Form of Government took Place.”

A month after the Continental Congress voted to declare independence, Robert L. Fowle set about publishing “The Acts and Laws” of New Hampshire “passed since the new Form of Government took Place.”  He placed an advertisement, dated August 3, 1776, in three consecutive issues of the Freeman’s Journal, printed by Benjamin Dearborn in Portsmouth.  He likely also ran advertisements in his own newspaper, the New Hampshire Gazette, or, Exeter Morning Chronicle.  (That newspaper has not been digitized for greater accessibility.)

Fowle’s advertisement made its first appearance in the Freeman’s Journal on August 10.  He announced, “The Acts and Laws Of this State,” no longer a colony, “are now in the Press, and in a few Weeks will be published, at the Printing Office in Exeter.”  When Fowle referred to statutes passed “since the new Form of Government took Place,” he did not mean the actions taken by the Continental Congress in Philadelphia in early July.  Instead, he invoked the Constitution of New Hampshire devised by a provincial congress that met at Exeter on December 21, 1775.  Two weeks later, delegates to that convention “VOTED, That this Congress take up CIVIL GOVERNMENT for this colony,” displacing British authority, and outlined the “manner and form” in a framework now known as the Constitution of New Hampshire.  In so doing, they implemented the first state constitution … six months before the Continental Congress declared independence.  Accordingly, the “Acts and Laws Of this State, passed since the new Form of Government took Place” advertised by Fowle in August 1776 did not consist of legislation passed solely in the past month but instead during the seven months since the Constitution of New Hampshire written at Exeter went into effect.  Publishing the “Acts and Laws Of this State” buttressed the legitimacy of the new government, while purchasing or perusing the statutes kept citizen-consumers better informed about current events.  The legislature, the printer, and readers each played a role in disseminating the new acts and laws in their state, weaving together the fabric of a new nation from many threads.  Establishing and maintaining a “new Form of Government” required more than the Declaration of Independence.

August 10

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , ,

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

Pennsylvania Evening Post (August 10, 1776).

“Hare’s American best bottled PORTER.”

Most goods advertised and sold in eighteenth-century America did not have brand names associated with them.  Patent medicines were the exception.  Consumers were familiar with a variety of patent medicines, so much so that advertisers could mention them by name without giving any further explanation of their use and purpose.  In an advertisement in the August 10, 1776, edition of the Pennsylvania Evening Post, for instance, George Weed informed the public that he stocked “Dr. Bateman’s pectoral drops[,] Turlington’s balsam of life[,] Dr. Anderson’s pills[,] Dr. Hooper’s female pills[, and] Dr. Benjamin Godfrey’s cordial” at his apothecary shop in Philadelphia.

On the same page, Robert Appleby once again advertised “Hare’s American best bottled PORTER.”  Unlike the generic descriptions of the other items in his notice, “OLD MEDEIRA WINE” and “SPRUCE BEER,” Robert Hare’s porter described a particular beer produced by a particular brewer.  When Hare, the son of an English brewer, migrated to Pennsylvania, he became the first brewer to produce porter in the colonies.  He did so at a time that patriotic Americans boycotted imported goods and made a point of supporting “domestic manufactures” and their producers.  Consumers knew Hare’s Best American Draught Porter by name and for many months by the time Appleby ran his advertisement consumers already associated drinking it with support for the American cause.  In a notice in the Pennsylvania Evening Post published the previous November, William Dibley expressed his confidence “that the sturdy friends of American freedom will afford due honor to this new and glorious manufacture.”  A few weeks later, Dibley’s advertisement appeared alongside one from Patrick Meade who promoted Hare’s porter to “the TRUE FRIENDS to LIBERTY” and another from Joseph Price that offered “HARE’s and Co. best DRAUGHT and BOTTLED AMERICAN PORTER” to “all the SONS of AMERICAN LIBERTY.”  Beyond those accolades, Hare’s porter achieved the distinction of becoming one of the dew products other than patent medicines known to consumers by a brand name during the era of the American Revolution.

August 9

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , ,

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

Virginia Gazette [Purdie] (August 9, 1776).

“NEW BATH … has every accommodation necessary for gentlemen and ladies.”

A health tourism industry began developing in America before the American Revolution.  As Vaughn Scribner explains, “Americans relied on improvements in transportation, roads, and communication during the second half of the eighteenth century to push spa culture forward.  …  Such improvements caused colonists increasingly to view mineral springs – as well as the all-important spas that accompanied them – as a prime opportunity for fashionable ‘improvement’ and genteel leisure.”[1]  The proprietors of various baths, spas, and mineral springs placed newspaper advertisements inviting guests to visit their establishments.  Such notices continued appearing shortly after the Continental Congress declared impendence in July 1776.

Although “regions surrounding northeastern urban centers such as Philadelphia and Boston became especially popular for their well-dev eloped mineral spas,” entrepreneurs in other regions also established and advertised similar facilities.  In early August 1776, for example, Nathaniel Anderson placed an advertisement in Alexander Purdie’s Virginia Gazette.  “THE publick are hereby informed,” he announced, “that NEW BATH, in Louisa county, ten miles above the courthouse, is now in good repair,, and has every accommodation necessary for gentlemen and ladies who are inclinable to retire from the lower parts of the country, during the unhealthy season.”  While some clients might visit New Bath merely for leisure, the proprietor emphasized the health benefits for those afflicted with various maladies.  “The waters, from long experience,” Anderson confided, “have been found excellent for removing slow fevers, agues and fevers, and all lingering disorders.”  In addition, they provided “a speedy remedy for ulcers, inflammations,” and other afflictions.  No matter why clients traveled to New Bath, Anderson would extend exemplary hospitality, promising that the “the utmost diligence will be used to render the place agreeable.”  With his advertisement and his facilities at New Bath, Anderson contributed to a process of spas, “along with other ‘improving’ public spaces such as taverns, bowling greens, theaters, and pleasure gardens, … defin[ing] a region’s gentility, sociability, and, ultimately, civility” in the eighteenth century.[2]

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[1] Vaughn Scribner, “‘The happy effects of these waters’: Colonial Mineral Spas and the British Civilizing Mission,” Early American Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal 14, no. 3 (Summer 2016): 440.

[2] Scriber, “happy effects of these waters,” 440.

August 8

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , , ,

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

New-York Journal (August 8, 1776).

“DRUMS … equal to any that have been imported, for sound or beauty.”

The frequency that advertisements for drums appeared in American newspapers increased significantly after fighting commenced at Lexington and Concord in April 1775.  Drums, after all, were essential military equipment.  Advertisers who made or sold drums often did not consider it necessary to say much in their newspaper notices.  One brief advertisement, for instance, proclaimed, “AMERICAN MADE DRUMS, Sold by PHILIP PELTON, At the Foot of Cowfoot-hill, in NEW-YORK.”  Pelton made sure that prospective customers knew that his drums were made in America, but he did not make other appeals in that notice.

In a subsequent advertisement, however, he decided to go into more detail in hopes of convincing readers in the market for drums to choose the ones that he “MADE and sold” and provided to an associate, Daniel Pelton, likely a relation, to sell.  In case it was not enough that they were made in America, Pelton asserted that his drums were “equal to any that have been imported, for sound or beauty.”  His customers did not have to sacrifice quality when they purchased his drums.  They looked as good as imported alternatives and they sounded as good.  In addition, the Peltons had a “great variety on hand,” so “any gentlemen may be served at the shortest notice.”  Customers did not need to place orders and wait for Pelton to make their drums.  Instead, they could select from a wide inventory, making choices according to size and appearance and price.  No matter which drums customers chose, the Peltons sold them “on the most reasonable terms” or, in other words, for fair prices.  As an ancillary service, the Peltons pledged that “purchasers may depend upon having their Drums tun’d to sound well.”  That was yet another marketing appeal intended to resonate with prospective customers.  As Pelton had done when mentioning the sound and beauty of his drums earlier in the advertisement, he invited readers to engage their senses by imagining the sounds of drums “tun’d to sound well.”  This more elaborate advertisement gave prospective customers more reasons to purchase the drums that Pelton made and sold.