Commodification of American Revolution

April 9

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , ,

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

North Carolina Gazette (April 7, 1775).

“EXTRACTS from the Votes and Proceedings of the AMERICAN CONTINENTAL CONGRESS.”

The North-Carolina Gazette, published by James Davis in New Bern from May 1768 through November 1778, with some interruptions, only made its first appearance in the Adverts 250 Project a couple of weeks ago because extant copies are so rare that few have been digitized and made more broadly accessible to scholars.  America’s Historical Newspapers, the most comprehensive database of digitized eighteenth-century newspapers, includes only seven issues of the North-Carolina Gazette, all of them from 1775.  Other databases do not include any.

As a result, the April 7 edition is the second issue of the North-Carolina Gazette available for inclusion in the Adverts 250 Project and the Slavery Adverts 250 Project.  The first two advertisements in that issue drew my attention.  The first described and offered a reward for “a Slave of the Indian Blood, named CHARLES” who liberated himself by running away from his enslaver.  Charles’s story of resistance has been compiled with other advertisements about enslaved men, women, and children published in American newspapers on April 7, 1775, as part of the Slavery Adverts 250 Project.

The second promoted “EXTRACTS from the Votes and Proceedings of the AMERICAN CONTINENTAL CONGRESS, held at Philadelphia” in September and October 1774.  The Adverts 250 Project has traced the publication and marketing of the Extracts, starting with William Bradford and Thomas Bradford’s edition in Philadelphia and continuing with local editions published in many other towns.  This advertisement confirms that Davis sold the Extracts.

Did he print a local edition?  Or did he sell copies that he received from another printer?  The formulaic language in the advertisement — “JUST PUBLISHED, And to be sold at the Printing Office, in Newbern” — does not definitively answer those questions.  The phrase “JUST PUBLISHED,” for instance, merely meant that a book, pamphlet, or almanac was available.  When an advertisement first ran, “JUST PUBLISHED” meant that it had been published recently, but printers and booksellers sometimes ran advertisements for weeks or months without updating them.  They did not consider setting type once again worth investing their time or attention.  Eighteenth-century readers understood that “JUST PUBLISHED” did not always mean that the item was hot off the presses.  Similarly, they separated “JUST PUBLISHED” and “to be sold at the Printing Office,” realizing that printers often peddled books, pamphlets, and almanacs “JUST PUBLISHED” by other printers.

This language suggests that Davis may or may not have printed the edition of the Extracts that he advertised.  Some bibliographers, however, have trusted advertisements in the North-Carolina Gazette as sufficient proof that he did publish a local edition.  In “James Davis: North Carolina’s First Printer,” a thesis submitted to the School of Information and Library Science of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Scott Aaron Reavis includes the Extracts among works printed on Davis’s press.  He notes, “No copies are known to exist, however, it was advertised for sale in the North Carolina Gazette, 24 February 1775.”[1]  By the time the subsequent advertisement ran in the April 7 edition, the Extracts were “JUST PUBLISHED” indeed!  Charles Evans did not list Davis’s New Bern edition in American Bibliography: A Chronological Dictionary of All Books, Pamphlets, and Periodical Publications Printed in the United States of America from the Genesis of Printing in 1639 Down to and Including the Year 1820, but, according to Reavis, Douglas C. McMurtie included the Extracts in his “Bibliography of North Carolina Imprints.”[2]  Given how many printers published local editions of the Extracts, I am inclined to agree with McMurtie and Reavis that Davis did as well.  I disagree, however, with the date assigned to the work.  Davis’s edition has been dated to 1775 based on an advertisement in one of the few extant issues of the North-Carolina Gazette.  More likely, if Davis published the Extracts then he did so in November or December 1774, the same time that printers in other towns produced local editions, and occasionally inserted his advertisement that he had “JUST PUBLISHED” and sold the volume at his printing office several times over the next several months.

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[1] Scott Aaron Reavis, “James Davis: North Carolina’s First Printer” (master’s thesis, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2000), 44.

[2] Reavis, “James Davis,” 28.

April 8

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

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

Virginia Gazette [Dixon and Hunter] (April 8, 1775).

“JOURNAL of the PROCEEDINGS OF THE CONVENTION held at RICHMOND.”

John Carter once again advertised that “A few Copies of The Proceedings of the late Continental CONGRESS May be had at the Printing-Office” in the April 8, 1775, edition of the Providence Gazette.  That same day, John Dixon and William Hunter advertised that they “have for SALE … the Journal of the Proceedings of the Congress held at Philadelphia” in the Virginia Gazette.  When the First Continental Congress concluded its meetings near the end of October 1774, printers in many towns rushed to publish local editions of the Extracts from the Votes and Proceedings of the American Continental Congress.  Dixon and his partner at the time, Alexander Purdie, printed the Extracts.  So did Carter.  Advertisements for the Extracts quickly appeared in newspapers.  Not nearly as many printers published the Journal.  William and Thomas Bradford produced a Philadelphia edition about a month after they published the Extracts.  In New York, Hugh Gaine published the only other edition.  In contrast to marketing for the Extracts, advertisements for the Journal did not immediately pepper newspapers throughout the colonies.

Yet over time printers and booksellers acquired copies of the Journal from the Bradfords or from Gaine and informed prospective customers that they stocked that volume.  Dixon and Hunter did so when they advertised a publication that came off their own press, “A JOURNAL of the PROCEEDINGS OF THE CONVENTION held at RICHMOND ON THE 20th OF MARCH, 1775.”  Although listed first in the advertisement, the Journal for the First Continental Congress received secondary attention.  Dixon and Hunter used larger type for the title of their new publication and created greater visual interest by breaking the title into several lines and centering each line.  Dixon and Hunter did not diminish the significance of the Journal for the First Continental Congress; instead, they treated the Journal for the convention at Richmond as breaking news, an important local update, and a continuation of coverage of proceedings that commenced with delegates in Philadelphia and then moved to meetings held throughout the colonies.  They also had an interest in selling the volume that they produced, yet they recognized an opportunity to package it with the Journal for the First Continental Congress and increase revenue.  Both publications kept the public informed while simultaneously commodifying American responses to the imperial crisis that ultimately became a revolution.

March 29

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , ,

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

Essex Journal (March 29, 1775).

“A DISCOURSE … Preached … In Cammemoration of the MASSACRE at BOSTON.”

In March 1775, residents of Boston once again participated in an annual commemoration of the Boston Massacre, marking its fifth anniversary.  Joseph Warren delivered the oration, just as he had done three years earlier.  As had been the case in years past, local printers published and marketed copies of the address.  Printers in other towns also produced and advertised their own editions of Warren’s oration, helping to keep its memory alive as colonizers dealt with the effects of the Coercive Acts that Parliament imposed in retaliation for the Boston Tea Party.

Colonizers in other towns joined in commemorating the Boston Massacre and critiquing Parliament.  Oliver Noble, “Pastor of a Church in NEWBURY,” delivered a sermon that did so, “PREACH[ING] AT THE REQUEST of a Number of Respectable Gentlemen of said Town.”  In turn, Noble partnered with Ezra Lunt and Henry-Walter Tinges, the printers of the Essex Journal, to publish the sermon “at the General Desire of the Hearers.”  The extensive title, which doubled as the advertising copy, gave an overview of its contents and purpose: “SOME STRICTURES upon the sacred Story recorded in the Book of ESTHER, shewing the Power and Oppression of State Ministers, tending to the Ruin and Destruction of GOD’s People:– And the remarkable Interpositions of Divine Providence in Favour of the Oppressed; IN A Discourse … In Cammemoration of the MASSACRE at BOSTON.”  An advertisement ran in the March 29 edition of the Essex Journal, encouraging colonizers to acquire their own copies.  Those who had heard Noble preach could experience the sermon again every time they read it, remembering how the minister delivered each “STRICTURE” and how other “Hearers” reacted.  Others who had not been fortunate to be present for the commemoration did not have to miss it entirely if they purchased and read Noble’s Discourse.

Relations between the colonies and Britain had deteriorated to the worst point yet during the imperial crisis.  Although they did not know it, a war would start within weeks of Noble preaching his sermon in commemoration of the Boston Massacre and advertising it in the Essex Journal, a war that began because colonizers wanted redress of their grievances and eventually became a war for independence.  Commemoration and commodification of the events that were part of that conflict began before the fighting started.

March 27

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

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

Newport Mercury (March 27, 1775).

“Worth the Perusal of each TRUE SON OF LIBERTY.”

In the years after British soldiers fired into a crowd of protestors and killed several colonizers on March 5, 1770, the residents of Boston staged an annual commemoration of the “horrid MASSACRE.”  They called on a prominent patriot to give an “ORATION” about what occurred and the dangers of having British soldiers quartered in urban ports during times of peace.  Colonizers did not need to be present for the oration to experience it for themselves.  Each year, printers published and marketed the oration, commodifying an event that played an important role in the imperial crisis becoming a revolution.

New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury (March 27, 1775).

In the first several years, printers in Boston published the oration and newspapers in Massachusetts carried advertisements for it.  In 1775, however, printers in other colonies produced their own editions of Joseph Warren’s oration commemorating the fifth anniversary of the Boston Massacre.  Benjamin Edes and John Gill, the printers of the Boston-Gazette, and Joseph Greenleaf, the publisher of the Royal American Magazine, partnered in printing and advertising a Boston edition.  Not long after, Solomon Southwick, the printer of the Newport Mercury, advertised his own edition, giving the notice a privileged place as the first item in the first column on the first page of the March 27 edition of his newspaper.  On that same day, John Anderson inserted a notice in the New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury to alert readers of the imminent publication of a local edition undertaken “At the particular Desire of a Number of respectable GENTLEMEN.”  Patriots expressed intertest in obtaining their own copies of Warren’s oration; in turn, printers believed they could generate even greater demand.  To that end, Anderson declared, “The genuine Spirit of Freedom which breathes in every Line of this inimitable Performance, renders it worth the Perusal of each TRUE SON OF LIBERTY.”

The political climate had shifted since printers in Boston disseminated John Hancock’s oration commemorating the fourth anniversary of the Boston Massacre.  Since then, colonizers experienced how Parliament reacted to the destruction of tea during what has become known as the Boston Tea Party.  The Coercive Acts, including the Boston Port Act that closed the harbor until residents paid restitution, prompted delegates from throughout the colonies to gather in Philadelphia for the First Continental Congress in the fall of 1774.  They adopted a nonimportation agreement, the Continental Association, that remained in effect in the spring of 1775.  Given the events that transpired in 1774 and early 1775, it made sense that the anniversary of the “BLOODY TRAGEDY of the 5th of MARCH, 1770” garnered greater attention beyond Massachusetts.

March 18

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , ,

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

Providence Gazette (March 18, 1775).

“The Proceedings of the late Continental CONGRESS.”

It was a brief yet important notice: “A few Copies of the Proceedings of the late Continental CONGRESS May be had at the Printing-Office.”  It was the first advertisement that appeared in the March 18, 1775, edition of the Providence Gazette, immediately following the local news.  During the era of the American Revolution, printers often gave advertisements they considered significant, often advertisements for political pamphlets and other publications, that privileged place.  Such notices marked a transition between news selected by the printer and other content submitted by advertisers.  Printers may have expected that readers were more likely to give their attention to notices that followed (or even appeared to continue) the news than if they had been interspersed among other advertisements.

John Carter, the printer of the Providence Gazette, stocked a variety of political publications at his printing office “at Shakespear’s Head, in Meeting-Street, near the Court-House.”  He previously advertised “EXTRACTS From the VOTES and PROCEEDINGS of the AMERICAN CONTINENTAL CONGRESS.”  Once the First Continental Congress concluded its meetings in Philadelphia at the end of October 1774, printers in many towns, including Carter, published and advertised local editions of the Extracts to supplement coverage provided in their newspapers.  Not nearly as many printers, however, published the “JOURNAL OF THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE CONGRESS.”  William Bradford and Thomas Bradford, the printers of the Pennsylvania Journal, published a Philadelphia edition.  Hugh Gaine, the printer of the New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury, published another edition.  Printers and booksellers in other cities and towns apparently acquired copies of the Journal from the Bradfords or from Gaine rather than devoting resources to producing local editions.  They believed that a market existed for that publication, even if local customers demanded only “A few Copies” to read along with the Extracts that provided so much information about the work of the First Continental Congress.  As the imperial crisis intensified in the first months of 1775, Carter suspected that readers of the Providence Gazette might desire their own copies of the Journal.

March 17

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

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

Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Weekly News-Letter (March 17, 1775).

“AN ORATION … to commemorate the bloody Tragedy of March 5th 1770.”

In the spring of 1771, patriots marked the first anniversary of the “BLOODY TRAGEDY” now known as the Boston Massacre with “AN ORATION Delivered … at the Request of the Inhabitants of the Town of Boston … By JAMES LOVELL.”  That started an annual tradition, with Joseph Warren giving the oration in 1772, Benjamin Church in 1773, and John Hancock in 1774.  Gathering for the oration became an annual ritual.  So did publishing and marketing it.

For the fifth anniversary, the “ORATION … to commemorate the bloody Tragedy of March 5th 1770” was once again “delivered by JOSEPH WARREN.”  Less than two weeks later, advertisements in the March 17 edition of the Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Weekly News-Letter informed readers where they could acquire copies.  One indicated that Benjamin Edes and John Gill, the printers of the Boston-Gazette, sold the oration, implying that they also published it.  According to the imprint, Edes and Gill printed the address in partnership with Joseph Greenleaf, the proprietor of the Royal American Magazine.

Another advertisement gave readers another option: “In the MASSACHUSETTS SPY, of this Day is published, the WHOLE of the ORATION, delivered by JOSEPH WARREN, Esq; on March 6th , 1775, to commemorate the bloody Tragedy of March 5th, 1770.”  Isaiah Thomas, the printer of the Massachusetts Spy, did indeed devote three of the four columns of the third page of his newspaper to Warren’s oration.  In an introduction, he reported that it was “this day published, in a pamphlet” and available for sale in addition to appearing in the newspaper.  The printer offered multiple ways for readers to engage with the oration.  He (and Edes and Gill and Greenleaf) also offered consumers an opportunity to purchase a commemorative item.  Readers who previously purchased the orations by Lovell, Warren, Church, and Hancock on previous anniversaries may have been motivated to add to their collections.

The printer of the Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Weekly News-Letter gave the advertisements a privileged place, likely intended to increase the chances that readers took note of them.  They appeared one after the other immediately after the weekly account of local marriages and deaths.  That meant that the advertisements served as a transition between news items and paid notices.  Readers who perused the news yet merely glanced through the advertisements may have been more likely to take note of these first notices as they realized that the remainder of the page featured advertising.  A manicule also helped call attention to them, signaling their importance in a town experiencing the distresses of the Boston Port Act and the other Coercive Acts.

February 19

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

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

Massachusetts Spy (February 16, 1775).

“THE PETITION of the American Continental Congress, to the KING.”

In February 1775, Isaiah Thomas, printer of the Massachusetts Spy, published and advertised “THE PETITION of the American Continental Congress, to the KING.”  During its meetings in Philadelphia in September and October 1774, the delegates to the First Continental Congress drafted several documents.  Almost as soon as they adjourned, William Bradford and Thomas Bradford, printers of the Pennsylvania Journal, advertised “EXTRACTS FROM THE VOTES AND PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN CONTINENTAL CONGRESS.”  Over the next several weeks, printers in towns throughout the colonies published local editions to supplement coverage in their newspapers.  By the end of November, the Bradfords published a more complete “JOURNAL OF THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE CONGRESS Held at PHILADELPHIA,” though not as many printers issued local editions of that pamphlet.  After all, the Extracts already contained “The BILL of RIGHTS; a List of GRIEVANCES; occasional RESOLVES; the ASSOCIATION; and ADDRESS to the people of Great-Britain; and a MEMORIAL to the Inhabitants of the British American Colonies.”

Yet neither the Extracts nor the Proceedings included all the work undertaken by the First Continental Congress.  In his advertisement, Thomas asserted that he published the Petition “For the benefit of those who have purchased the Votes and Proceedings of the Continental Congress, or the Extracts therefrom, as it is inserted in neither of said Pamphlets.”  He encouraged colonizers to complete their collections of these important documents.  As part of that marketing strategy, he noted that he printed the Petition “in a Pamphlet that it may be either bound of stitched up with the Votes and Proceedings.”  Buyers had the option to collect the several pamphlets together under a single cover, though few seem to have done so.  In a description of the copy now in the collections of the Princeton University Library, the William Reese Company declared, “We can locate only three copies of this rarity, those at the Library of Congress, Massachusetts Historical and American Antiquarian Society.”  That colonizers did not bind the Petition with other pamphlets, however, does not necessarily mean that they did not purchase or read it.  Thomas described the Petition as “Worthy the perusal of his Majesty and every subject in his dominions.”  As the imperial crisis intensified in the winter and spring of 1775, readers may have been eager to consume as much as they could about the positions taken by the First Continental Congress, including this eight-page pamphlet for “two coppers.”  In an advertisement for another political pamphlet claimed that such a “small price” made it affordable to “every person who is desirous” of reading about “our political Controversy.”

August 4

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , ,

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

New-York Journal (August 4, 1774).

“A complete collection of what may be with propriety stiled, AMERICAN STATE PAPERS.”

As the imperial crisis intensified, colonizers looked to the past as they considered their present circumstances and the future.  In the summer of 1774, an anonymous compiler issued a proposal for collecting and printing “AMERICAN STATE PAPERS” that documented the history of British North America.  The compiler acknowledged that recent events in the colonies “attract[ed] attention” and promoted “many inquiries” among the curious with “little, or no connection with the British colonies in America” as well as others with “perhaps more interested motives.”  Yet information about the history of the colonies, both the distant past and more recent events, was not readily accessible “by every person.”  Even those with means to travel in search of documents that told “the story of [the] rise and progress” of the colonies would spend more time seeking them out than reading them.  The compiler presented a published collection of “AMERICAN STATE PAPERS” as the solution, one that would make a “good American history” widely accessible while also “preserving from oblivion valuable materials” that otherwise might be lost, damaged, or destroyed.

The compiler envisioned a project that went back to “the grant from Henry 7th, to John Cabot, and his sons for making discoveries.”  It would also include “every important public paper (such as royal grants, charters, acts of parliament, &c. &c.) relating to America.”  Despite such an extensive scope, the compiler emphasized the recent past, the events that were part of the imperial crisis that colonizers currently experienced as Parliament sought to regulate trade and oversee governance much more than in the past.  The compiler considered the “history of the STAMP-ACT, and other acts of the British parliament for raising a revenue among us by internal taxation;– Resolves of the American assemblies;– Votes of town meeting;– and such political pamphlets and other fugitive pieces” worthy of preservation and inclusion.  A significant portion of this collection would be devoted to sources that told the story of the American Revolution; the compiler detailed a plan for constructing a narrative even before the war for independence began.

The proposal gave some details about the publication, indicating that it “may be comprised in five volumes octavo, and … the price of each volume, well bound and lettered, will not exceed one dollar and a half,” yet did more than call on readers to reserve copies by subscribing.  The compiler sought “friendly assistance” in acquiring documents that belonged in the collection.  To that end, he “begs that gentlemen who are possessed of proper materials for this purpose, will be kind enough to favour him with the use of them,” trusting that “they shall be carefully returned.”  The compiler then gave a list of local agents who accepted documents and “safely forwarded” them in addition to accepting subscriptions.  Printers, postmasters, and booksellers in fifteen towns in ten colonies participated in this endeavor, establishing a community of common interest across vasty distances.  The list of local agents underscored a common cause that extended across the colonies, a political project that looked to history to inform arguments about the rights and liberties that the colonies had enjoyed and should continue to experience.  The proposed collection of “AMERICAN STATE PAPERS” commodified the past, especially the decade of the imperial crisis.  It was part of the commodification of the American Revolution that occurred before the first shots at Lexington and Concord.

May 11

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , ,

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

Pennsylvania Journal (May 11, 1774).

“Booksellers, in any part of America, may be supplied with frontispieces of any kind.”

When John Norman, an “ARCHITECT and LANDSCAPE-ENGRAVER, from London,” arrived in Philadelphia in the spring of 1774, he introduced himself to the public with an advertisement in the May 11 edition of the Pennsylvania Journal.  He offered his services to “Any Gentlemen, who please to favour him their commands,” promising that they “may depend on having their work carefully and expeditiously executed on the lowest terms and in the best manner.”  The newcomer promised quality engravings at the best prices.  In addition to local customers, he also sought clients in other cities and towns.  In a nota bene, he addressed “Booksellers, in any part of America,” informing them that they “may be supplied with frontispieces of any kind.”  He produced such work “as reasonable as in England,” while also pledging to meet the schedules of his clients.  For those marketing books with frontispieces by subscription, Norman would invest “great care … to dispatch [the engravings] at the time they are wanted.”

Norman experienced success, first in Philadelphia and later in Boston.  He eventually became “one of the significant cartographic engravers and publishers of the early Republic.”  In 1775, he published an American edition of Abraham Swan’s The British Architect: or, the Builder’s Treasury of Staircases, printed by Robert Bell.  The copies in the collections of the American Antiquarian Society and the Library of Congress have two subscription proposals and a list of “ENCOURAGERS” (or subscribers) bound into them.  The engraver hoped that after recruiting nearly two hundred subscribers for The British Architect that the “generous ARTISTS, who encouraged this AMERICAN EDITION, and all others who wish to see useful and ornamental ARCHITECTURE flourish in AMERICA” would reserve one or more copies of “THE GENTLEMAN AND CABINET-MAKERS’S ASSISTANT” and “A COLLECTION OF DESIGNS IN ARCHITECTURE.”  For both volumes, “SUBSCRIPTIONS are gratefully received” by Norman and Bell in Philadelphia and local agents in Annapolis, Baltimore, Charleston, and New York.

The engraver relocated to Boston during the Revolutionary War.  In the final years of the war, he produced portraits of patriot leaders, including His Excellency George Washington, Esqr., General and Commander in Chief of the Allied Armies, Supporting the Independence of America; The Honorable Samuel Adams, Esqr., First Delegate to Congress from Massachusetts; and His Excellency Nathaniel Green, Esqr., Major General of the American Army.  In 1782, Norman engraved, published, and advertised Plan of the Town of Boston, with the ATTACK on BUNKERS-HILL, in the Peninsula of CHARLESTOWN, the 17th of June, 1775.  His engravings, both portraits and maps, contributed to the commodification of patriotism during the era of the American Revolution, a different sort of project than the “ARCHITECT and LANDSCAPE-ENGRAVER” first envisioned in his advertisement in the Pennsylvania Journal.

April 11

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

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

Boston-Gazette (April 11, 1774).

“The SECOND EDITION of Mr. HANCOCK’S ORATION.”

Benjamin Edes and John Gill, printers of the Boston-Gazette, gave their advertisement for the “SECOND EDITION of Mr. HANCOCK’S ORATION Deliver’d March 5th” a privileged place in their newspaper.  Readers did not need further explanation to understand that “March 5th” referred to the date of the Boston Massacre and that Hancock had been selected to give the annual address that memorialized the victims and raised an alarm about the danger of quartering an army in an urban center, like Boston, during times of peace.

Still, Edes and Gill, who printed the “ORATION” as well as the newspaper, did what they could to draw attention to the second edition.  The first time they announced it was “This Day Published,” in the April 4, 1774, edition of the Boston-Gazette, they ran the notice immediately below news and editorials.  Even if readers chose not to peruse other advertisements closely once they realized they had finished the news, they likely took note of the advertisement for the “ORATION” in its place of transition from one kind of content to another.  In the next issue of the weekly newspaper, the notice ran at the bottom of the last column on the first page, the only advertisement on that page.  Once again, the patriot printers increased the likelihood that readers would spot that advertisement and accept an invitation to demonstrate their own commitment to the patriot cause by purchasing copies for themselves.

That Edes and Gill published a “SECOND EDITION” testified to the demand for the first edition.  It sold well enough to justify another printing.  Edes and Gill took it to press just a few months after the Boston Tea Party and just a few weeks after another destruction of tea.  Although that second Boston Tea Party is not nearly as well known today, it was certainly among the current events that would have been on the minds of colonizers as they participated in commemorating the fourth anniversary of the Boston Massacre, discussed the politics of tea, and decried various abuses perpetrated by Parliament.  Purchasing and reading Hancock’s “ORATION” was part of the growing resistance to British rule in the colonies, a means for consumers to practice politics in the marketplace and imbibe the rhetoric of a noted patriot long after the Boston Massacre’s annual commemorative events concluded.