Dunlap’s Pennsylvania Packet

August 13

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , ,

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

Dunlap’s Pennsylvania Packet (August 13, 1776).

“IN MENS CLOTHES … a Mulatto woman slave, named MARIA.”

What kind of story would Maria have told about herself if she had the opportunity to record it in print?  How would it have differed from the account that appeared in an advertisement on the first page of the August 13, 1776, edition of Dunlap’s Pennsylvania Packet?

That advertisement described Maria as “a Mulatto woman slave” who “RAN AWAY … from the Jerseys to Philadelphia or New York” at the end of July.  Maria likely thought of that act as freeing herself from her enslavers rather than running away from “a good master and mistress.”  The enslavers who applauded themselves for their supposed benevolence condemned Maria for “going towards New-York after a married white man, who is a soldier in the Continental army there.”  In doing so, she “left behind her three young children.”  They also noted that Maria was “hardly discernable from a white woman,” yet that was not the only form of passing as someone else that threatened the social order or their attempt to exert authority over her.  The headline for the advertisement proclaimed, “IN MENS CLOTHES,” indicating that Maria might make good on her escape by disguising both her sex and her race.  That compounded her transgressions.

Maria’s unnamed enslavers certainly cast her in a negative light, yet just because their account appeared in print did not make them reliable narrators.  That they portrayed themselves as “a good master and mistress” already demonstrated their bias.  They told a lively story, one that probably stunned or distressed many readers, but Maria certainly would have given a much different version of what occurred had she been given the opportunity.  There are too many possibilities to conjecture about the “married white man” or “her three young children” or any of Maria’s relationships except to say that they had to have been more complex than what her unnamed enslavers insinuated in a brief newspaper advertisement.  During the era of the American Revolution, Maria made choices of her that deserve much more consideration than the few lines that her unnamed enslavers published in an advertisement seeking her capture and return.

July 29

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

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

Dunlap’s Pennsylvania Packet (July 29, 1776).

“My old sign of Dr. Lucas, which hangs opposite my Liberty Pole.”

When James Thompson began operating “that noted and old accustomed tavern, known by the name of the Trap Tavern,” in New Castle County, Delaware, in the summer of 1776, he placed an advertisement in Dunlap’s Pennsylvania Packet in hopes of attracting customers among “the public in general, and his friends in particular.”  Some prospective patrons may have remembered that the tavern was “formerly occupied by Mr. James McDonaugh,” yet Thompson insisted that he now provided the kind of hospitality they sought.  He had, for instance, “furnished himself with a variety of liquors, of the best quality.”  He also provided superior “lodgings and stabling, with hay, oats, &c. of the best kind.”  He asserted that he possessed the “knowledge how to keep a genteel and regular house” and pledged “constant and good attendance in doing so.

Such appeals regularly appeared in newspaper advertisements for inns and taverns.  Thompson made another pitch to prospective customers, invoking his own patriotism as a reason to visit his tavern.  Readers could gather with others who supported the American cause.  Thompson noted that the tavern “has not been accustomed to any sign” that marked its location.  Now that he ran the place, Thompson “erected my old sign of Dr. Lucas, which hangs opposite my Liberty Pole.”  The tavernkeeper deployed multiple symbols familiar to eighteenth-century readers.  “Dr. Lucas” referred to Dr. Charles Lucas (1713-1771), an Irish physician and Member of Parliament for Dublin whose positions made him a favorite among American Patriots during the imperial crisis.  The Sons of Liberty sometimes included Lucas alongside John Wilkes and Edmund Burke when making toasts at public events.  Even though Lucas is not well known today, Thompson believed that using his image as a device to identify his tavern would resonate with prospective customers.  He had apparently used his “old sign of Dr. Lucas” to mark another enterprise with results that made him believe in its effectiveness now that he displayed it again.  The tavernkeeper also gave his liberty pole a name, “No. 1,” claiming that it was “the first put up in this County, as a mark of what we are all most gloriously struggling for.”  Thompson intended for the spirit of revolution to inspire readers to eat, drink, and sleep at his tavern at the sign of Dr. Lucas and across from the county’s first liberty pole.

July 22

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

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

Dunlap’s Pennsylvania Packet (July 22, 1776).

“EXTRACT from the WORK.”

John Dunlap devoted nearly half the space on the first page of the July 22, 1776, edition of Dunlap’s Pennsylvania Packet to an advertisement for his Philadelphia edition of Richard Price’s Observations on the Nature of Civil Liberty, the Principles of Government, and the Justice and Policy of the War with America.  A month earlier, Thomas Fleet and John Fleet ran an advertisement for their Boston edition of the popular pamphlet.  Rather than merely use the table of contents as the copy for their advertisement (as printers and booksellers often did), they added their own note that this “judicious and exceeding well wrote Pamphlet was published in London in March last and had had a very rapid Sale there.”  Friends of the American cause “thought [the pamphlet] would tend much to open the Eyes of the Nation.”  Accordingly, the Fleets considered the pamphlet “well worthy the Perusal of every lover of Civil Liberty and good Government in America; for which Reason the Printers propose to sell them at the moderate price of one shilling and six Pence each” compared to two shillings charged in London.

Dunlap inserted different commentary to demonstrate the reception and influence the pamphlet received and, in turn, attempt to incite demand among readers.  “This learned, judicious and liberal author,” the advertisement declared, “had the thanks of the Common Council, and the Freedom of the City of London presented to him in a gold box, for this his much admired most excellent pamphlet on Civil Liberty.”  In addition to that honor, “he also deserves the united thanks of America.”  Yet Dunlap did even more to promote his Philadelphia edition of the pamphlet.  He inserted an “EXTRACT from the WORK” that extended more than a column, giving readers a preview and enticing them to read more.  In so doing, Dunlap reduced the amount of space for news items and paid notices in that issue of the newspaper, apparently considering the length of the advertisement, especially the “EXTRACT,” worth the investment.  He may have also intended that the “EXTRACT” double as a letter to the editor in making the case in support of the American cause.

Dunlap and the Fleets were not alone in publishing local editions of Price’s pamphlet in America.  David Bruce published the pamphlet in Charleston and Samuel Loudon published it in New York.  Printers in the four largest urban ports made local editions of the pamphlet available to readers in their cities.

July 1

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

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

Dunlap’s Pennsylvania Packet (July 1, 1776).

“PROCEEDINGS OF THE PROVINCIAL CONFERENCE of COMMITTEES, Of the PROVINCE of PENNSYLVANIA.”

The Pennsylvania Provincial Congress met at Carpenters’ Hall in Philadelphia in June 1776.  Delegates from the city of Philadelphia and each of the ten counties in the colony convened on June 18 and adjourned on June 25.  Over the course of a week, the Pennsylvania Provincial Congress reached some momentous decisions.  Newspapers carried updates about the work undertaken and news almost certainly reached even more colonizers via word of mouth, yet those were not the only means of learning about the debates and decisions of the ninety-seven delegates who participated in the congress.

On July 1, William Bradford and Thomas Bradford advertised that they published and sold “PROCEEDINGS OF THE PROVINCIAL CONFERENCE of COMMITTEES, Of the PROVINCE of PENNSYLVANIA,” less than a week after the meeting concluded.  They were so eager to make the record of the Pennsylvania Provincial Congress and its outcomes available to the public that they did not wait to advertise the pamphlet in the next issue of their own newspaper, the Pennsylvania Journal, scheduled for July 3 (though they did also publish the same advertisement in that issue, giving it a prominent place right after news from Pennsylvania’s Committee of Safety).

What decisions did the delegates to Pennsylvania Provincial Congress make?  According to the overview of the sestercentennial commemorations sponsored by Carpenters’ Hall and other cultural, academic, and political institutions in Pennsylvania, they voted to “[d]eclare Pennsylvania’s independence from the British Empire, thus establishing the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, [m]obilize the Pennsylvania militia for the American Revolutionary War, [and o]rganize elections to select delegates to a constitutional convention, which framed the influential Pennsylvania Constitution of 1776,” a constitution often considered the most democratic of all the state constitutions adopted during the War for Independence.  (For more on the Pennsylvania Provincial Congress, see Carl G. Karsh’s short essay, “Pennsylvania: From Colony to State.”

The Bradfords and many other printers throughout the colonies published, advertised, and sold proceedings of provincial congresses and the Continental Congress.  In so doing, they offered colonizers greater access and more complete coverage of those meetings, reporting not only the outcomes but also the processes and the debates that led to them.  The publication and sale of the Proceedings of the Provincial Conference of Committees, of the Province of Pennsylvania and similar conventions in other colonies helped the public stay informed about current events and perhaps even shaped opinions during the transition from resistance to revolution.

June 10

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

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

Dunlap’s Pennsylvania Packet (June 10, 1776).

“THOMAS LEIPER … manufactures in the best manner Snuff and Tobacco of the first quality.”

Two days after tobacconists Hamilton and Leiper announced that they dissolved their partnership with an advertisement in the Pennsylvania Ledger, an advertisement with identical copy ran at the top of the middle column on the front page of Dunlap’s Pennsylvania Packet.  An editorial submitted by a readers filled the rest of the column, whereas an advertisement for the new partnership of Hamilton and Son ran immediately below the same notice in the Pennsylvania Ledger.  Hamilton and Son did insert their advertisement in the June 10, 1776, edition of Dunlap’s Pennsylvania Packet, though it ran in the upper right corner on the third page, separated from the advertisement about the end of the partnership.

In this instance, Hamilton and Son’s advertisement appeared immediately to the right of a new advertisement from “THOMAS LEIPER, TOBACCONIST,” who made his own announcement to “the public in general and his friends in particular, that the partnership of HAMILTON and LEIPER is dissolved, and that he … manufacturers in the best manner Snuff and Tobacco of the first quality, equal, if not superior, to any heretofore imported from Europe.”  Now in competition with his former partner, Leiper proclaimed that he could sell his products “on as reasonable terms as any Manufacturer in America” and he could “execute all orders on the shortest notice.”  To make that possible, “the works he has lately formed are by far the most complete not only for expediting the business of manufacturing Snuff and Tobacco, but also doing it in the greatest perfection, of any works ever yet erected on the Continent.”  Leiper gave good reasons why the clientele that he and Hamilton had cultivated while in business together for several years should stick with him rather than take their business to Hamilton and Sons.  He also had the advantage of remaining “in the house occupied by the company,” a familiar location to both former customers and the public.

Hamilton and Son may have initially had a leg up on Leiper by publishing their advertisement with the notice about the dissolution of the partnership.  In response, Leiper disseminated a more elaborate advertisement that made even bolder claims.  He may even have made arrangements for the compositor of Dunlap’s Pennsylvania Packet to separate the notices that appeared together in the Pennsylvania Ledger.  That the advertisements for the two new ventures appeared next to each other put them on equal footing.  Two days later, all three advertisements ran in the Pennsylvania Gazette.  The compositor placed them one after the other after the other on the third page, staring with the announcement about dissolving the company, then Hamilton and Son’s advertisements, and Leiper’s notice at the end.  Readers could peruse all the news about these tobacconists in one convenient place.

May 13

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

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

Postscript to Dunlap’s Pennsylvania Packet (May 13, 1776).

“A large number of children will be deprived of the means of acquiring learning.”

The colonies experienced a paper shortage when they adopted the Continental Association, a nonimportation agreement devised by the Second Continental Congress in response to the Coercive Acts, and then compounded by the disruptions of the war after fighting commenced at Lexington and Concord.  Some newspapers skipped or reduced the size of some of their issues.  Printers published notices informing subscribers about the difficulty in acquiring paper.  Stationers also struggled to supply their customers.

In Philadelphia Jospeh Crukshank and James Truman attempted to increase the amount of paper produced locally, but to do so they needed “CLEAN LINEN RAGS” to recycle into that increasingly scarce commodity.  That meant enlisting the aid of others, far and wide, in collecting rags and sending them to Crukshank or Truman.  A few months earlier, Nathanil Patten, a bookbinder and stationer in Norwich, Connecticut, issued a similar call to “all true Friends to America, [to] exert their utmost Endeavours to promote and encourage” paper production by collecting “Clean Linen Rags.”  There was more on the line, Crukshank and Truman warned, than just the newspapers that kept colonizers updated about current events.  “THE great scarcity of writing and printing papers must make the necessity of saving linen rags obvious to every person,” they declared, “and unless cares is taken of this very necessary article, it will not be in the power of the Paper-makers to furnish a sufficient quantity of writing paper for the use of schools.”  If that happened, then “a large number of children will be deprived of the means of acquiring learning.”  In addition, it would result in a “great obstruction to business which must arise from the want of paper.”  Education and commerce would both suffer if the colonies did not produce more paper, yet practically everyone could help to avoid that outcome.

That included women as they went about their daily tasks.  “In many parts of Great-Britain,” Crukshank and Truman observed, “it is customary for the women that sew, to have a small bag hanging to their chair.”  That made it easy to collect “the cuttings of linen, even to the smallest shred.”  Even as the colonies contested with Britain over their rights within the empire, Crukshank and Truman suggested that American women should follow a custom common on the other side of the Atlantic.  “If this were generally adopted here,” they asserted, “there is very little doubt but we should have paper enough to serve this province, and probably some to supply our neighbours.”  They were not the first to recruit women during the imperial crisis, making a mundane task resonate with political principles.  When John Keating needed clean linen rags for his “Paper Mill at Peek’s-Kill” in New York in 1773, he proclaimed that he “must humbly address the Fair Sex, requesting their aid, without which it will be impossible for him to establish this manufactory.”  He recommended that women “hang up a bag in some convenient part of the house, and take care to put every piece of linen that is unfit for any other use, in it.”  Every woman who did so, he pledged, “will have the satisfaction of being conscious of contributing her part to the advancement of her country.”  In February 1776, Ebenezer Watson, the printer of the Connecticut Courant, asked “the Ladies, to be very careful of their Rags,” because the local paper manufactory “must fail” without them.  Crukshank and Truman made a similar appeal to women in Philadelphia and its hinterlands, acknowledging that they could play a vital role as both education and commerce were threatened by the shortage of paper.

They also made an appeal to shopkeepers to act as local agents who organized the collection of clean linen rags.  “Persons sending rags” to Crukshank or Truman, they offered, “may generally be supplied with writing paper in proportion to the quantity of rags sent.”  In particular, “store-keepers in the country, who take in rags and send them” would benefit from this system.  Everyone could play a part in this endeavor.  What seemed like a small effort for any one person would have cumulative effects when they all joined together.

April 22

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

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

Dunlap’s Pennsylvania Packet (April 22, 1776).

“GOOD BOHEA TEA, to be sold … agreeable to order of the Honorable Continental Congress.”

Advertisements for tea returned to Dunlap’s Pennsylvania Packet on April 22, 1776, after having disappeared for a while due to the prohibition on selling and consuming tea.  In a brief advertisement, Ezekiel Brown announced, “GOOD BOHEA TEA, to be sold by the subscriber, for three-fourths of a dollar per pound, agreeable to order of the Honorable Continental Congress.”  He did not elaborate on the details; instead, he expected readers knew the history of tea during the political crisis and how it became the most politicized commodity in the colonies.

Dunlap’s Pennsylvania Packet (April 15, 1776).

In response to the Intolerable Acts and other abuses perpetrated by Parliament, the First Continental Congress devised the Continental Association, a nonimportation, nonconsumption, and nonexportation agreement, in the fall of 1774.  The first article concerned a general boycott of imported goods, while the third article addressed consuming tea: “we will not purchase or use any Tea imported on Account of the East India Company, or any on which a Duty hath been or shall be paid; and, from and after the first day of March [1775], we will not purchase or use any East India Tea whatever.”  The Second Continental Congress reconsidered some aspects of that third article and passed a new resolution on April 13, 1776.  Two days later, Dunlap’s Pennsylvania Packet carried the resolution along with other news.  It came to the attention of the Second Continental Congress that some “zealous friends to the American cause” had imported “large quantities” of tea in an effort “to counteract the plan then pursued by the Ministry and India Company, to introduce and sell in these Colonies, Tea subject to duty.”  In other words, they stocked up on tea before Parliament and the East India Company could put their plan into effect, doing so as acts of resistance rather than merely “to advance their fortunes.”  Now, however, they stood to become “great suffers” because of their investment in tea, “incapable, not only of paying their debts and maintaining their families, but also of vigorously exerting themselves in the service of their Country.”  According to the new resolution, the First Continental Congress intended that “all India Tea, which had been imported agreeable to the tenor of said Association, might be sold and consumed,” but the March 1, 1775, deadline did not allow enough time for that to happen.  Accordingly, the Second Continental Congress passed a new resolution that “all India Tea imported as aforesaid, expressly excepting all Teas imported by, or on account of the East India Company, now remaining on hand in these Colonies, be sold and used.”  Even though advertisements for tea ceased for a while, colonizers never stopped consuming it in secret.  The new resolution allowed them to drink tea without subterfuge.

It also allowed for the selling of tea, yet it introduced some restrictions since “some Tea-holders may be tempted to avail themselves of the scarcity … and exact exorbitant prices.”  In another resolution, the Second Continental Congress set price controls: “Bohea Tea ought not to be sold … at a higher price in any Colony than at the rate of three fourths of a dollar per pound; and other Teas at such price as shall be regulated by the Committees of the town or county, where the tea is sold.”  That resolution also instructed “all Committees of Inspection and Observation … to be vigilant” in overseeing the sale of tea now that it was allowed once again and to discipline “enemies to the American cause” who engaged in price gouging.

For his part, Brown set the price for his “GOOD BOHEA TEA” at “three-fourths of a dollar per pound, agreeable to the order of the Honorable Continental Congress.”  He placed his advertisement as quickly as possible.  The Second Continental Congress passed the resolution on April 13.  It appeared in Dunlap’s Pennsylvania Packet on April 15.  Brown, who gave his location only as “New-Jersey,” likely saw it in that issue and immediately composed his advertisement, dated April 17.  It ran in the next issue of Dunlap’s Pennsylvania Packet, published once a week, on April 22.  Brown was ready to sell tea in the open (but according to the rules) and he believed that consumers would purchase it once they knew he made it available to them.

April 15

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

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

Dunlap’s Pennsylvania Packet (April 15, 1776).

“The patient fisher takes his silent stand, / Intent, his angle trembling in his hand.”

Edward Pole was no stranger to advertising.  He experimented with a variety of marketing strategies over the years.  Pole started out operating a “GROCERY STORE” in Philadelphia, but he also sold “FISHING TACKLE Of all sorts, for use of either sea or river.”  His advertisement in the Pennsylvania Chronicle in August 1772 gave nearly as much space to fishing tackle as to groceries.  In May 1774, he began adorning his advertisements in Dunlap’s Pennsylvania Packet with a woodcut depicting a fish, drawing attention to the portion of his notice that promoted fishing tackle.  In January 1775, Pole delivered the woodcut to the printing office of the Pennsylvania Ledger to accompany his advertisements in that newspaper.  In April 1776, the familiar image appeared in an advertisement in Dunlap’s Pennsylvania Packet once again.  This time, however, Pole did not mention groceries.  Instead, he devoted his entire advertisement to “FISHING TACKLE” and firearms.  Pole must have found that he could make a living by specializing in sporting goods.  In the 1780s, he distributed ornate trade cards that listed his occupation as “FISHING-TACKLE-MAKER.”

Even though Pole included his woodcut depicting a fish in his advertisement in the April 15, 1776, edition of Dunlap’s Pennsylvania Packet, it did not appear first.  Visual images usually appeared at the top of newspaper advertisements, but Pole instead chose to open his notice with several lines of poetry from Alexander Pope’s “Windsor-Forest” (1713).

IN genial Spring, beneath the quiv’ring shade,
Where cooling vapours breathe along the mead,
The patient fisher takes his silent stand,
Intent, his angle trembling in his hand;
With looks unmov’d, he hopes the scaly breed,
And eyes the dancing cork and bending reed.
Our plenteous streams a various race suppy:
The bright ey’d PEARCH, with fins of TYRIAN dye;
The silver EEL, in shing volumes roll’d;
The yellow CARP, in scales bedrop’d with gold;
Swift TROUTS, diversify’d with crimson stains,
And PIKE, the tyrants of wat’ry plains.  POPE.

As spring arrived and some consumers contemplated spending leisure time fishing, Pole deployed the poem to invite them to imagine themselves spending time outside, next to a river.  To make the most of that time, they could treat themselves to new fishing equipment, including a “dancing cork” (or bobber) and a “bending reed” (or pole).  Pole was prepared to supply “Gentlemen going on parties in the FISHING way, either to the river, capes, or Black Point,” with “the best kind of FISHING TACKLE suitable for those places.”  Via the lines from “Windsore-Forest,” he prompted them to envision the different fish they might catch or simply the pleasure they would derive from their pastime and the company they would keep, whether their own quiet contemplation or fellowship with other members of their party.  Including the poem increased the length of his advertisement and thus the cost of running of it, but Pole apparently considered it worth the investment to engage prospective customers and make his marketing more memorable.

February 19

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

GUEST CURATOR:  Michael “OB” O’Brien

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

Dunlap’s Pennsylvania Packet (February 19, 1776).

“Rattinets and buttons; shalloons and durants.”

When I first examined George Bartram’s advertisement in the Pennsylvania Packet on February 19, 1776, I noticed how crowded it was with imported fabrics and fashionable goods. Bartram listed “New fashioned jacket patterns,” a “general assortment of mens, womens, boys and girls ribbed and plain worsted stockings,” silk gloves, and numerous types of cloth (such as rattinets, shalloons, and durants), all meant to appeal to customers looking for style and choice. His shop offered more than just the necessities. He encouraged customers to browse, compare, and imagine new possibilities of how they might dress. In The Marketplace of Revolution: How Consumer Politics Shaped American Independence, T.H. Breen states that “as the index of choice expanded, so too the dreams of possession flourished.”[1]  Bartram’s advertisement reflected exactly that expanding world of choice. The abundance of fabrics and fashionable goods available in his Philadelphia shop shows how deeply colonists participated in the marketplace even on the brink of the American Revolution.

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ADDITIONAL COMMENTARY:  Carl Robert Keyes

Nearly a year after George Bartram announced in the Pennsylvania Evening Post that he “resolved to decline his Retail Trade,” he once again ran an advertisement about “SELLING OFF” the inventory at his “Woollen Drapery and Hosiery Ware-house” in Philadelphia.  He offered his wares “wholesale and retail,” indicating that he had neither gone out of business nor became a merchant who dealt solely in wholesale transactions.  As Michael notes, Bartram stocked a wide array of imported goods.  He conveniently did not mention whether his merchandise arrived in Philadelphia before the Continental Association went into effect.

By the time he ran his advertisement in February 1776, Bartram’s warehouse on Second Street between Chestnut Street and Walnut Street was a landmark familiar to residents of Philadelphia.  In 1767, he opened his “new Shop at the Sign of the Naked Boy.”  His advertisements in the Pennsylvania Chronicle featured a woodcut depicting that sign.  In a cartouche in the center, a naked boy unfurled a length of fabric.  Bolts of textile flanked the cartouche with Bartram’s name appearing beneath them.  Replicating his shop sign in the public prints likely improved Bartram’s visibility in the busy port city.  He continued publishing advertisements with that image for several years.

Yet Bartram eventually abandoned the device that marked his location for so long in favor of rebranding his store as “GEORGE BARTRAM’s WOOLLEN DRAPERY AND HOSIERY WARE-HOUSE, At the Sign of the GOLDEN FLEECE’S HEAD,” though he remained at the same location on Second Street.  His new advertisements sometimes featured a woodcut depicting his new device, though on other occasions he opted for no decorative elements or a border comprised of printing ornaments rather than the image of “the Sign of the GOLDEN FLEECE’S HEAD.”  His advertisements did not reveal why he opted for a new sign to mark his location and identify his business.

In subsequent advertisements, Bartram proclaimed that he was “SELLING OFF” his inventory and leaving the “Retail Trade.”  He made such pronouncements in March 1775 and September 1775, though in the latter he clarified that he would cease retail operations “so soon as the trade is open between Britain and America.”  Once the war that started in April 1775 became a revolution, the resumption of trade became even more uncertain.  For the moment, Bartram continued “SEELING OFF” his inventory “at the most reasonable rates,” making him a precursor to modern businesses that constantly promote sales to draw customers.  The marketing tried to create a sense of urgency by suggesting a limited-time offer, yet savvy consumers likely realized that one sale followed another at Bartram’s “Woollen Drapery and Hosiery Ware-house.”

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[1] T.H. Breen, The Marketplace of Revolution: How Consumer Politics Shaped American Independence (New York: Oxford University Press, 2004), 58.

January 1

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

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

Dunlap’s Pennsylvania Packet (January 1, 1776).

“A CORRECT MAP … in which may be seen the march of Col. Arnold.”

On January 1, 1776, Robert Aitken, a printer and bookseller, advertised that he had for sale a “CORRECT MAP of the great river St. Lawrence, Nova-Scotia, Newfoundland, and that part of New-England, in which may be seen the march of Co. Arnold, from Casco-Bay to Quebec, by wat of Kennebec river.”  The map featured insets depicting the “plains of Quebec, the town of Halifax and its harbour, and a small perspective view of the city of Boston.”  Like several other maps and prints advertised in the months following the outbreak of hostilities at Lexington and Concord in April 1775, this map supplemented the news that colonizers read in the newspapers and heard when they discussed current events.

This “CORRECT MAP” aided in understanding the dual-pronged American invasion of Quebec that commenced near the end of August.  General Richard Montgomery and 1200 soldiers headed from Fort Ticonderoga, New York, recently captured from the British, toward Montreal.  That city surrendered to Montogomery on November 13.  Meanwhile, Colonel Benedict Arnold and 1100 soldiers sailed from Newburyport, Massachusetts, to the mouth of the Kennebec River on September 15.  They made a harrowing trek through the wilderness of northern New England, losing nearly half their number to death or desertion, before reaching Quebec City on November 14.  Arnold and his soldiers besieged the city, eventually supported by Montgomery and reinforcements on December 2.  The enlistments for many of the American soldiers ended on December 31, prompting Montgomery and Arnold to attack the city during a snowstorm.  The weather did not work to their advantage.  Montgomery was killed, Arnold wounded, and four hundred American soldiers captured.  Arnold assumed command and continued the siege, realizing that British reinforcements would arrive when the St. Lawrence River became navigable again in the spring.  When General John Burgoyne arrived in May, Arnold led a retreat to upstate New York.  Ultimately, the American invasion of Canada failed.

When they saw Aitken’s advertisement for a “CORRECT MAP … in which may be seen the march of Col. Arnold” in the January 1 edition of Dunlap’s Pennsylvania Packet, they had no way of knowing about the failed attack that occurred the previous day.  Supporters of the American cause still hoped that Montgomery and Arnold would capture Quebec City, dealing a significant blow to the British.  Along with newspaper coverage, the map chronicled what readers knew about the invasion of Canada, including the hardships endured by Arnold and the soldiers under his command who endured so many hardships in the wilderness of northern New England.

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For more information about the Quebec Campaign, see Nathan Wuertenberg’s more comprehensive overview.