Charles Crouch

August 1

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , ,

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

South-Carolina Gazette and Country Journal (August 1, 1775).

“THE PUBLICATION of this GAZETTE is discontinued for the present.”

It was the last issue of the South-Carolina Gazette and Country Journal, though Charles Crouch, the printer, may not have known it at the time.  The “NEW ADVERTISEMENTS” in the August 1, 1775, edition began with an announcement that the “PUBLICATION of this GAZETTE is discontinued for the present,” suggesting that the printer might revive it at a later time.  For now, he promised that “a Supplement will be published the two following Weeks, in Order to give Places to those Advertisements which have not been inserted the usual Time of three Weeks.”  Perhaps Crouch did distribute those supplements, but extant copies have yet to be located.  However, a nearly complete run of issues from the newspaper’s founding on December 17, 1765, through its last regular issue nearly a decade later does survive.  In 1908, A.S. Salley, Jr., noted, “The Charleston Library Society possesses an almost complete file of Crouch’s paper, only twenty-five numbers being missing from the ten years of the file.”[1]  Four decades later, Clarence Brigham did not record any missing issues in the Charleston Library Society’s collections in his History and Bibliography of American Newspapers, 1690-1820.[2]  Perhaps in the intervening years the Charleston Library Society acquired copies of those missing issues.

Isaiah Thomas, the printer of the Massachusetts Spy who later penned The History of Printing in America in 1810, wrote a short history of the South-Carolina Gazette and Country Journal.  The newspaper, he explained, “was established in opposition to the British American stamp act … and was published without stamps.”  That garnered acclaim from the public, earning Crouch a reputation as a “sound whig” or patriot.  “The general opposition of the colonies to the stamp act induced the public to patronize this Gazette.  It immediately gained a large list of respectable subscribers, and a full proportion of advertising customers.”  Crouch did not leave that to chance.  He included “Gazette” in the title, like the printers of the South-Carolina Gazette and the South-Carolina and American General Gazette, “in order to secure certain advertisements, directed by law to be ‘inserted in the South Carolina Gazette.’”  In addition to those notices, Crouch’s newspaper also carried a variety of advertisements for consumer goods and services as well as notice presenting enslaved people for sale or offering rewards for the capture and return of enslaved people who liberated themselves by running away from their enslaver.  Each sort of advertisement represented a lucrative revenue stream for the printer.  Among its competitors in Charleston, Thomas asserted, Crouch’s newspaper was the only one that “appeared regularly.”[3]  Others sometimes had gaps in publication.

Even though Crouch hoped to resume publishing the South-Carolina Gazette and Country Journal, he did not have the opportunity.  In late August 1775, he boarded a vessel headed to Philadelphia.  He sought supplies for his printing office, especially paper that had grown scarce.  The ship was lost at sea.  Thomas stated that Crouch’s widow published the newspaper for a short time, but Salley clarifies that Ann Crouch “revived her husband’s paper under the name of The Charlestown Gazette” in 1778 and “conducted it until the capture of Charles Town by the British in 1780.”[4]  A few issues have survived and been digitized for greater access by scholars and the public.  The Adverts 250 Project will examine those at the appropriate time.  For now, the demise of the South-Carolina Gazette and Country Journalcertainly had ramifications in Charleston and beyond.  In August 1775, readers in South Carolina had one less source of news and one less publication for disseminating advertisements.

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[1] A.S. Salley, Jr., “The First Presses of South Carolina,” Proceedings and Papers (Bibliographical Society of America) 2 (1907-1908): 66.

[2] Clarence Brigham, History and Bibliography of American Newspapers, 1690-1820 (Worcester, Massachusetts: American Antiquarian Society, 1947), 1039.

[3] Isaiah Thomas, The History of Printing in America: With a Biography of Printers and an Account of Newspapers (1810; New York: Weathervane Books, 1970), 571, 582.

[4] Salley, “First Presses of South Carolina,” 65-66.

May 30

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

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

South-Carolina Gazette and Country Journal (May 30, 1775).

“Dr. KEYSER’s GENUINE PILLS, With FULL DIRECTIONS for their Use in all CASES.”

Like many eighteenth-century printers, Charles Crouch, the printer of the South-Carolina Gazette and Country Journal, sold patent medicines as a side hustle to supplement revenues from newspaper subscriptions, advertisements, job printing, and selling books and writing supplies.  In the May 30, 1775, edition of his newspaper, for instance, he ran an advertisement for a “FRESH PARCEL of Dr. KEYSER’s GENUINE PILLS.”  He did not need to explain that the pills treated venereal diseases because they were so familiar to consumers, but that did make it necessary to assure the public that he carried the “GENUINE” item rather than imitations or counterfeits.  Crouch also stocked “Dr. BOERHAAVE’s GRAND BALSAM of HEALTH.”  Realizing that many prospective customers would have been less familiar with this “admirable Remedy,” the printer explained that they could take it for “the dry Belly-Ach, Cholic, Griping in the Bowels, [and] Pain in the Stomach.”  In addition, the balsam “cleanses the Stomach.”  Today, many consumers have favorite over-the-counter medicines for similar symptoms.

Crouch realized that treating venereal disease was a sensitive subject and that customers purchasing Keyser’s Pills wanted to use them correctly and effectively.  He promised in his advertisement that he provided “FULL DIRECTIONS for their Use in all CASES.”  Doing so also minimized the amount of contact between the purchaser and the seller.  Customers did not need to visit an apothecary and go over how to use the medication.  Instead, they could visit the printer, ask for the pills and the directions, and avoid additional interaction.  Some may have even requested Keyser’s Pills along with other items, perhaps ink powder or a recent political pamphlet, to draw attention away from a purchase that caused embarrassment or discomfort.  Crouch also assured prospective customers that the pills were effective, inviting them to examine a “NARRATIVE of the Effects of Dr. KEYSER’s MEDICINE, with an Account of his ANALYSIS, by the Members of the Royal Academy of Sciences.”  Perusing those accounts did require more interaction between buyer and seller, but Crouch may have believed that some readers would have considered it sufficient to know that they were available.  That the printer could provide documentation upon request increased trust in the remedy.

The advertisement for Keyser’s Pills and Boerhaave’s Grand Balsam appeared immediately above a notice listing more than a dozen kinds of printed blanks commonly used for commercial and legal transactions.  Beyond publishing the South-Carolina and Country Journal, Crouch generated revenue through a variety of other means, some of them more closely related to printing than others.  He could earn money with both printed blanks and patent medicines, especially when he deployed savvy marketing.

May 19

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

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

South-Carolina Gazette and Country Journal Extraordinary (May 19, 1775).

“NEGROES of different Qualifications.”

Charles Crouch usually published the South-Carolina Gazette and Country Journal on Tuesdays in 1775, distributing new issues on a different day than his competitors in Charleston.  Peter Timothy delivered the South-Carolina Gazette on Mondays and Robert Wells and Son presented the South-Carolina and American General Gazette on Fridays.  Yet as information about the battles at Lexington and Concord arrived in Charleston, Crouch published a two-page extraordinary issue on Friday, May 19.  He had first broken the news in the May 9 edition, printing “alarming Intelligence” received via “the Brigantine, Industry, Captain Allen, who sailed the 25th [of April] from Salem.”  Subsequent issues of both the South-Carolina Gazette and Country Journal and the South-Carolina and American Gazette carried news about Lexington and Concord.  (A gap in extant issues between April 10 and May 29 prevents determining when the South-Carolina Gazette reported on those events.)

Many, perhaps most, readers likely heard that British regulars had engaged colonial militia outside of Boston before they read anything in newspapers.  News and rumors spread via word of mouth more quickly than printers could set type, yet readers still clamored for coverage.  After all, the public prints carried more details about what happened, though not all of them were always correct.  Wells and Son printed the South-Carolina and American General Gazette as usual on Friday, May 19, carrying additional news about Lexington and Concord and the aftermath.  Refusing to be scooped, Crouch published his extraordinary issue on the same day.  He specified that the “particulars respecting the Engagement at Lexington, are copied from the Newport Mercury.”

Even as Crouch provided more news for subscribers and the public, he disseminated even more advertisements.  News accounted for only one-quarter of the contents of the May 19 extraordinary issue, with advertisements filling three-quarters of the space.  Those notices included three from Jacob Valk, a broker, looking to facilitate the sales of “ONE of the compleatest WAITING-MEN in the Province,” “Some valuable PLANTATION NEGROES,” and “NEGROES of different Qualifications” at his office.  In another advertisement, William Stitt described Lydia and Phebe, enslaved women who liberated themselves by running away, and offered rewards for their capture and return to bondage.  In yet another, the warden of Charleston’s workhouse described nearly a dozen Black men and women, all of them fugitives seeking freedom, imprisoned there, alerting their enslavers to claim them, pay their expenses, and take them away.  As readers learned more about acts of tyranny and resistance underway in Massachusetts, they also encountered various sorts of advertisements designed to perpetuate the enslavement of Black men and women.  The early American press simultaneously served multiple purposes, regularly featuring a juxtaposition of liberty and slavery that readers conveniently compartmentalized.

January 10

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , ,

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

South-Carolina Gazette and Country Journal (January 10, 1775).

“The Negro Caesar’s Cure for Poison.”

On January 10, 1775, Charles Crouch, the printer of the South-Carolina Gazette and Country Journal, advertised “THE SOUTH-CAROLINA ALMANACK, or Lady’s and Gentleman’s DIARY for the Year of our Lord Christ 1775.”  Like many other printers who promoted almanacs, he attempted to incite interest by listing the contents, including the usual astronomical calculations, “High Water at Charles-Town,” “Days for holding Courts in South-Carolina and Georgia,” “Lists of Public Officers,” and a “Description of the Roads throughout the Continent.”  This almanac contained all sorts of useful information for readers to reference throughout the year.

In addition to the contents, Crouch printed a poem that resonated with current events.  That poem (or perhaps a longer version) presumably appeared in the almanac, a piece of inspiration to inculcate support for the American cause.  As the imperial crisis intensified in the wake of the Coercive Acts and the meeting of the First Continental Congress, the poem called on “AMERICANS! for Freedom firmly join, / Unite your Councils, and your Force combine, / Disarm Oppression — prune Ambition’s Wings, / And stifle Tories, e’er they dart their Stings.”  While the poem in Crouch’s advertisement lamented the loss of “Rights and Liberties” for colonizers, the printer simultaneously disseminated two dozen advertisements about enslaved people in that edition of the South-Carolina Gazette and Country Journal and the supplement that accompanied it.  Yet readers did not need to look beyond the advertisement for the almanac to find references to enslaved people.  The contents included “The Negro Caesar’s Cure for Poison, and the Bite of a Rattle-Snake,” appropriating African knowledge just as so many of the advertisements appropriated African labor.  The exploitation of enslaved people that contributed to the welfare and prosperity of colonizers occurred along multiple trajectories.  Although agricultural labor on plantations has been the most visible of those, newspaper advertisements and other primary sources demonstrate that enslaved Africans and African Americans provided all sorts of knowledge and skilled labor, ranging from remedies like Caesar’s cures for poison and rattlesnake bites to the work undertaken by enslaved coopers, carpenters, cooks, and seamstresses.

September 20

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , ,

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

South-Carolina Gazette and Country Journal (September 20, 1774).

“TO BE SOLD … Two able Men Field Slaves … Apply to the Printer.”

On behalf of a customer, “a Gentleman lately left the Province,” Charles Crouch, the printer of the South-Carolina Gazette and Country Journal, advertised a variety of “Articles” available “at private Sale, a great Bargain.”  Those articles included horses, a carriage with two sets of harnesses and “the Furniture of a Dining Room, consisting of one Sopha, ten Chairs, four Window Curtains, Glass and Gerandoles.”  Crouch informed interested parties that they should “Apply to the Printer,” taking on the role of broker and intermediary.

In addition to the horses and housewares, the “Articles” for sale also include people treated as commodities.  The list commenced with a “compleat young House [Woman], with her Child, a young Fellow, a Waiting Man, understands a little of Cookery, and the Management of Horses” and “Two able Men Field Slaves, sold for no known Fault but run-aways.” Crouch, the printer, facilitated the sale of those enslaved people, perhaps even earning a commission.  He certainly generated revenue from running the advertisement in his newspaper, along with more than a dozen advertisements concerning enslaved people in the September 20, 1774, edition of the South-Carolina Gazette and Country Journal.  Peter Bounetheau and Jacob Valk, brokers of “LANDS, HOUSES, NEGROES, and other Property,” placed many of the others, making them good customers for the newspaper.  In this instance, however, Crouch acted as a slave broker, assuming responsibilities beyond printing and disseminating the advertisement.  The placement of the colophon underscored that was the case.  It appeared immediately below the advertisement: “CHARLES-TOWN: Printed by CHARLES CROUCH, on the BAY, the Corner of ELLIOTT-STREET.”

Two days ago, the Slavery Adverts 250 Project, a companion to the Adverts 250 Project, marked eight years of identifying, remediating, and republishing advertisements about enslaved people originally published in American newspapers 250 years ago that day.  To date, the project includes more than 27,000 advertisements place for various purposes, such as enslaved people for sale, enslaved people wanted to purchase or hire, and descriptions of enslaved people who liberated themselves by running away from their enslavers (as two of the enslaved men in today’s advertisement had done at some point, perhaps captured and returned to slavery as a result of the surveillance encouraged by a newspaper advertisement).  In many instances, advertisements offering enslaved people for sale incorporated some variation of “enquire of the printer.”  From New England to Georgia, printers like Crouch provided an information infrastructure for perpetuating slavery and the slave trade and even served as agents who brokered sales of enslaved men, women, and children.

March 15

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , ,

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

South-Carolina Gazette and Country Journal (March 15, 1774).

“All Persons whatever, who may be inclinable to favour him with their Advertisements, may rely on its answering their End.”

The “NEW ADVERTISEMENTS” in the March 15, 1774, edition of the South-Carolina Gazette and Country Journalbegan with a notice from the printer, Charles Crouch.  Like his counterparts throughout the colonies, Crouch occasionally issued a call for “all Persons who are in Arrear for this GAZETTE, or otherways indebted to him, to make immediate Payment.”  Recognizing that many of his subscribers lived outside Charleston, he requested that “his Country Customers … will cheerfully comply” by directing “their Friends or Factors in Town to pay off their Accounts.”  In particular, he pointedly suggested that “those who have not yet paid him any Thing” would tend to what they owed.  When they ran notices for similar purposes, some printers asserted that certain customers had not made payments for years, taking advantage of credit extended to them.

How did Crouch and other printers manage to stay in business under such circumstances.  Many, but not all, required advertisers to pay in advance, figuring that advertising generated enough revenue to offset shortfalls from subscriptions.  That was the case for Crouch and the South-Carolina Gazette and Country Journal.  He instructed advertisers “send the CASH” when they submitted copy to the printing office.  After all, “he is at great Expence in carrying on his Business.” Accordingly, Crouch was “determined in future to receive none without,” suggesting that perhaps he had accepted advertisements without “the CASH” in the past.  The printer made an exception for those he “owes Money, or has an open Account,” presumably counting new advertisements against his own debts.

In hopes of attracting new advertisers, Crouch commented on the effectiveness of inserting notices in his newspaper.  Advertisers could “rely on its answering their End” or serving their purpose, whether disseminating information or enticing customers or whatever other reason they had for advertising.  He competed against two other newspapers published in Charleston, the South-Carolina Gazette and the South-Carolina and American General Gazette.  Prospective advertisers should choose the South-Carolina Gazette and Country Journal, Crouch stated, because “the Circulation of it is very extensive.”  In other words, the newspaper reached many readers.  In addition, Crouch bragged that he was “regular in publishing his Paper on the Day it is dated,” taking a swipe at other competitors who sometimes delayed printing and distributing their weekly newspapers.  Advertisers could depend on their notices in the South-Carolina Gazette and Country Journal reaching readers in a timely manner.  At the same time, he tended to settling accounts with existing customers, Crouch sought additional customers who had reason to advertise.

January 25

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

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

South-Carolina Gazette and Country Journal (January 25, 1774).

“Lists of Public Officers; Members of the Commons House of Assembly; Days for holding Courts in South-Carolina and Georgia.”

Charles Crouch, the printer of the South-Carolina Gazette and Country Journal, also published almanacs.  Most newspaper printers did so.  Almanacs, those popular pamphlets, represented an important revenue stream for any printing office, yet publishing them could be a tricky business.  Printers aimed to produce enough copies to meet demand, but not so many that they had a significant number of leftovers that cut into their profits.

As January 1774 neared its end, Crouch seemed to have a surplus of “THOMAS MORE’s ALMANACK, for the Year 1774” that he needed to move out of his printing office on Elliott Street in Charleston.  On January 25, he ran an advertisement that offered the almanacs for sale “Wholesale and Retail, with good Allowance to those who take a Quantity.”  In other words, he offered a discount to shopkeepers, peddlers, and others who bought in volume.  He placed the notice at the top of the center column on the first page, enhancing its visibility in that issue of the South-Carolina Gazette and Country Journal.  The introduction to the advertisement proclaimed, “Just published,” but that probably was not the case.  Crouch previously inserted the same advertisement as the new year approached.  As was common practice, he likely inserted the notice once again, type already set, without making revisions.

With each passing day, some of the contents became obsolete, including “the Sun and Moon’s Rising and Setting,” “Length of Days and Nights,” and “Judgment of the Weather.”  Other items, however, remained relevant.  Crouch relied on these “useful Particulars” in marketing the almanac.  Its pages contained “Lists of Public Officers; Members of the Commons House of Assembly; [and] Days for holding Courts in South-Carolina and Georgia.”  For those who might have occasion to travel to other colonies by land rather than by ship, the almanac included “Descriptions of the Roads throughout the Continent.”  Throughout their advertising campaigns, printers highlighted the various contents of the almanacs they published and sold.  Each year, the “useful Particulars” beyond what many described as the “usual Astronomical Calculations” (though Crouch did not happen to use that phrase) became increasingly important in marketing almanacs in January, February, and March.

August 10

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , ,

Who were the subjects of advertisements in a colonial American newspaper 250 years ago today?

South-Carolina Gazette and Country Journal (August 10, 1773).

“NEW ADVERTISEMENTS … about One Hundred choice Gambia SLAVES.”

Advertising underwrote the dissemination of the news in eighteenth-century America.  Among the advertisements for consumer goods and services, legal notices, and real estate advertisements that usually filled at least half of any issue of any newspaper printed in the colonies in the 1760s and 1770s, advertisements about enslaved people described men, women, and children for sale and offered rewards for the capture and return of “runaways” who liberated themselves from their enslavers.  No printer rejected such advertisements on principle.  Indeed, when James Rivington launched a new newspaper in the spring of 1773, it took only three issues for him not only to publish an advertisement about a “Very fine Negro Boy” for sale but also to serve as a broker by instructing interested buyers to “Enquire of the Printer.”

From New England to Georgia, printers generate revenues by publishing advertisements about enslaved people, though such advertisements accounted for a greater proportion of all notices in newspapers in southern colonies.  The August 10, 1773, edition of the South-Carolina Gazette and Country Journal, for instance, carried forty-four advertisements.  Fifteen of them concerned enslaved people.  Ten of those offered enslaved men, women, and children for sale, either individually “by private Contract” or at auctions for a “CARGO OF … SLAVES” recently arrived in Charleston after surviving the Middle Passage from Africa.  One offered a reward for a “new negro fellow named TOM” who liberated himself while another described five Black men and youths “Brought to the WORK-HOUSE” and held there until their enslavers claimed them and paid charges for holding them.  Yet another advertisement sought an overseer for a “Rice Swamp Plantation,” stating that it would be more agreeable if an applicant “has a Wife, who is used to the Management of, and will pay due Attention to sick Negroes and children.”  One more gave notice to “Residents and Non-Residents of the Parish of St. Thomas and St. Dennis” that they needed to submit a “Return upon Oath, of all their Male Slaves, liable to work in the High Roads … in Order that an Assessment may be made for defraying the Expences or Repairs.”  In addition to advertisements about enslaved people for sale and rewards for returning fugitives from enslavement, newspaper notices seeking employees and preparing for public works projects sometimes incorporated enslaved people as critical components.

South-Carolina Gazette and Country Journal (August 10, 1773).

Advertisements about enslaved people were so ubiquitous in the August 10 edition that they appeared as the first and last notices that readers encountered.  After the list of ships that entered and cleared the customs house in Charleston, a header marked “NEW ADVERTISEMENTS.”  That header appeared immediately above the first of those advertisements, a notice about the upcoming sale of “about One Hundred choice Gambia SLAVES” currently in quarantine.  It included a brief overview of a boy who had smallpox during the voyage but recovered more than four weeks earlier.  In addition, the notice provided assurances that “not the smallest Symptom hath ever appeared on any of the other Slaves, who are now all in perfect Health.”  The issue concluded with two advertisements offering enslaved people for sale by a local broker, one for “FOUR valuable and seasoned Negroes” and the other for a “Likely young NEGRO FELLOW, … a good Bricklayer.”  The broker, Jacob Valk, also placed the advertisement for the four enslaved people in the South-Carolina Gazette the previous day, one of the sixteen notices about enslaved men, women, and children in that newspaper.  Those last two advertisements ran immediately above the colophon that provided publication information: “CHARLES-TOWN: Printed by CHARLES CROUCH, in Elliott-Street.”  Advertisements about enslaved people, so lucrative for printers, bookended the paid notices in that issue of the South-Carolina Gazette and Country Journal.

June 8

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , ,

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

South-Carolina Gazette and Country Journal (June 8, 1773).

“THE Printer of this Paper … will undertake any Kind of Printing-Work.”

Charles Crouch, the printer of the South-Carolina Gazette and Country Journal, included a brief note in the June 8, 1773, to alert readers and, especially, advertisers that “Advertisements omitted this Week, for want of Room, shall be in our next.”  Despite that “want of Room,” Crouch found space to run six of his own notices.  Some of them concerned the business of running the newspaper, while others advertised goods and services available at the printing office.

In tending to the operations of the newspaper, Crouch requested that “ALL Persons who may favour the Printer of this Gazette with their Advertisements … send the CASH with them, except where he owes Money, or has a running Account.”  Crouch suggested that “will prevent disagreeable Circumstances, as well as Trouble.”  He also prepared to address some of those “disagreeable Circumstances” with recalcitrant subscribers.  In another notice, he informed “ALL Persons in Charles-Town, who are in Arrears for this GAZETTE, to the first of January last, HAVE THIS PUBLIC NOTICE given them, that in the Course of this Month, they will be waited upon by my Apprentice, for Payment.”  Printers throughout the colonies often ran notices calling on delinquent subscribers to settle accounts, sometimes threatening legal action.  Few mentioned having their apprentices attempt to collect payment, but many likely tried that strategy as well.

In other advertisements, Crouch attempted to generate business at the printing office.  He advised that the “Printer of this Paper, being supplied with plenty of Hands, will undertake any Kind of Printing-Work, let it be ever so large.”  Prospective customers could depend on job printing orders “be[ing] correctly and expeditiously executed, and on reasonable terms.”  In another advertisement, the printer hawked “Shop and Waste PAPER, to be sold at Crouch’s Printing-Office, in Elliott-street.”  He also tried to generate interest in surplus copies of “THOMAS MORE’s ALMANACK, for the Year 1773.”  Though nearly half the year had passed, Crouch emphasized contents that readers could reference throughout the year, including “a List of Public Officers in this Province; a List of Justices for Charles-Town District; excellent Notes of Husbandry and Gardening, for each Month in the Year; [and] Descriptions of Roads throughout the Continent.”  At the end of that advertisement, Crouch appended a note that he also stocked copies of “BUCHAN’s Family Physician.”  In a final advertisement, the printer tended to the health of readers with products unrelated to the printing trade.  He announced that he just imported a variety of popular patent medicines, including a “Fresh Parcel of Dr. KEYSER’s genuine Pills,” “Dr. RYAN’s Incomparable Worm Destroying Sugar Plumbs,” and “Dr. JAMES’s Fever Powders.”  Like many other printers, Crouch sold patent medicines as an additional revenue stream.

An item that could be considered a seventh advertisement from the printer even found its way into the local news.  Immediately above the entries of vessels arriving and departing the busy port provided by the customs house, a short note stated, “Those GENTLEMEN who subscribed with the Printer hereof, for the AMERICAN EDITION of BLACKSTONE’s COMMENTARIES on the LAWS of ENGLAND, are requested to apply for the Fourth Volume, and the Appendix.”  Crouch served as a local agent on behalf of the publisher, Robert Bell in Philadelphia.

Crouch claimed that a “want of Room” prevented him from publishing all of the advertisements received in his printing office, yet he managed to include many of his own notices in the June 8, 1773, edition of the South-Carolina Gazette and Country Journal.  He exercised his prerogative as printer in shaping the contents of that issue, an act that potentially frustrated some advertisers who expected to see their notices in the public prints.  Given that just a few months earlier Crouch emphasized his “REAL Want of his Money,” he may have considered that a necessary gamble in his efforts to continue operations at his printing office on Elliott Street in Charleston.

June 1

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

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

South-Carolina Gazette and Country Journal (June 1, 1773).

“ALL Persons who may favour the Printer of this Gazette with their Advertisements, are requested to send the CASH with them.”

Charles Crouch, the printer of the South-Carolina Gazette and Country Journal, seemed to do good business when it came to advertising.  Dozens of advertisements, including sixteen about enslaved people, filled seven of the twelve columns in the June 1, 1773, edition of his newspaper.  Yet the advertising revenues may not have been as robust as they appeared from merely looking at the contents on the page.

The printer commenced the portion of the issue devoted to advertising with his own notice.  “ALL Persons who may favour the Printer of this Gazette with their Advertisements,” he declared, “are requested to send the CASH with them, except where he owes Money, or has a running Account.”  Crouch suggested that this arrangement “will prevent disagreeable Circumstances, as well as Trouble.”  He apparently experienced some “disagreeable Circumstances” a few months earlier when he ran a notice that called on “ALL Persons indebted to the Printer hereof, for News-Papers, Advertisements, &c. … to make immediate Payment, as he is in REAL Want of his Money.”

Historians have often asserted that colonial printers maintained a balance in their accounts by extending credit to subscribers while requiring advertisers to pay in advance.  Accordingly, advertising became the more important revenue stream.  Notices like those placed by Crouch, however, suggest more complex arrangements, at least in some printing offices.  Both of the notices that Crouch placed in 1773 indicate that he sometimes published advertisements submitted to his office without payment, though he revised that practice as a result of some advertisers becoming as notoriously delinquent in settling accounts as many subscribers.

Crouch and other printers sometimes described such situations in the notices they placed in their own newspapers, though not as frequently as printers placed notices calling on subscribers to make payments.  These instances refine our understanding of the significance of advertising revenue to colonial printers without upending the common narrative.  It appears that some printers exercised a degree of flexibility, even if they eventually adjusted their practices, when it came to submitting the fees along with the advertising copy.