The Slavery Adverts 250 Project chronicles the role of newspaper advertising in perpetuating slavery in the era of the American Revolution. The project seeks to reveal the ubiquity of slavery in eighteenth-century life from New England to Georgia by republishing advertisements about enslaved people – for sale as individuals or in groups, wanted to purchase or for hire for short periods, runaways who liberated themselves, and those who were subsequently captured and confined in jails and workhouses – in daily digests on this site as well as in real time via the @SlaveAdverts250 Twitter feed, utilizing twenty-first-century media to stand in for the print media of the eighteenth century.
The project aims to provide modern audiences with a sense of just how often colonizers encountered these advertisements in their daily lives. Enslaved men, women, and children appeared in print somewhere in the colonies almost every single day. Those advertisements served as a constant backdrop for social, cultural, economic, and political life in colonial and revolutionary America. Colonizers who did not purport to own enslaved people were still confronted with slavery as well as invited to maintain the system by purchasing enslaved men, women, and children or assisting in the capture of so-called “runaways” who sought to free themselves from bondage. The frequency of these newspaper advertisements suggests just how embedded slavery was in colonial and revolutionary American culture in everyday interactions beyond the printed page.
These advertisements also testify to the experiences of enslaved men, women, and children, though readers must consider that those experiences have been remediated through descriptions offered by enslavers rather than enslaved people themselves. Often unnamed in the advertisements, enslaved men, women, and children were not invisible or unimportant in early America.
These advertisements appeared in colonial American newspapers 250 years ago today.
Essex Gazette (February 1, 1774).
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Essex Gazette (February 1, 1774).
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South-Carolina Gazette and Country Journal (February 1, 1774).
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South-Carolina Gazette and Country Journal (February 1, 1774).
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South-Carolina Gazette and Country Journal (February 1, 1774).
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South-Carolina Gazette and Country Journal (February 1, 1774).
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South-Carolina Gazette and Country Journal (February 1, 1774).
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South-Carolina Gazette and Country Journal (February 1, 1774).
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South-Carolina Gazette and Country Journal (February 1, 1774).
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South-Carolina Gazette and Country Journal (February 1, 1774).
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South-Carolina Gazette and Country Journal (February 1, 1774).
Madeleine Arsenault is a senior at Assumption University in Worcester, Massachusetts. She is from Stow, Massachusetts. Madeleine is majoring in History and Secondary Education. She plans to become a high school history teacher. She is the oldest of four kids, which contributed to her decision to become a teacher. She spent a semester at Assumption’s Rome campus where she was surrounded by history and loved every second of it. She loves to travel and be outside. In the summer, she spends as much time at the beach (especially on Cape Cod) as possible and tries to go to as many Red Sox games as possible. She is also a camp counselor for second and third graders. Madeleine made her contributions to the Adverts 250 Project and the Slavery Adverts 250 Project while enrolled in HIS 401 Revolutionary America in Fall 2023.
What was advertised in a colonial American newspaper 250 years ago today?
Connecticut Gazette (January 21, 1774).
“Greatly contribute towards the elevation and enlivening of Literary Manufactures.”
Both before and after the American Revolution, Robert Bell, one of the most influential publishers and booksellers of the eighteenth century, set about creating an American market for books. That did not always mean publications by American authors but rather editions printed in America for American readers. More than any other printer, publisher, or bookseller, Bell devised advertising campaigns that spanned the colonies in the early 1770s, distributing subscription proposals and inserting notices in newspapers from New England to South Carolina. His advertisement addressing “SAGES and STUDENTS of the LAW, in AMERICA,” for instance, appeared in newspapers in several colonies, promoting “American editions” of “celebrated works” undertaken by “ROBERT BELL, Printer and Bookseller, of Philadelphia.”
Readers of the Connecticut Gazette, published in New London, encountered Bell’s “SAGES and STUDENTS” advertisement in the January 21, 1774, edition. By then, the advertisement had been in circulation in various newspapers for several months as Bell attempted to cultivate a community of readers and consumers not bounded by local geography but instead defined by their common interest in “the elevation and enlivening of Literary Manufactures in America.” To that end, readers in New London and other places near and far had “had an opportunity of seeing at most of the booksellers shops in the capital towns and cities on the Continent, printed proposals with conditions and specimens” for “American editions” of several books, including “BACON’s new abridgment of the law,” “FERGUSON’s essay on the history of Civil Society,” and “A second American edition of Judge BLACKSTONE’s Commentaries on the laws of England.” For some of those books, Bell asserted that they matched “page for page with the last London edition,” yet he charged only half the price for the American edition. The savvy publisher wedded bargain prices and supporting American industry at a time when relations with Parliament deteriorated in the wake of the Tea Act.
To learn more about subscribing to these various American editions, prospective customers could view the conditions in the printed proposals as well as examine specimens (or samples) to confirm that the quality of the type, paper, and printing was not inferior to imported editions. Bell’s marketing efforts thus incorporated several media, not newspaper advertisements alone. Bell cultivated a network of printers and booksellers to disseminate his various forms of advertising in the public prints and in their printing offices and bookshops, enlisting distant associates in the project of encouraging a market for American editions of important and popular books.
The Slavery Adverts 250 Project chronicles the role of newspaper advertising in perpetuating slavery in the era of the American Revolution. The project seeks to reveal the ubiquity of slavery in eighteenth-century life from New England to Georgia by republishing advertisements about enslaved people – for sale as individuals or in groups, wanted to purchase or for hire for short periods, runaways who liberated themselves, and those who were subsequently captured and confined in jails and workhouses – in daily digests on this site as well as in real time via the @SlaveAdverts250 Twitter feed, utilizing twenty-first-century media to stand in for the print media of the eighteenth century.
The project aims to provide modern audiences with a sense of just how often colonizers encountered these advertisements in their daily lives. Enslaved men, women, and children appeared in print somewhere in the colonies almost every single day. Those advertisements served as a constant backdrop for social, cultural, economic, and political life in colonial and revolutionary America. Colonizers who did not purport to own enslaved people were still confronted with slavery as well as invited to maintain the system by purchasing enslaved men, women, and children or assisting in the capture of so-called “runaways” who sought to free themselves from bondage. The frequency of these newspaper advertisements suggests just how embedded slavery was in colonial and revolutionary American culture in everyday interactions beyond the printed page.
These advertisements also testify to the experiences of enslaved men, women, and children, though readers must consider that those experiences have been remediated through descriptions offered by enslavers rather than enslaved people themselves. Often unnamed in the advertisements, enslaved men, women, and children were not invisible or unimportant in early America.
These advertisements appeared in colonial American newspapers 250 years ago today.
Connecticut Courant (December 14, 1773).
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Essex Gazette (December 14, 1773).
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South-Carolina Gazette and Country Journal (December 14, 1773).
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South-Carolina Gazette and Country Journal (December 14, 1773).
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South-Carolina Gazette and Country Journal (December 14, 1773).
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South-Carolina Gazette and Country Journal (December 14, 1773).
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South-Carolina Gazette and Country Journal (December 14, 1773).
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South-Carolina Gazette and Country Journal (December 14, 1773).
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South-Carolina Gazette and Country Journal (December 14, 1773).
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South-Carolina Gazette and Country Journal (December 14, 1773).
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South-Carolina Gazette and Country Journal (December 14, 1773).
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South-Carolina Gazette and Country Journal (December 14, 1773).
What was advertised in a colonial American newspaper 250 years ago today?
Maryland Journal (November 13, 1773).
“Mr. RATHELL thankfully acknowledges the receipt of a Letter signed ‘a Friend to Literary Institutions.’”
Joseph Rathell’s “PROPOSALS FOR ESTABLISHING A CIRCULATING LIBRARY IN BALTIMORE-TOWN” appeared once again in the November 13, 1773, edition of the Maryland Journal. So did William Aikman’s address “To the LADIES and GENTLEMEN of the Town of BALTIMORE” concerning his efforts to establish a circulating library in Annapolis and deliver books to subscribers in Baltimore. Aikman reported that he heard from prospective subscribers that they had concerns about “the trouble and risk they run of procuring and returning the books.” To assuage such anxieties, he devised a plan for subscribers in Baltimore to submit orders and return books to a local merchant who would then forward them to Annapolis via a weekly packet ship. Aikman planned to charge a dollar for delivery service in addition to the subscription fees. Rathell mocked the additional fee in an advertisement that ran in the same issue of the Maryland Journal as Aikman’s notice. He seemingly knew about Aikman’s advertisement before it appeared in print, perhaps tipped off by a friend in the printing office.
Whether or not that was the case, Rathell did receive other assistance from the Maryland Journal in marketing his circulating library. The local news items included a blurb about his efforts and the response from residents of the city so far. The blurb ran immediately below “SHIP NEWS” and before “PRICES CURRENT at BALTIMORE,” a prime spot for merchants and other readers to notice it. It related that Rathell “thankfully acknowledges the receipt of a Letter signed ‘a Friend to Literary Institutions,’ enclosing the Names of sundry Ladies and Gentlemen, as Subscribers to his intended CIRCULATING LIBRARY.” Readers may have doubted the veracity of this report, dismissing it as mere puffery. Those who continued reading encountered commentary from Rathell that might have more appropriately appeared among the advertisements. For instance, he pledged that “he will be particularly exact in selecting the Books, in which he will be principally governed by Gentlemen of known literary Skill, in Philadelphia, and New-York.” In so doing, he directed attention away from Aikman’s library in Annapolis in favor of larger and more cosmopolitan port cities. He also directly solicited requests from prospective subscribers to his library, proclaiming that “any Commands addressed to Mr. Rathell, directing his Attention to particular, scarce, or curious Publications, &c. shall meet due Regard.” This advertisement masqueraded as a news item, supplementing the proposals that Rathell published elsewhere in the newspaper. He could have incorporated all of the information into a single notice, but a news item doubled as an endorsement of his enterprise. In the end, it did not matter. Rathell did not manage to launch a circulating library in Baltimore. Aikman had more success with his endeavor in Annapolis, at least prior to the Revolutionary War.
What was advertised in a colonial American newspaper 250 years ago this month?
Boston-Gazette (October 25, 1773).
“American Magazine. ‘To be, or not to be.’”
In the summer and fall of 1773, Isaiah Thomas advertised widely in his efforts to attract subscribers for the Royal American Magazine, a proposed publication that would become the only magazine published in the colonies at the time if the printer managed to generate enough interest to make it a viable venture. On October 25, he placed advertisements in the Boston-Gazette and the Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Post-Boy with a secondary headline that proclaimed “To be, or not to be,” a familiar quotation from Shakespeare’s Hamlet, to indicate that the prospects of the publication remained uncertain. In both newspapers, Thomas requested that anyone who recruited subscribers return the subscription papers with the lists of names by the middle of November “as by that Time he shall be able to determine, whether the said Magazine will be Published or not.” The advertisement in the Boston-Gazette also included a nota bene in which Thomas confided that “by the Appearance of the Subscription papers, in his Possession, there is the greatest Probability of its going forward.” Thomas would indeed publish the first issue in January 1774, though the magazine lasted only sixteen months due to the disruptions of the imperial crisis and, eventually, the war that began with the skirmishes at Lexington and Concord in April 1775.
The Adverts 250 Project has traced the advertising campaign that promoted the Royal American Magazine in June, July, August, and September. An even greater number of advertisements appeared in colonial newspapers in October than in any previous month, a total of twenty advertisements in ten newspapers in eight towns in six colonies. Three of those advertisements ran in Thomas’s own Massachusetts Spy, while other newspapers carried the vast majority of them. Fourteen of the advertisements appeared in newspapers published beyond Boston. Thomas sought subscribers who read newspapers published in Salem, Massachusetts; Portsmouth, New-Hampshire; Newport, Rhode Island; New Haven and New London in Connecticut; and New York and Philadelphia. Previously, the Connecticut Courant, published in Hartford, and the Providence Gazette also carried the subscription proposals for the Royal American Magazine. Thomas knew the number of prospective subscribers in Boston alone would not justify an investment of the time and resources required to publish a magazine. He devised an advertising campaign that extended to all of the colonies in New England as well as New York and Pennsylvania.
Newport Mercury (October 4, 1773).
In October 1773, the subscription proposals appeared once again in the Connecticut Journal and the Pennsylvania Journal. The printer’s update addressed “To the Public” made additional appearances in the Boston-Gazette and the Massachusetts Spy. It also ran for the first time in the Essex Gazette, published in Salem, and had two more insertions during the month. Having published the subscription proposals in July and August, the Newport Mercury carried a unique advertisement, likely devised by Solomon Southwick, the printer and Thomas’s local agent for collecting the names of subscribers, rather than by Thomas himself. It announced, “SUBSCRIPTIONS taken in by the Printer hereof, FOR THE ROYAL AMERICAN MAGAZINE: WHICH will soon be published by Mr. ISAIAH THOMAS, in Boston. Price 10s4 per annum.”
Connecticut Journal (October 22, 1773).
That advertisement expressed greater certainty about the prospects for the magazine than Thomas’s “To be, or not to be” notice that ran in Boston later in the month, as did another update that Thomas placed in newspapers in Connecticut, New Hampshire, and New York near the end of the month. That advertisement informed “Gentlemen and Ladies, who incline to encourage the Publication of the ROYAL AMERICAN MAGAZINE … that the Subscription Papers will be returned to the intended Publisher in a few Days, in order that he may ascertain the Number subscribed for.” Those who had not yet submitted their names to the local printing office had only a limited time to do so. As an enticement to those still contemplating whether they wished to subscribe, a nota bene promoted “two elegant Copper Plate Prints” that would accompany the first issue of the magazine. The nota bene also indicated a publication date, “the first Day of January next.” Along with the magazine, prospective subscribers did not have much time to qualify for these premiums. If they decided to subscribe at some time in the future, they would miss out on the gift given to those who supported the magazine even before the first issue went to press.
Thomas hoped to publish the Royal American Magazine, but first he needed to determine if a market existed to support it. His subscription proposals and other advertisements served a dual purpose: they incited demand for the magazine while also assessing interest and determining the total number of subscribers willing to pay for the publication. Some subscription proposals, no matter how widely they circulated, never resulted in publishing the proposed book, magazine, map, or other item. Over the course of several months, Thomas managed to identify and incite sufficient demand to publish the Royal American Magazine.
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Newspaper Advertisements for October 1773
Subscription Proposals
October 8 – Connecticut Journal (second known appearance; fourth possible appearance)
October 20 – Postscript to the Pennsylvania Journal (second appearance)
“To the PUBLIC” Update
October 4 – Boston-Gazette (third appearance)
October 7 – Massachusetts Spy (third appearance)
October 12 – Essex Gazette (first appearance)
October 14 – Massachusetts Spy (fourth appearance)
October 19 – Essex Gazette (second appearance)
October 21 – Massachusetts Spy (fifth appearance)
October 26 – Essex Gazette (third appearance)
“SUBSCRIPTIONS” Notice
October 4 – Newport Mercury (first appearance)
October 11 – Newport Mercury (second appearance)
October 18 – Newport Mercury (third appearance)
October 25 – Newport Mercury (fourth appearance)
“Subscription Papers will be returned” Update
October 22 – Connecticut Journal (first appearance)
October 22 – New-Hampshire Gazette (first appearance)
October 22 – New-London Gazette (first appearance)
October 28 – New-York Journal (first appearance)
October 29 – Connecticut Journal (second appearance)
“To be, or not to be” Update
October 25 – Boston-Gazette (first appearance)
October 25 – Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Post-Boy (first appearance)
What was advertised in a colonial American newspaper 250 years ago today?
Boston-Gazette (August 23, 1773).
“It would greatly oblige us, if our advertising Customers would send their Advertisements Saturday Afternoon.”
Colonial printers only occasionally addressed the business of advertising in their newspapers. Some did solicit advertisements in the colophon at the bottom of the final page, though they did not always specify rates or offer additional instructions. In the colophon for the Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Post-Boy, for instance, Nathaniel Mills and John Hicks stated that “Subscriptions, Advertisements, and Letters of Intelligence for this Paper are taken in” at their printing office. John Holt did provide more information in the colophon for the New-York Journal, noting that “Advertisements of no more Length than Breadth are inserted for Five Shillings, four Weeks, and One Shilling for each Week after, and larger Advertisements in the same Proportion.” A few printers also promoted other forms of advertising. Isaiah Thomas, for example, informed readers that he printed “Small HAND-BILLS at an Hour’s Notice” in the colophon for the Massachusetts Spy. The printer of the Wöchentliche Pennsylvanische Staatsbote highlighted a particular service in the masthead of that newspaper: “All ADVERTISEMENTS to be inserted in this Paper, or printed single by HENRY MILLER, Publisher hereof, are by him translated gratis.”
Most printers, in contrast, did not regularly publish information about advertising in their newspapers. Among those that did, few presented the sorts of specifics that Holt, Thomas, and Miller did in their colophons. That makes the note that Benjamin Edes and John Gill, printers of the Boston-Gazette, inserted at the bottom of the third page of the August 23, 1773, edition all the more noteworthy. “It would greatly oblige us,” they pleaded, “if our advertising Customers would send their Advertisements Saturday Afternoon.” The printers presumably meant “no later than Saturday Afternoon.” They distributed their weekly newspaper on Mondays. That meant that production of the first and last pages, printed on the same side of a broadsheet, took place near the end of the week and production of the second and third pages, on the other side of the broadsheet, just prior to distribution. Edes and Gill and others who worked in their printing office needed time to set type for the latest news and new advertisements, manually operate the press, and hang the newspapers for the ink to dry before folding and delivering them to subscribers. If advertisers wanted their notices to appear in the Boston-Gazette on Monday then they needed to submit them to the printing office in a timely fashion. Edes and Gill advised that meant Saturday afternoon. To increase the likelihood that advertisers would take note of such instructions, they inserted this notice as a single line in the margin at the bottom of the page, a line that ran across all three columns of that page. That notice guided advertisers while also testifying to what the printers considered best practices in the business of advertising in their colonial newspaper.
What was advertised in a colonial American newspaper 250 years ago this week?
Rivington’s New-York Gazetteer (April 29, 1773).
“WATCHES Repair’d VERY cheap, and VERY well.”
John Simnet, a watchmaker, was among the advertisers who placed notices in the first issue of Rivington’s New-York Gazetteer in the spring of 1773. Simnet had long experience advertising in American newspapers, first in the New-Hampshire Gazette when he arrived in Portsmouth in 1769 and then in the various newspapers published in New York when he relocated in the summer of 1770. Not long before taking advantage of the circulation of Rivington’s New-York Gazetteer or Connecticut, New-Jersey, Hudson’s-River, and Quebec Weekly Advertiser, he also placed notices in Hartford’s Connecticut Courant. Simnet always boasted about his own skill and experience, but readers may have found another aspect of his advertisements more memorable. The cantankerous watchmaker often denigrated the skill of his competitors. That led to feuds that played out among the notices in the public prints, first in New Hampshire and then in New York.
New-York Journal (April 29, 1773).
By comparison, Simnet submitted an uncharacteristically subdued advertisement for the inaugural issue of Rivington’s New-York Gazetteer. A headline, “WATCHES,” in a larger font than anything else in the newspaper, dominated the advertisement. Simnet did not go into his usual detail; instead, he limited the remainder of his notice to just three lines: “Repair’d VERY cheap, and VERY well. By I. SIMNET, at the Low-Shop, aside the Coffee-House Bridge, New-York.” The watchmaker ran the same advertisement the following week, even though he crafted a new advertisement for the April 29 edition of the New-York Journal and the May 3 edition of the New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury. That new advertisement featured the same headline, but Simnet went into greater detail about the services he offered. He proclaimed that he did “CLEANING, Repairing, Glasses, Springs, Chains, &c. fitted at HALF the usual Price.” He performed those tasks so well that his clients were “defended from future Expence.” Simnet offered a warranty of sorts, stating that he would “keep his Work in Order without Charge” if clients did encounter any sort of problems with his repairs. He concluded by noting that he moved to a new location “next to the Sign of the Castle on Murray’s Wharf.”
Why did Simnet opt to run a different advertisement in Rivington’s New-York Gazetteer than the one he placed in the other newspapers published in the city? Perhaps he took the cost into consideration, not yet prepared to invest in a longer advertisement in a new publication that had not yet proved its viability or its circulation. Simnet was familiar with advertising in the New-York Journal and the New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury. Given that he frequently submitted new notices to both printing offices, he apparently believed that he derived a good return on that investment. Still, the watchmaker may have wished to hedge his bets when a new newspaper appeared, making sure his business was visible to readers in New York and beyond even if he was not yet prepared to pay for a longer advertisement.
Julia Tardugno, Summer Scholar, D’Amour College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Assumption University.
Julia Tardugno is a junior double majoring in History and Secondary Education at Assumption University in Worcester, Massachusetts. She is from Methuen, Massachusetts, where she discovered a passion for teaching and history. Her interests in history include World War II and the impact of social justice issues around the world.
On campus, Julia is an active member of the Assumption community. She serves as a resident assistant, executive member of the Student Government Association as the Vice President for Student Affairs, and the Orientation Family Leader Executive. She is also a Light the Way Scholar. Julia successfully applied to the Assumption University Education Program in the spring of her junior year, officially accepted in July 2022. In the future, Julia hopes to pursue a career as a teacher or college professor with a goal of passing on her love for learning to her students.
Julia previously contributed to the Adverts 250 Project and the Slavery Adverts 250 Project when enrolled in HIS 359 – Revolutionary America, 1763-1815, in Fall 2021. In Spring 2022, she was selected for the inaugural cohort for the D’Amour College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Summer Scholars Program. That program provided funding for Julia to work on the Slavery Adverts 250 Project under the mentorship of Prof. Carl Robert Keyes during the summer of 2022. Her various contributions include researching and preparing the daily digests of advertisements about enslaved people for September 11 through October 22, 1772. Publication of those daily digests begins today and will continue for the next six weeks.
The Slavery Adverts 250 Project chronicles the role of newspaper advertising in perpetuating slavery in the era of the American Revolution. The project seeks to reveal the ubiquity of slavery in eighteenth-century life from New England to Georgia by republishing advertisements about enslaved people – for sale as individuals or in groups, wanted to purchase or for hire for short periods, runaways who liberated themselves, and those who were subsequently captured and confined in jails and workhouses – in daily digests on this site as well as in real time via the @SlaveAdverts250 Twitter feed, utilizing twenty-first-century media to stand in for the print media of the eighteenth century.
The project aims to provide modern audiences with a sense of just how often colonizers encountered these advertisements in their daily lives. Enslaved men, women, and children appeared in print somewhere in the colonies almost every single day. Those advertisements served as a constant backdrop for social, cultural, economic, and political life in colonial and revolutionary America. Colonizers who did not purport to own enslaved people were still confronted with slavery as well as invited to maintain the system by purchasing enslaved men, women, and children or assisting in the capture of so-called “runaways” who sought to free themselves from bondage. The frequency of these newspaper advertisements suggests just how embedded slavery was in colonial and revolutionary American culture in everyday interactions beyond the printed page.
These advertisements also testify to the experiences of enslaved men, women, and children, though readers must consider that those experiences have been remediated through descriptions offered by enslavers rather than enslaved people themselves. Often unnamed in the advertisements, enslaved men, women, and children were not invisible or unimportant in early America.
These advertisements appeared in colonial American newspapers 250 years ago today.
