Domestic Manufactures

November 14

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , ,

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

Dunlap’s Maryland Gazette (November 14, 1775).

“He has set up … the business of SPINNING WHEEL Making.”

David Poe established a workshop for making spinning wheels in Baltimore in the fall of 1775.  To attract the attention of prospective customers, he placed an advertisement in the November 14 edition of Dunlap’s Maryland Gazette, advising “his friends in particular, and the public in general, that he has set up … the business of SPINNING WHEEL Making in all its branches.”  Rather than make one spinning wheel at a time, he could produce them in quantity, “having supplied himself with a number of prime workmen for that purpose.”  Poe did not specify whether those “prime workmen” were free, indentured, or enslaved.  He instead emphasized that he “will engage to make Little Spinning or Great Wheels, equal to any made in this country.”  Furthermore, he invited readers to see for themselves, stating that he “hopes upon trial” spinning wheels made in his workshop “will prove the fact.”

Poe advertised spinning wheels at a time that they became political symbols.  In response to the Coercive Acts that Parliament passed to punish Boston after the destruction of imported tea during a protest now known as the Boston Tea Party, the First Continental Congress devised the Continental Association, a nonimportation, nonconsumption, and nonexportation pact that called on colonizers to abstain from purchasing goods, including textiles, imported from England.  The agreement also included a call for colonizers to “encourage Frugality, Economy, and Industry; and promote Agriculture, Arts, and the Manufactures of this Country, especially that of Wool.”  Poe heeded that call as homespun cloth produced in the colonies became a fashionable political statement.  Newspapers carried reports of women participating in politics by holding spinning bees in public spaces.  Rather than a useful tool operated in domestic settings, the spinning wheel became a symbol of public commitment to the American cause, a visible demonstration to friends, neighbors, and the rest of the community that industrious women hoped would inspire others to follow their lead.  Poe did his part, aiming to provide “Any Lady or Gentleman” with spinning wheels for their households.  He did not make direct reference to the Continental Association or the events that had unfolded in the seven months since the battles at Lexington and Concord, but he did not need to do so.  Readers certainly understood the connection between spinning wheels and current events.

October 30

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , ,

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

Boston-Gazette (October 30, 1775).

“He pays cash for all kinds of homespun cloths.”

Enoch Brown, a shopkeeper, had a history of promoting domestic manufactures (or goods made in the colonies) as alternative to items imported from Britain.  In the spring of 1768, for instance, he ran an advertisement alerting “those Persons who are desirous of Promoting our Own Manufactures … That he takes in all Sorts of Country-made Cloths at his Store on Boston Neck.”  In the wake of learning about duties levied on certain imported goods in the Townshend Revenue Act, many colonizers set about organizing nonimportation agreements.  They simultaneously embraced goods produced locally as a means of supporting the colonial economy and correcting a trade imbalance with Britain.  Several years later, Brown ran another advertisement with similar themes in January 1775.  Bearing the headline “American Manufacture,” that notice emphasized that the variety of textiles Brown stocked “were manufactured in this Province, and are equal in quality to any, and superior to most imported from England, and much cheaper than can be produced from any part of Europe.”

Although Brown had been at the same location for years, he departed Boston for Watertown following the battles at Lexington and Concord.  That presented challenges for both Brown and his customers, so “for greater Conveniency” he once again moved, this time to “Little-Cambridge” in the fall of 1775.  When he opened his shop, he advertised a “Variety of Winter Goods” for the coming season as well as “sagathees, duroys, camblets,” and other textiles “of American manufacture, which he sells extreme cheap.”  Customers could acquire any of those for low prices, despite the disruptions taking place as the siege of Boston continued.  Committed to giving consumers choices that matched their political principles, Brown sought new merchandise made locally.  In a nota bene at the end of his advertisement, he declared that he “pays cash for all kinds of homespun cloths.”  In so doing, he filled the role of intermediary between producers and consumers, giving both the opportunity to support the American cause.  After all, the Continental Association devised by the First Continental Congress did not merely instruct consumers to cease purchasing imported goods but also called on colonizers to “encourage Frugality, Economy, and Industry; and promote Agriculture, Arts, and the Manufactures of this Country.”  As a shopkeeper who bought and sold homespun cloth, Brown did his part.

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 24

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

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

Pennsylvania Evening Post (October 25, 1775).

“THE AMERICAN GLASS STORE is removed from Second-street.”

The advertisement consisted of only five lines in the October 24, 1775, edition of the Pennsylvania Evening Post, yet it spoke volumes about the current events.  “THE AMERICAN GLASS STORE,” the notice informed the public, “is removed from Second-street, to James Stuart’s in Front-street, below Walnut-street, where shopkeepers and others may be supplied with an assortment of FLINT and GREEN GLASS WARE, at reasonable rates.”  It was one of many advertisements that presented opportunities for colonizers to “Buy American” during the imperial crisis that eventually became a war for independence.

On several occasions, supporters of the American cause participated in boycotts in hopes of using their participation in the marketplace as leverage to achieve political ends.  They organized nonimportation agreements in response to the Stamp Act in 1765 and in response to the duties levied on certain imported goods, including glass, in the Townshend Acts in the late 1760s.  Simultaneously, they called for “domestic manufactures” or goods produced in the colonies as alternatives to imported wares.  In August 1769, Richard Wistar advertised products from his “GLASS-WORKS,” items “of American manufactory” produced in Pennsylvania, “consequently clear of the duties the Americans so justly complain of.”  The most extensive and coordinated boycott, the Continental Association devised by the First Continental Congress in response to the Coercive Acts, went into effect on December 1, 1774.  Within a week, the “Proprietors of the GLASS HOUSE near this city,” Philadelphia, advertised “White and Green Glass Ware; Such as are usually imported from Great-Britain.”  The proprietors accepted orders from “store-keepers and others, both of town and country.”  As the imperial crisis intensified, savvy entrepreneurs opened an “AMERICAN GLASS STORE” in Philadelphia, an establishment that specialized in glassware produced locally.  The Continental Association specified that colonizers “will, in our several Stations, encourage Frugality, Economy, and Industry; and promote Agriculture, Arts, and the Manufactures of this Country.”  Local producers of glassware delivered, but they needed retailers and consumers to do their part as well.  The brief advertisement in the Pennsylvania Evening Post let shopkeepers and other customers, all of them very much aware of the events of the last decade, know where they could express their political principles by purchasing American glassware.

October 8

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

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

Providence Gazette (October 7, 1775).

“He presumes every Friend to America, both in Town and Country, will encourage him occasionally.”

When Cornelius Cooper, a “BRUSH-MAKER, from Philadelphia,” relocated to Providence, he ran an advertisement in the October 7, 1775, edition of the Providence Gazette to introduce himself to his new neighbors and prospective customers.  The newcomer announced that he “makes and sells, Wholesale and Retail, Sweeping, Hearth, Cloaths, Shoe and Buckle Brushes, and every other Article in the Brush Way.”

Realizing that he was unknown to the residents of Providence, Cooper realized that he might increase sales by giving them sound reasons to purchase his brushes, either to use themselves or to stock in their shops to sell to others.  “As our own Fabrications, of every Kind, hold forth their Utility, in a most conspicuous Manner,” the brushmaker declared, “he presumes every Friend to America, both in Town and Country, will encourage him occasionally.”  Cooper did not need to rehearse current events for readers to understand his meaning.  They knew that the siege of Boston continued, following the battles at Lexington and Concord in April and the Battle of Bunker Hill in June.  They also knew that the Continental Association, a nonimportation agreement devised by the First Continental Congress, went into effect on December 1, 1774, in response to the Coercive Acts.  Colonizers sought to use commerce, especially their choices about consumption, as political leverage to convince Parliament to repeal the Boston Port Bill, the Massachusetts Government Act, and other legislation.  The Continental Association also called on colonizers to encourage domestic manufactures or the production of goods in the colonies as replacements or substitutes for imported ones.  Cooper did his part in making brushes.  Now “every Friend to America” needed to do their part by supporting his enterprise.

Making purchases was not the only way they could do so.  In a nota bene, Cooper requested “that People will be careful to save their Hogs Bristles, for which he will give a good Price in Cash.”  Consuming goods made in the colonies was important, but colonizers could also participate in the production of those goods by collecting materials, delivering them to Cooper, and earning some cash for their efforts.  The brushmaker also noted that he sought an apprentice, “a discreet, active Lad, about 14 Years of Age.”  He would pass along knowledge of his trade and make help the next generation contribute to the local economy.  Readers understood the inspiration and political ramifications without Cooper going into detail in his advertisement.  He presented them with a patriotic obligation and encouraged them to do their civic duty in the marketplace.

September 24

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

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

New-York Journal (September 21, 1775).

“EARTHENWARE … equal to the best of any imported from Philadelphia, or elsewhere.”

As fall arrived in 1775, Jonathan Durell took to the pages of the New-York Journal to advertised “EARTHENWARE” that he made locally and sold “at the well-known House called Katechemet’s Mead-House” on the outskirts of the city.  The potter offered a variety of items, including, “butter, water, pickle and oyster pots, porringers, milk pans of several sizes, jugs of several sizes, chamber pots,” and “a variety of other sorts of ware, too tedious to particularize.”  Durrel promoted these items as “far superior to the generality, and equal to the best of any imported from Philadelphia, or elsewhere.”  He also reported that he had migrated to New York from Philadelphia.

Mentioning Philadelphia twice in his advertisement was intentional.  When Durell compared the quality of his earthenware to items imported into New York, he did not refer only to goods arriving from English manufactories, though looking to alternatives would have been on the minds of consumers while the Continental Association remained in effect.  Colonizers who wished to purchase “domestic manufactures” in support of their political principles knew that Philadelphia was an important center for pottery production.  Deborah Miller, an archaeologist, notes that Philadelphia Style earthenware “became recognized across the colonies for its quality and durability” by the middle of the eighteenth century.  Citing Durell’s advertisement, Edwin Atlee Barber states that “it would appear that even before the Revolution the wares made in Philadelphia had acquired a reputation abroad for excellence.”[1]  Durell’s pottery was not made in Philadelphia, but he had resided there and presumably used the same techniques to produce his earthenware.  As both consumers and “city and country store-keepers” sought goods made in the colonies, he presented an attractive option.

To increase his chances of making sales, Durell mentioned the “reasonable rates” he charged for his earthenware and provided a convenient service.  In a nota bene, he declared, “The purchaser of twenty shillings, or upwards, may depend on having it delivered in any part of this city, without charge.”  The potter hoped that free delivery would entice customers to take a chance on earthenware that he asserted matched any others, including products from Philadelphia, in its quality.

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[1] Edwin Atlee Barber, The Pottery and Porcelain of the United States: An Historical Review of American Ceramic Art from the Earliest Times to the Present Day (New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1893).

September 18

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , ,

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

Boston-Gazette (September 18, 1775).

“AN Assortment of Homespun Manufacture.”

It was a short advertisement, just four lines in the September 18, 1775, edition of the Boston-Gazette, but it spoke volumes about the times in which the advertiser placed it and colonizers read it.  “AN Assortment of Homespun Manufacture, suitable for the season,” the notice announced, “to be sold Cheap.  Inquire of OLIVER MONROE, Taylor, near the Bridge in Watertown.”  Even before the battles at Lexington and Concord marked a new chapter in the imperial crisis, homespun cloth became a symbol of resistance to British abuses, especially duties on imported goods imposed by Parliament.  Over the past decade, colonizers had participated in a series of boycotts, first to protest the Stamp Act in 1765, then in response to the Townshend Acts in the late 1760s, and again when they learned of the Coercive Acts in 1774.  Each time, consumers opted for homespun cloth produced in the colonies as an alternative to textiles imported from England.

At the time that Monroe ran his advertisement, the Continental Association remained in place.  It had gone nine months earlier.  In addition to prohibiting merchants and shopkeepers from selling goods received after December 1, 1774, it called on colonizers to “promote Agriculture, Arts, and the Manufactures of this Country.”  That included purchasing homespun rather than the “Fine assortment” of imported textiles, ranging from corduroys to striped hollands to cambrics, listed in a longer advertisement that appeared in the same column as Monroe’s short notice.  Monroe did not need to invest much effort in marketing his “Homespun Manufacture” because the times spoke for themselves.  Prospective customers already recognized the political significance of the choices they made in the marketplace.  That they read his advertisement in the Boston-Gazette, now published in Watertown as the siege of Boston continued, only underscored the importance of practicing politics when they went shopping.

August 22

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

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

Dunlap’s Maryland Gazette (August 22, 1775).

“BEST Scotch and Rappee Snuff … warranted good in quality and as well manufactured as any from Great Britain.”

The partnership of Cary and Somervell stocked and sold “a general Assortment of DRY GOODS” at their store in Baltimore in the summer of 1775, but that was not their primary reason for running an advertisement in the August 22 edition of Dunlap’s Maryland Gazette.  Instead, they wished to advise the public that their firm “Manufactures and Sells … BEST Scotch and Rappee Snuff, High Toast and Blackguard [snuff], Saffron and Shag Cut, Plug, Pigtail and Hogtail Tobacco.”  Cary and Somervell offered tobacco users an array of choices of familiar products.  They also paid “the highest price for empty Snuff Bottles,” encouraging prospective customers to offset the cost of their purchases by trading in bottles that they no longer needed.

In promoting the tobacco products that they made in Baltimore, Cary and Somervell published promises about their wares: “warranted good in quality and as well manufactured as any from Great Britain.”  That was a familiar aspect of “Buy American” advertisements prior to the American Revolution, yet it had greater resonance once the Continental Association went into effect on December 1, 1774, and, especially, following the battles at Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775.  The Continental Association, a nonimportation agreement devised by the First Continental Congress in response to the Coercive Acts, called for “encourag[ing] Frugality, Economy, and Industry; and promot[ing] Agriculture, Arts, and the Manufactures of this Country” as alternatives to imported goods.  Thus, the nonimportation agreement also outlined the responsibilities of both producers and consumers in the colonies.  Such civic duties gained even greater urgency in the wake of battles fought in Massachusetts.

Even without taking current events into consideration, Cary and Somervell issued a familiar challenge when they asserted that their tobacco products were as “good in quality and as well manufactured as any from Great Britain.”  How would consumers know unless they tested Cary and Somervell’s snuff and tobacco for themselves?  The partners used a bold assertion to entice prospective customers to sample their products and become the final arbiters of whether they, the consumers, agreed with the claims made in the newspaper advertisement.

August 10

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

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

New-York Journal (August 10, 1775).

“Stockings made in the best manner, for those that bring their own stuff.”

In an advertisement that first ran in the August 10, 1775, edition of the New-York Journal, James Wallace informed the “Ladies and Gentry” of the city that he “makes and sells, black and white silk patent lace for ladies aprons, handkerchiefs, &c.” and “hoods, aprons and tippets, and several other things in that way.”  In addition, he made and sold “silk and thread gloves and mitts, the silk of which is American produce.”  On that point, Wallace made an additional pitch: “He therefore hopes to be honoured with the commands of those who wish to encourage their own manufacture.”  It was not clear whether the silk for his lace to adorn aprons, handkerchiefs and other items was produced in the colonies or just the lace for his gloves and mitts.

Either way, Wallace expected his marketing would resonate with prospective customers who certainly knew about the provisions of the Continental Association without him explicitly invoking it.  That nonimportation agreement also called on American producers to supply alternatives and American consumers to support their endeavors.  The eighth article stated, “That we will, in our several Stations, encourage Frugality, Economy, and Industry; and promote Agriculture, Arts, and the Manufactures of this Country.”  Wallace made it easy for the “Ladies and Gentry” of New York to do so.

Wallace also noted that he made stockings “in the best manner, for those that bring their own stuff.”  In other words, customers could reduce the prices they paid for stocking by supplying their own materials, paying only for the labor.  Once again, consumers had an opportunity to put their political principles into practice in the choices they made in the marketplace.  In supplying their “own stuff,” the “Ladies and Gentry” could opt for thread spun in their own homes, either by themselves or by servants, or for thread that they knew for certain had been produced in the colonies.  Wallace did not merely offer a chance to save money for customers who provided their own materials; he also signaled that they could support the American cause through their own industry in producing those materials.

August 7

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

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

Dunlap’s Pennsylvania Packet (August 7, 1775).

“To the SPINNERS in this CITY and the SUBURBS, YOUR services are now wanted to promote the American Manufactory.”

The proprietors of the American Manufactory in Philadelphia published a recruiting notice that first appeared in Dunlap’s Pennsylvania Packet on August 7, 1775, and then in other newspapers printed in the city for several weeks.  They had previously advertised an organizing meeting to gain subscribers (or investors) in the enterprise in March.  A month later, the same day as the battles at Lexington and Concord, they ran a notice seeking a “Quantity of WOOL, COTTON, FLAX, and HEMP.”  That advertisement also advised that “a number of spinners and flax dressers may meet with employment.”  Their latest advertisement devoted significantly more effort to recruiting the “SPINNERS in this CITY and theSUBURBS” to work at the American Manufactory.

“YOUR services are now wanted to promote” the enterprise, the proprietors proclaimed, though they did not plan to hire everyone who presented themselves.  Instead, they followed the eighteenth-century version of letters of recommendation and checking references, instructing that “strangers who apply are desired to bring a few lines by way of recommendation from some respectable person in their neighborbood.”  Working at the American Manufactory offered women “an opportunity not only to help to sustain your families, but likewise to cast your mite into the treasure of the public good” during a “time of public distress.”  They expected that readers would recognize the reference to a story that Jesus told in Mark 12:41-44 and Luke 21:1-4 about a poor widow who donated two coins, called mites, to the temple.  Her small donation, being all she had, far overshadowed much larger donations by the wealthy who could have given much more.  “The most feeble effort to help to save the state from ruin, when it is all you can do,” the proprietors of the American Manufactory explained, “is as the Widow’s mite, entitled to the same reward as they who of their abundant abilities have cast in much.”  Working as a spinner at the American Manufactory, therefore, amounted to service to the American cause by “excellent wom[e]n,” service just as important as that undertaken by the men who participated in local meetings, provincial congresses, and the Second Continental Congress or mustered to defend their liberties.  Women’s work had political meaning during the era of the American Revolution.