Ebenezer Hazard

March 7

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

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

New-York Journal (March 7, 1776).

“THE NEW EDITION OF COMMON SENSE.”

“LARGE ADDITIONS TO COMMON SENSE.”

The March 7, 1776, edition of the New-York Journal included competing advertisements for Thomas Paine’s Common Sense and “LARGE ADDITIONS TO COMMON SENSE.”  Although John Anderson, the printer of the Constitutional Gazette, recently published a New York edition of Paine’s pamphlet, neither of these advertisements promoted pamphlets printed in that city.  Instead, both advertisements hawked pamphlets printed in Philadelphia and sent to New York.

New-York Journal (March 7, 1776).

Garrat Noel and Ebenezer Hazard stocked the “NEW EDITION OF COMMON SENSE; With Additions and Improvements in the Body of the WORK” published by William Bradford and Thomas Bradford, printers of the Pennsylvania Journal.  When Paine and Robert Bell, the publisher of the first edition of Common Sense, had a falling out, the author collaborated with the Bradfords on a “NEW EDITION” that featured new material, including “AN APPENDIX, And an ADDRESS to the People, called, QUAKERS.”  As the Bradfords prepared that edition for press, Bell published an unauthorized second edition and then supplemented it with yet another pamphlet of “LARGE ADDITIONS” that included “The American Patriot’s Prayer” and “American Independency defended, by Candidus.”  In their advertisements, the Bradfords warned that the pamphlet “consists of pieces taken out of News-Papers, and NOT written by the AUTHOR of Common Sense.”  To spite Paine and the Bradfords, Bell then pirated “An Appendix to Common Sense; together with an Address to the People called Quakers, on their Testimony concerning Kings and Government, and the present Commotions in America” and packaged it with the “LARGE ADDITIONS.”

The advertisements in the New-York Journal reveal that Noel and Hazard stocked the Bradfords’ edition of Common Sense at the Constitutional Post Office and that William Green, a bookseller and bookbinder in Maiden Lane, carried Bell’s “LARGE ADDITIONS.”  Noel and Hazard’s advertisement included the warning about items from newspapers passed off as Paine’s work.  Green previously placed the first advertisement for Common Sense that appeared in any newspaper beyond Philadelphia, identifying himself as Bell’s local agent for distributing the pamphlet.  That he now advertised the “LARGE ADDITIONS” demonstrated that Bell continued supplying him with pamphlets to peddle in New York.  Even as printers in New York and other towns produced local editions of Common Sense, printers in Philadelphia tried to expand their share of the market for the popular pamphlet by sending copies to local agents to advertise and sell.

October 29

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , ,

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

Rivington’s New-York Gazetteer (October 26, 1775).

“A CONSTITUTIONAL POST-OFFICE is established in this city.”

Yet another advertisement for a “CONSTITUTIONAL POST-OFFICE,” an alternative to the British postal system, appeared in the public prints at the end of October 1775.  It ran in Rivington’s New-York Gazetteer, despite the reputation of that newspaper and its printer, James Rivington, for expressing Loyalist sentiments.  William Goddard originally envisioned the Constitutional Post and set about establishing local offices before the battles at Lexington and Concord, but after hostilities commenced the Second Continental Congress assumed responsibility for maintaining and expanding its services.  That included appointing Benjamin Franklin as the postmaster general, much to the chagrin of Goddard.  Ebenezer Hazard, a bookseller, became the postmaster in New York, though John Holt, the printer of the New-York Journal, lobbied for the position.  According to the nota bene in the advertisement, “The Office is kept at Noel and Hazard’s, near the Coffee-House,” the same location where the new postmaster and his partner, Garrat Noel, stocked the “JOURNAL OF THE PROCEEDINGS” of the First Continental Congress.

The notice in Rivington’s New-York Gazetteer, signed by Hazard as the “Post-master,” informed the public that a “CONSTITUTIONAL POST-OFFICE” is established in this city, by the post master general of all the united colonies on the continent of North-America.”  Hazard offered the most complete schedule of any that yet appeared in newspaper advertisements, stating that the “Posts are regularly dispatched” to Philadelphia on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, to Albany on Thursdays, to Hartford on Thursdays, and to New London, Newport, and Providence on Mondays.  The routes to both Hartford and New London extended “as far to the Eastward” as Portsmouth, New Hampshire.  Unlike some other postmasters, Hazard did not mention that service continued as far south as Georgia.  He focused primarily on the network that connected New York to New England and Pennsylvania.  As new advertisements for the Constitutional Post appeared in newspapers in multiple towns and cities, the public became more aware of an enterprise that competed with the imperial postal system to carry “Letters and Packets,” delivering news and information without interference from British authorities.

December 15

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

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

New-York Journal (December 15, 1774).

“JOURNAL OF THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE CONGRESS.”

According to their advertisement in the December 15, 1775, edition of the New-York Journal, Garrat Noel and Ebenezer Hazard stocked the “JOURNAL OF THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE CONGRESS, Held in PHILADELPHIA” at their bookstore.  They also marketed “STRICTURES On a pamphlet, entitled ‘A Friendly Address to all reasonable Americans, on the subject of our political confusions’” by Charles Lee and “AN ADDRESS, Occasioned by the late invasion of the liberties of the American Colonies, by the British Parliament, delivered in Charles-Town, South Carolina” by William Tennent.  The booksellers provided the public access to news and commentary about current events beyond what appeared in the public prints, though they privileged perspectives expressed by Patriots rather than Loyalists.

Noel and Hazard may have sold Hugh Gaine’s New York edition of the Proceedings of the First Continental Congress, though the other titles in their advertisement suggest that they could have sold the Philadelphia edition printed by William Bradford and Thomas Bradford.  The Bradfords also published Lee’s Strictures and Tennent’s Address, possibly sending copies of all three titles to Noel and Hazard.  Either  way, the masthead of the newspaper that featured the booksellers’ advertisement suggested that the Bradfords’ edition of the Proceedings made their way to New York.  Six months earlier, John Holt, the printer of the New-York Journal, incorporated a political cartoon depicting a severed snake, each segment representing one of the colonies, with the motto “UNITE OR DIE” into the masthead.  On December 15, he replaced it with a woodcut depicting twelve hands, one for each colony represented at the First Continental Congress, grasping a liberty pole with a liberty cap perched atop it on a pedestal inscribed “MAGNA CHARTA.”  A similar image appeared on the title page of the Bradfords’ edition of the Proceedings, described in Princeton University Library’s online catalog as “the first wood-cut device of the 12 colonies intended to symbolize the need for the true political unity of the colonies.”  Holt enhanced that image, having an ouroboros twice encircle the hands and pillar.  A message on the ouroboros proclaimed, “UNITED NOW – ALIVE AND FREE – AND THUS SUPPORTED EVER – BLESS OUR LAND – FIRM ON THIS BASIS LIBERTY SHALL STAND – TILL TIME BECOMES ETERNITY.”  This addition to his newspaper set the tone for readers to peruse Noel and Hazard’s advertisement, other paid notices, and the news and editorials selected by Holt.

New-York Journal (December 15, 1774).