Connecticut Gazette

March 29

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , ,

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

Connecticut Gazette (March 29, 1775).

“FREEBETTER’s New-England ALMANACK, To be Sold by T. GREEN.”

Timothy Green, the printer of the Connecticut Gazette, needed something short to complete the first column on the last page of the March 29, 1776, edition of his newspaper.  Most of the column consisted of news from Williamsburg, Philadelphia, New York, and Providence, but those updates did not quite fill the column.  He seized the opportunity to insert an advertisement for “FREEBETTER’s New-England ALMANACK” available at his printing office in New London.  It was late to advertise an almanac.  After all, one quarter of the year already elapsed, yet readers would still find many of the contents useful or entertaining.

Throughout the colonies, advertisements for almanacs usually began appearing as fall arrived.  They increased in number and frequency as the new year approached before tapering off during the winter months.  When they had surplus copies, some printers continued advertising their almanacs into March, though they often ran less elaborate notices than those they used to promote the popular pamphlets when they first came off the press.  Green, for instance, ran a much longer advertisement for “FREEBETTER’s New-England ALMANACK, For the Year of Our LORD, 1776,” in December 1775, encouraging readers to acquire their copies before the new year began.  That advertisement featured an overview of the contents, including reference material like “Feasts and Fasts of the Church of England; Time of High-Water [or high tide]; Courts; Roads; [and] useful Tables” and “useful and entertaining Pieces” like “A cheap, easy, and tried Remedy for the Bloody Purging” and an essay “On the Folly of those who vex themselves with fruitless Wishes.”

Green devoted much more space in his newspapers to the advertisement he ran in early December than to the one in late March.  He likely realized that he had much better prospects for selling almanacs before the first of the year, yet he still thought he had a chance to make some sales in early spring.  Still, the placement and length of his latest advertisement suggests that he decided to insert it, at least in part, because he needed to fill the space at the bottom of a column and not solely because he prioritized marketing the remaining copies of the almanac.

March 1

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

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

Connecticut Gazette (March 1, 1776).

“Such has been the Demand for this Pamphlet, that eight Editions of it have been printed.”

Timothy Green, the printer of the Connecticut Gazette in New London, updated his advertisement for a local edition of Thomas Paine’s Common Sense that he jointly published with Judah P. Spooner, his brother-in-law and former apprentice who ran a printing office in Norwich.  A week earlier, Green announced the imminent publication of the pamphlet in short advertisement: “To-morrow will be published, and sold by the Printer hereof, and by J.P. Spooner in Norwich; COMMON SENSE; ADDRESSED TO THE INHABITANTS OF AMERICA.”  Green hoped to incite a sense of anticipation among prospective customers.

Once he had copies available for sale at his printing office in New London, Green ran a more extensive advertisement, one that resembled advertisements in other newspapers placed by publishers and booksellers who sold editions published in Philadelphia, New York, and Providence.  In addition to the title of the pamphlet, the advertisement listed the “following interesting SUBJECTS” that Paine covered, replicating section headings that included “Of Monarchy and Hereditary Succession” and “Thoughts on the present State of AMERICAN Affairs.”  Since Paine remained anonymous at that time, the advertisement stated that the pamphlet was “WRITTEN BY AN ENGLISHMAN.”  Green also included the epigraph, two lines of “Liberty,” a poem by James Thomson, that appeared on the title page of the first edition and in advertisements for that and other editions.

In general, Green did not generate new copy for his advertisement for this edition of Common Sense, but he did add an original note at the end: “Such has been the Demand for this Pamphlet, that eight Editions of it have been printed in different Colonies, in the Course of a few Weeks only.”  For those who had not heard about the incendiary pamphlet and the bold ideas that Paine presented, Green hoped that its popularity in other places would convince them not to miss reading it for themselves by purchasing a local edition.  His tabulation of “eight Editions” suggested that he closely examined the advertisements in newspapers printed in other cities and towns delivered to his printing office as part of a network for sharing information and reprinting content from newspaper to newspaper to newspaper.  Green did not peruse just the news accounts and editorials.  He apparently took note of the competing editions published in Philadelphia and local editions advertised in other places.  Bringing attention to such demand, he reasoned, would spur sales of a local edition of Common Sense in New London.

February 23

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

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

Connecticut Gazette (February 23, 1776).

“Sold by the Printer hereof … COMMON SENSE.”

On February 23, 1776, Timothy Green, the printer of the Connecticut Gazette, announced the publication of yet another local edition of Thomas Paine’s Common Sense.  He joined other printers in publishing, advertising, and disseminating the incendiary political pamphlet far beyond Philadelphia, where Robert Bell published and advertised the first edition on January 9.  Since then, Bell produced an unauthorized second edition and Paine worked with William Bradford and Thomas Bradford, the printers of the Pennsylvania Journal, on an expanded new edition (and they engaged in a public argument about the competing editions in the Pennsylvania Evening Post and other newspapers published in Philadelphia).  The Bradfords also informed readers that a German edition was in the works.  In addition, they indicated that they would fill an order from Virginia for one thousand copies.  It did not take long for William Green, a bookseller and bookbinder in New York, to advertise copies of Bell’s first and second editions.  John Anderson, the printer of the Constitutional Gazette in New York, soon marketed the first local edition published beyond Philadelphia.  By the middle of February, John Carter, the printer of the Providence Gazette, advised readers that his local edition would hit the market within a week.

That edition went on sale at the same time that Green released a local edition in New London.  According to the advertisement, Judah P. Spooner, his brother-in-law and former apprentice who operated a printing office in Norwich, sold the pamphlet there as well.  The imprint on the title page suggested that Green and Spooner collaborated as publishers, but Spooner did the printing: “Philadelphia: Printed.  Norwich: Re-printed and sold by Judah P. Spooner, and by T. Green, in New-London.”  Green gave their advertisement a privileged place in the Connecticut Gazette, placing it immediately after updates from Hartford.  That made it difficult for readers to miss.  He did not, however, include elements that often appeared in advertisements for other editions in other newspapers, such as the list of section headers that outlined the contents or the epigraph from “Liberty,” a poem by James Thomson.  Lack of space may have prevented Green from publishing a more elaborate advertisement, though he may have considered the buzz around Common Sense sufficient to sell it once prospective customers knew where to purchase a local edition.

January 12

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

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

Connecticut Gazette (January 12, 1776).

“(Advertisements omitted will be in our next.)”

Instead of the usual four pages, the January 12, 1776, edition of the Connecticut Gazette consisted of only two pages.  Most issues of colonial newspapers had four pages, created by printing two pages on each side of a broadsheet and folding it in half.  Timothy Green, the printer of the Connecticut Gazette, had only enough paper that he was forced to condense the contents to a half sheet, one page printed on each side.  He certainly was not the only printer to experience a disruption in his paper supply during the first year of the Revolutionary War.

Green acknowledged the situation with a note that appeared at the top of the first column on the first page: “[The want of Paper obliges us to issue only a Half Sheet this Week: In which, however, is digested every material Article that is come to Hand.]”  In other words, subscribers and other readers did not need to worry that they missed important news because Green did not have enough space to print it.  Instead, he carefully undertook his duties as an editor to include everything of importance received in the printing office since the previous week’s issue of the Connecticut Gazette.  The small font for news items, smaller than the font used for advertisements, also allowed Green to squeeze a significant amount of content into just two pages.

Connecticut Gazette (January 12, 1776).

What about the advertisements?  Only three paid notices appeared in that issue, one for “Journeyman NAIL SMITHS” immediately below the printer’s note on the first page and two more at the bottom of the final column on the second page.  The printer concluded the issue with a brief note: “(Advertisements omitted will be in our next.)”  Green assured advertisers, especially those who paid in advance of publication, that the Connecticut Gazette would indeed disseminate their notices.  In this instance, however, he prioritized the needs of subscribers (many of whom did not make timely payments) and other readers (who did not pay the printer at all) over advertisers (who comprised an important revenue stream).  It was a careful balancing act for all colonial printers as they served multiple constituencies simultaneously.  For this issue, Green considered keeping subscribers and the rest of the public informed about “The King’s SPEECH, to both Houses of Parliament, October 26, 1775,” and news from London, Philadelphia, New York, Newport, Worcester, and Watertown (where the Continental Army continued the siege of Boston) more important than publishing many of the advertisements submitted to his printing office.

December 24

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

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

Connecticut Gazette (December 22, 1775).

“All kinds of Work both in the Plain and Regimental Way.”

When Edward Davis placed an advertisement in the Connecticut Gazette in December 1775, it looked much like advertisements that other tailors ran in newspapers throughout the colonies.  He stated that he “performs in the neatest and genteelest Manner, and at the most reasonable Prices, all kinds of Work.”  In just a few words, he emphasized his skill and made appeals to quality, fashion, and price.  “Any Gentlemen who are disposed to honour him with their Commands,” Davis declared, “he will faithfully serve and with the utmost Punctuality; and will with Gratitude acknowledge the smallest Favours conferr’d on their most obedient Servant.”  Those overtures promising exemplary customer service echoed advertisements placed by many other shopkeepers and artisans.

Yet Davis’s notice also contained some distinctive features that resonated with current events.  He introduced himself as a “TAYLOR from BOSTON” who “Has taken a Shop in the Parish of Scotland, in Windham, near the Meeting House.” Newcomers often used newspaper advertisements to introduce themselves when they moved to a new town, hoping to attract the attention of prospective customers.  At other times, Davis’s previous experience in Boston would have supported his claim to make garment in the “genteelest Manner,” bringing the styles of the bustling urban port to the countryside.  In this instance, however, noting that he came “from BOSTON” might have signaled that he was a refugee who departed the city during the exchange negotiated by General Thomas Gage and the Sons of Liberty after the battles at Lexington and Concord.  At the time Davis ran his advertisement, the siege continued.  In Connecticut and Rhode Island, the frequency of advertisers describing themselves as “from BOSTON” seemed to increase, likely reflecting decisions made by many residents to leave when they had the chance.  After all, they had already experienced the distresses that ensued when Parliament passed the Boston Port Act to close the harbor until colonizers made restitution for the tea destroyed in December 1773.  Davis made another nod to the war that began the previous April.  In addition to “Plain” clothing, he also made items in the “Regimental Way” to outfit soldiers and officers.  At a glance, his advertisement looked like so many others placed by tailors, but on closer inspection it testified to the times and the transition from imperial crisis to warfare.

December 8

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

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

Connecticut Gazette (December 8, 1775).

“All Gentlemen Seamen and Marines, willing to serve their Country … are desired to call on me.”

A variety of advertisements ran in the December 8, 1775, edition of the Connecticut Gazette.  Some marketed consumer goods and services, one described an indentured servant who ran away, one offered a “convenient Dwelling-House for Sale,” and a couple concerned strayed livestock.  The advertisement that appeared first after the news, however, was a recruiting notice.  A thick black line helped to draw attention to it, though that visual element that signified mourning was part of the memorial to “Mrs. FAITH HUNTINGTON, the late amiable Consort of Col. JEDEDIAH HUNTINGTON of Norwich … and greatly beloved Daughter of the Honorable Governor [Jonathan] TRUMBULL,” the only governor who supported the American cause at the beginning of the Revolutionary War.  The memorial attributed Huntington’s death to the distress she experienced during her husband’s absence from their home while he dedicated himself to military service, declaring that the “Authors of American Oppression and the public Calamity, are accountable for her death.”  That assertion may have helped rally readers to respond to the recruiting notice that appeared immediately after the memorial.  “All Gentlemen Seamen and Marines, willing to serve their Country under the Direction of the CONTINENTAL CONGRESS, in the glorious Cause of LIBERTY,” it proclaimed, “are desired to call on me at New-London, where suitable Encouragement will be offered for said Service.”  Dudley Saltonstall signed the notice.

Who was Dudley Saltonstall?  The finding aid for the Dudley Saltonstall Papers at the Penobscot Marine Museum notes that Saltonstall “sailed as a privateer during the Seven Years’ War.  At the beginning of the Revolutionary War, he was one of the first men commissioned by Connecticut as a Navy captain.”  His brother-in-law, Silas Deane, a delegate to the First Continental Congress and the Second Continental Congress, recommended Saltonstall.  He also had a career as a slave trader.  In 1779, he had command of an expedition “sent to dislodge the British from Castine, Maine.”  The Penobscot Expedition resulted in failure, the entire American fleet lost, and Saltonstall court martialed and dismissed from the Continental Navy.  Although Saltonstall is now best known for the Penobscot Expedition, at the time he placed this recruiting notice in the Connecticut Gazette he was putting together a crew for other ventures.  A few months later, he sailed for the Bahamas to acquire gunpowder.  The fleet captured Nassau, but only after the governor moved most of the gunpowder.

December 1

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

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

Connecticut Gazette (December 1, 1775).

“Sold by the several Post-Riders, and by the Shop-keepers in Town and Country.”

With only a month until the new year began, Timothy Green, the printer of the Connecticut Gazette, advertised “FREEBETTER’s New-England ALMANACK, For the Year of Our LORD, 1776.”  He emphasized items that usually appeared in almanacs and called attention to special features.  The former included the “rising and setting of the Sun and Moon; rising and setting of the Planets; length of Days; Lunations; Eclipses; Judgment of the Weather; Feasts and Fasts of the Chrich of England; Times of High-Water; Courts; Roads; useful Tables; [and] the Anatomy of Man’s Body as governed by the Twelve Constellations.”  The special features included a “whimsical Story of KAHM, late Emperor of China,” and a “Geneological Account of the Kings of England.”  They also included an “Account of Sitodium-altile, or the Bread-fruit Tree; from S. Parkinson’s Journal of a Voyage to the South-Seas, in his Majesty’s ship the Endeavour” and an essay on “the Folly of those who vex themselves with fruitless Wishes, or give Way to groundless and unreasonable Disquietude; –being an Extract from a late Publication.”  Green may have intended those excerpts as teasers to encourage readers to purchase the original works at his printing office in New London.

To acquire the almanac, however, customers did not have to visit Green or send an order to him.  Instead, he advised that “the several Post-Riders” with routes in the region and “the Shop-keepers in Town and Country” also sold “FREEBETTER’s New-England ALMANACK, For … 1776.”  The printer established a distribution network for the useful reference manual.  Shopkeepers often stocked a variety of almanacs so their customers could choose among popular titles.  Printers sometimes offered discount prices for purchasing multiple copies, usually by the dozen or by the hundred.  That allowed retailers to charge competitive prices to generate revenue with small markups over what they paid.  In this instance, Green did not indicate how much shopkeepers paid for the almanac, only that it sold for “4d. Single” or four pence for one copy.  That constrained shopkeepers when it came to marking up prices.  In addition to shopkeepers, “several Post-Riders” sold the almanac.  That arrangement meant greater convenience for customers and, printers hoped, increased sales and circulation.  In the 1770s, printers in New England began mentioning postriders in their advertisements for almanacs and other printed materials, perhaps acknowledging an existing practice or perhaps establishing a new means of engaging with customers.  The price that Green listed in his advertisement also kept customers aware of reasonable prices charged by post riders.

October 27

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

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

Connecticut Gazette (October 27, 1775).

“AN AMERICAN EDITION.”

Calls to “Buy American” during the imperial crisis and the Revolutionary War extended to advertisements for books.  In the October 27, 1775, edition of the Connecticut Gazette, Timothy Green, the printer, promoted three works published in the colonies and available at his printing office in New London.  He addressed the advertisement to “all the Friends of American Manufactures, who distinguish themselves by that noble Patriotism of promoting and encouraging Literature on this extensive Continent.”

Those books included the “MEMOIRS of the LIFE of the Rev. GEORGE WHITEFIELD,” one of the most famous ministers of the era.  When he died in Newburyport, Massachusetts, on September 30, 1770, news spread throughout the colonies as widely and as quickly as news about the Boston Massacre earlier that year.  John Gillies compiled the memoir from Whitefield’s “Original Papers, Journals, and Letters” and added “a particular Account of his Death and Funeral; and Extracts from the Sermons which were preached on that Occasion.”  They originally appeared in a London edition published in 1772, but Green most likely sold an American edition printed by Robert Hodge and Frederick Shober in New York in 1774.

For another of the books, The Works of Flavius Josephus in four volumes, Green triumphantly proclaimed that it was an “AMERICAN EDITION.”  Earlier in the eighteenth century, American printers sometimes put a London imprint on the title page of books they printed in the colonies, believing that customers preferred imported works.  Mitch Fraas, curator at the Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books, and Manuscripts at the University of Pennsylvania, notes the prevalence of “books printed in America … bearing the false imprint of European cities.”  That seems to have been the case with two 1773 editions of The Works of Flavius Josephus with a New York imprint yet “Probably printed in Glasgow,” according to the entries in the American Antiquarian Society’s catalog.  Yet colonizers had access to an authentic American edition … and Hodge and Shober had been involved in the production, just as they had printed an edition of The Christian Oeconomy, the final book in Green’s advertisement, in 1773.

Rather than looking to London to provide them with books, some printers and booksellers embraced American editions and encouraged prospective customers to do the same.  Green framed doing so as the patriotic duty of “Friends of American Manufactures” who supported the American cause and participated in the Continental Association, a nonimportation agreement enacted throughout the colonies in response to the Coercive Acts.  Readers could do their part to defend American liberties through the choices they made in the marketplace, including purchasing an “AMERICAN EDITION” when they went to the bookstore.

October 6

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , ,

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

“Ran-away … a Negro Man Servant named JACK.”

Connecticut Gazette (October 6, 1775).

Even as it carried essays about the imperial crisis and news about one of the first battles of the Revolutionary War, the October 6, 1775, edition of the Connecticut Gazette also ran advertisements described enslaved men and women who liberated themselves by running away from their enslavers.  Each notice encouraged readers to engage in surveillance of Black people they encountered to determine if they matched the description in the newspaper.  Each also offered a reward to those who assisted in capturing fugitives from slavery and returning them to their enslavers.

One of those advertisements, for instance, described a “Negro Man Servant named JACK” who fled from Samuel Hassard of South Kingstown, Rhode Island, at the beginning of September.  He had managed to elude capture for a month.  Hassard described Jack as a “well-built Fellow about five Feet 7 or 8 Inches high,” but did not indicate his approximate age.  At the time he departed, he wore a “maple colour’d Serge Jacket, a striped Flannel [Jacket], black Breeches, white Shirt, [and] an old Beaver Hat cut after the new Fashion.”  Hassard also mentioned that Jack “had a Fiddle with him, which he much delights in” and that he “Hath the Hair cut off the top of his Head.”  Both details made Jack more easily recognizable to readers of the Connecticut Gazette.

In another advertisement, Mortemore Stodder of Groton described a “Negro Girl about 17 or 18 Years old” whose name was once known but did not appear in the notice.  Instead, Stodder informed readers that the “thick set” young woman “speaks good English” and “has a Scar across her Nose and another Scar on the top of one Foot occasioned by a burn.”  In addition to those distinguishing features, she “[h]ad on a tow Shift, a striped woollen Petticoat, and a brown Gown.”  Stodder was so concerned that others might help the young woman remain free that he added a nota bene advising, “All Persons are hereby forbid to harbour, conceal, or carry off the above Servant, on Penalty of the Law.”  There would be consequences beyond Stodder’s frustration and displeasure if he learned that anyone aided this young woman in liberating herself.

As the siege of Boston continued, Timothy Green, the printer of the Connecticut Gazette, published the latest entry in “The Crisis,” a series of essays supporting the American cause, new details about the Battle of Bunker Hill, and an address from George Washington, “Commander in Chief of the Army of the United Colonies of North-America,” to the inhabitants of Canada.  Even as those pieces each promoted liberty in various ways, Green continued a practice adopted by all newspaper printers.  He generated revenue by disseminating advertisements about enslaved people who fled from their enslavers to seize their own freedom.

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For all advertisements about enslaved people that ran in American newspapers published 250 years ago today, visit the Slavery Adverts 250 Project‘s daily digest.

September 17

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , ,

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

Connecticut Gazette (September 15, 1775).

“Excellent Accommodations for Passengers.”

In the early months of the Revolutionary War, colonizers who needed to travel between Norwich and New London had an option other going by road between the two towns.  They could instead book passage on “BRADDICK’s NORWICH and NEW-LONDON PASSAGE-BOAT,” according to John Braddick’s advertisement in the September 15, 1775, edition of the Connecticut Gazette.  He offered that service “every Day in the Week, Wind and Weather permitting,” though his advertisement did not specify the time that the boat departed from each town.  Presumably it left Norwich in the morning, sailed about fifteen miles down the Thames River to New London on the coast, remained there for a few hours, and returned in the late afternoon before darkness arrived.  Prospective passengers could get more information from Braddick at his house near Chelsea Landing in Norwich or at the London Coffee House in New London.

Connecticut Gazette (September 15, 1775).

The same issue also carried an advertisement for “Henry Bates’s New-London and New-Haven Passage Boat.”  His service ran weekly rather than daily, transporting passengers over a much longer distance.  Despite the name in the advertisement, Bates’s passage boat actually originated in Norwich on Mondays and remained in New London overnight, departing for New Haven on Tuesdays.  The boat departed for the return trip through the Long Island Sound on Thursdays, though Bates did not indicate whether it arrived in New Haven on Tuesdays or Wednesdays or when it made its stop in New London.  He did state that his service depended on “Wind and Weather.”  Prospective customers could learn more “at Mr. Eliott’s, at the Town Wharf” in New London and “at Mr. Thatcher’s, at the Long-Wharf” in New Haven.

Newspaper advertisements advised readers of the transportation infrastructure that linked cities and towns in the colonies.  Most such advertisements promoted stage services, but along the Connecticut coastline travelers had other options.  Both Bates and Braddick emphasized the “excellent Accommodations” they provided for passengers, attempting to convince them that passage boats offered the most comfortable as well as the fastest way to travel from one town to another.