Imperial Crisis

September 16

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , ,

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

New-Hampshire Gazette (September 16, 1774).

“There are now the most interesting Matters depending that ever were in this Country.”

Colonial printers frequently ran advertisements asking customers, especially subscribers, to pay their overdue bills.  Daniel Fowle, the printer of the New-Hampshire Gazette, seemed to do so more often than others.  Such advertisements became a regular feature in his newspaper.  One appeared in the September 16, 1774, edition of the New-Hampshire Gazette.  This time, Fowle pleaded that the “Customers of this Paper” are earnestly desired to pay off what they may be in Arrears immediately, as the Publisher is under a Necessity of raising Money to carry on his Business.”  The fate of the newspaper, Fowle’s ability to continue publishing it, was at stake.  In part, that was because he apparently experienced a disruption in his supply of paper, acquiring it “with Difficulty and extraordinary Charge, as it is all brought 70 Miles on Land carriage.”  The printer did not go into greater detail on that point, though at various times in the past he had suggested that he used only paper produced in the colonies rather than paper imported from England.  The blockade of Boston, one of Parliament’s responses to the Boston Tea Party, may have affected Fowle’s route for receiving paper produced in another colony.

Even if subscribers could not settle accounts, Fowle requested that they “send at least one Dollar, that the Paper may not be wholly stopped, as there are the most interesting Matters depending that ever were in this Country.”  The printer recognized that the imperial crisis had intensified with the Boston Port Act and the rest of the Coercive Acts.  Earlier in the month, the First Continental Congress commenced its meeting in Philadelphia, deliberating about a unified response across the colonies.  Discussion and debates also took place in communities near and far.  That same issue of the New-Hampshire Gazette carried updates from Philadelphia, New London, Hartford, Newport, Boston, Salem, and other towns in Massachusetts.  Local news included coverage of a tea consignee in Portsmouth refusing to accept the shipment, diverting it to Halifax rather than cause a scene.  Yet that article also warned, “In future no such Indulgence will be allowed to the Enemies of America.”  Momentous events were underway.  Fowle did not know what would happen next, but he assured subscribers that they did not want to lose access to the news he supplied if they did not pay what they owed.

September 9

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

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

Connecticut Gazette (September 9, 1774).

“CONSIDERATIONS on the Measures carrying on by GREAT BRITAIN, against the Colonies in North-America.”

As the number of American editions of Considerations on the Measures Carrying On with Respect to the British Colonies in North-America increased in 1774, so did the number of newspapers that carried advertisements for the political tract.  John Holt, the printer of the New-York Journal, advertised his edition.  Benjamin Edes and John Gill, the printers of the Boston-Gazette, did so as well for their edition.  Ebenezer Watson, printer of the Connecticut Courant, ran his own advertisement when he published a Hartford edition.  Yet it was not solely the printers of the various American editions who advertised or sold the popular pamphlet.  Watson listed local agents in eight towns and two post riders who sold his edition.  David Atwater advertised the New York edition for sale in New Haven in the Connecticut Journal.

Timothy Green, printer of the Connecticut Gazette, joined their ranks with an advertisement in the September 9, 1774, edition of his newspaper.  That made the pamphlet available for purchase in New London in addition to other towns in New England and New York.  Compared to the other advertisements, however, Green’s notice was quite brief, just three lines that completed the column following “THOMAS ALLEN’S Marine List,” a regular feature, on the third page.  “TO BE SOLD by T. GREEN, CONSIDERATIONS on the Measures carrying on by GREAT BRITAIN, against the Colonies in North-America.”  Green did not provide any of the elaborate description about how well the pamphlet had been received in London and how it had influenced residents there to support the American colonies against the abuses perpetrated by Parliament, nor did he encourage readers to review it for themselves so they could be better informed.  Perhaps he expected that the news he printed throughout the rest of his newspaper and the conversations about current events taking place everywhere anyone went those days provided enough reason for colonizers to acquire the pamphlet.  He also did not state which edition he sold, though the variant title in his advertisement suggests that he carried Watson’s Hartford edition.  In stocking and promoting the pamphlet, Green joined printers, post riders, and others in disseminating a political tract intended to influence colonizers and help them in articulating their grievances against Parliament.

September 6

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

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

Connecticut Courant (September 6, 1774).

“This celebrated Performance … had a wonderful Operation on the Minds of that People.”

A popular political pamphlet originally printed in London and reprinted in four towns in the colonies made another appearance among the advertisements in the September 6, 1774, edition of the Connecticut Courant.  In this instance, Ebenezer Watson, the printer of that newspaper, promoted his own edition of Considerations on the Measures Carrying On with Respect to the British Colonies in North-America produced at his printing office in Hartford.  By that time, John Holt, printer of the New-York Journal, and Benjamin Edes and John Gill, printers of the Boston-Gazette, had already advertised their own editions of the tract.  In New Haven, David Atwater advertised and sold Holt’s New York edition.

Those advertisers replicated the copy from one notice to another.  For his part, however Watson devised his own copy, though he had likely seen at least some of the other advertisements as he scoured other newspapers for content to reprint in the Connecticut Courant.  Watson even offered a variant title in his advertisement, “CONSIDERATIONS On the Measures carrying on by GREAT-BRITAIN, Against the Colonies in NORTH-AMERICA,” though the title on the title page of the pamphlet itself was consistent with the original London edition and the others reprinted in the colonies.  Although Watson did not directly borrow copy from the other advertisements circulating at the time, he seems to have been inspired by them enough to paraphrase from them.  “This celebrated performance” (rather than a “most masterly performance”), he proclaimed, “was first published in England, and had a wonderful Operation on the Minds of that People, in eradicating their Prejudices against the Inhabitants of America.”  In comparison, the other advertisements declared that the tract “had a wonderful effect in removing the prejudices and convincing the people of England.”  Other advertisers commented on the price of American editions compared to the London edition.  Watson did so more elaborately, stating that a “Book so highly admired, and so wonderfully calculated to open blind Eyes, ought to be in the hands” of colonizers throughout America.  That convinced him “to sell it as cheap as he can possibly afford it” without losing money on it.

To disseminate the pamphlet widely, Watson enlisted the aid of local agents in several towns, including Canaan, Farmington, Great Barrington, Litchfield, Middletown, Norfolk, Sheffield, Simsbury, and Torringford.  In addition, readers could acquire copies from two post riders, Joseph Knight and Amos Alden.  As printers in New England marketed a variety of books and pamphlets related to the imperial crisis in the mid 1770s, some of them integrated post riders into their distribution networks in new ways.  They made a point of naming post riders as agents who sold these publications, entrusting them with responsibilities beyond delivering items that buyers ordered from a local dignitary or directly from the printer.  This made post riders’ role in keeping colonizers informed about arguments critiquing Parliament even more visible as they became active proponents rather than mere messengers.

August 1

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

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

Boston-Gazette (August 1, 1774).

“This pamphlet has had a wonderful effect in removing the prejudices and convincing the people of England.”

Benjamin Edes and John Gill, the printers of the Boston-Gazette, gave an advertisement for their American edition of Considerations on the Measures Carrying On with Respect to the British Colonies in North-America a prominent place in the August 1, 1774, edition of their newspaper.  It appeared as the first item in the first column on the first page, making it difficult for readers to miss.  The printers wished to call attention to the book, originally published in London, not only because they hoped to generate revenue from its sales but also as a means for colonizers to become even better informed about current events and the political challenges they faced as Parliament passed a series of laws, the Coercive Acts, following the Boston Tea Party.  As the imperial crisis intensified, patriot printers like Edes and Gill published newspapers, broadsides, pamphlets, books, and other items that documented the ongoing contest with Parliament, the king, and royal officials in the colonies.

To convince prospective customers of the necessity of purchasing and perusing this pamphlet, Edes and Gill explained that it was the “most masterly performance, written since the framing of the several Acts against BOSTON and AMERICA,” including the Boston Port Act and the Massachusetts Government Act, and “the best calculated to convince the Ministry, the people of England, and all the world, of the absurdity and wickedness of the late acts.”  Colonizers used newspapers and other publications in their efforts to shape opinion in the colonies, yet they were just as concerned with the information environment on the other side of the Atlantic.  In their publications and letters, they hoped to sway both officials and the general public in London and throughout Great Britain.  They also took note of the support they received for their plight.  In their advertisement for Considerations, Edes and Gill reported that their “last accounts” indicated “this pamphlet had had a wonderful effect in removing the prejudices and convincing the people of England” that Parliament had not been just in its treatment of the colonies.  Whether that was accurate or wishful thinking likely varied from person to person, but the printers wanted to believe that it was true.

Edes and Gill applauded how the pamphlet made a case about the “ruinous consequences, to England at least,” not just the colonies, “that would certainly attend” from the Coercive Acts “being carried into execution.”  Printers in Hartford, New York, and Philadelphia shared those sentiments, producing other American editions in each of those towns.  They hoped that the dissemination of the ideas expressed in Considerations would buttress the resolve of colonizers distressed by Parliament’s most recent legislation, especially upon learning how their allies in England made a case on their behalf.

July 23

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , ,

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

Postscript Extraordinary to the Pennsylvania Journal (July 23, 1774).

“Just IMPORTED … European and East-India GOODS.”

William Bradford and Thomas Bradford printed and distributed the Pennsylvania Journal on Wednesdays, but in the summer of 1774 they had news of such significance that they opted to issue a Postscript Extraordinary on a Saturday.  It bore the same number, 1650, as the weekly edition from July 20, but a different date, July 23, that confirms that the printers issued it a few days later than the weekly edition.  They had previously printed a two-page Supplement to the Pennsylvania Journal and a two-page Postscript to the Pennsylvania Journal, both dated July 20, that doubled the amount of content in the standard issue.  As the imperial crisis intensified, the Bradfords sought to provide extensive coverage for subscribers and other readers.

At the same time, they scooped the other newspapers printed in English in Philadelphia, Dunlap’s Pennsylvania Packetand the Pennsylvania Gazette.  The Postscript Extraordinary featured news from a “PROVINCIAL MEETING of DEPUTIES chosen by the several Counties in Pennsylvania; held at PHILADELPHIA” on July 15 and continuing for several days.  Dunlap’s Pennsylvania Packet carried the same news, perhaps reprinted from the Postscript Extraordinary, on Monday, July 25, its usual day of publication, two days after the Bradfords had disseminated it.  In turn, the Pennsylvania Gazette provided the same coverage in a Postscript that accompanied the weekly issue on Wednesday, July 27.  All three newspapers carried rhetoric that condemned the Boston Port Act and the anticipated passage of the Massachusetts Government Act as well as proposed instructions for Pennsylvania’s delegates who would attend “a Congress of Deputies from the several Colonies,” now known as the First Continental Congress.

Yet coverage of the meeting of delegates from throughout the colony did not fill both sides of the broadsheet.  A dozen advertisements completed the Postscript Extraordinary.  Disseminating the news provided an occasion provided another opportunity for circulating advertisements placed for various purposes, including notices for “European and East-India GOODS” sold by George Davis and “a large Assortment of DRY GOODS, and CROCKERY” imported by Alexander Bartram.  The Postscript Extraordinary gave those advertisements greater visibility, yet news from the meeting framed how colonizers might think about commerce and consumption in the current political environment.  Among their various resolutions, the deputies from across Pennsylvania’s counties supported a nonimportation agreement if the First Continental Congress determined that a boycott would aid in achieving their political goals.  At the same time, they cautioned that “the venders of Merchandize of every kind within this province, ought not to take advantage of Resolves relating to Non-Importation” by raising prices and gouging customers.  The news put all readers on notice about how to behave as consumers while also warning merchants, shopkeepers, and other purveyors of goods about how they should comport themselves.

July 14

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

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

Rivington’s New-York Gazetteer (July 14, 1774).

“At this critical and alarming juncture … set up the business of REED-MAKING.”

Nathaniel Pike testified that he wished to do his part to support the American cause in an advertisement in the July 14, 1774, edition of Rivington’s New-York Gazetteer.  He informed the public that he was “willing to assist in promoting manufacturers in America, (especially at this critical and alarming juncture)” and, accordingly, “lately set up the business of REED-MAKING.”  Eighteenth-century readers familiar with weaving knew that reeds were the “part of a loom consisting of a set of evenly spaced wires known as dents (originally slender pieces of reed or cane) fastened between two parallel horizontal bars used for separating, or determining the spacing between, the warp threads, and for beating the weft into place.”[1]  Pike pledged that “weavers and others, both in town and country, may be supplied with reeds of all kinds, as neat and good as any imported.”

Although Pike did not name the Boston Port Act or any of the other Coercive Acts passed by Parliament in retaliation for the Boston Tea Party, readers certainly understood the context for his reference to “this critical and alarming juncture.”  From New England to Georgia, colonizers discussed how to respond, many of them advocating for a new round of nonimportation agreements like the ones enacted in response to the Stamp Act and the duties imposed on certain goods in the Townshend Acts.  That meant that “domestic manufactures” or goods produced in the colonies would become important alternatives to imported goods.  Pike offered his own product made in the colonies, those reeds that matched imported ones in quality, yet his enterprise also facilitated greater production of textiles in the colonies.  Every stage of producing cloth took on greater significance in the face of boycotting fabrics imported from England, from farmers raising sheep for their wool to women participating in spinning bees that put their patriotism on display to consumers choosing and wearing homespun cloth out of allegiance to their political principles.  By supplying weavers with reeds for their looms, Pike served a vital role in protests against the abuses perpetrated by Parliament.  He expected that current events would help in marketing his product.

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[1] Oxford English Dictionary, II.11.a.

July 13

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

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

Pennsylvania Journal (July 13, 1774).

“OBSERVATIONS on the ACT of PARLIAMENT commonly called the BOSTON PORT-BILL … BY JOSIAH QUINCY, junior.”

In the spring of 1774, Josiah Quincy, Junior, of Boston, a prominent lawyer and noted patriot, penned Observations on the Act of Parliament Commonly Called the Boston Port-Bill: With Thoughts on Civil Society and Standing Armies.  In it, Quincy encouraged colonizers to unite in opposition to abuses perpetrated by Parliament, continuing work he had undertaken in 1773 when he visited South Carolina to strengthen ties among patriots in northern and southern colonies.  He had also published political essays in the Boston-Gazette, known for its support of the patriot cause, for several years. According to Daniel R. Coquillette and Neil Longley York, the editors of his major political and legal papers, the pamphlet “was the culmination of his thinking and writing about the problem of balancing imperial authority and colonial liberty.”

Benjamin Edes and John Gill printed the tract and advertised it in their newspaper, the Boston-Gazette, a publication known for advocating the patriot cause.  Soon, advertisements appeared widely in other newspapers published in Boston as well as newspapers in other towns in New England.  In general, they were brief announcements that merely named the title and author; Quincy’s reputation as writer, orator, and political philosopher was so well established that printers and booksellers did not consider it necessary to elaborate on what he had written to convince colonizers to purchase copies of the Observations.  Quincy’s pamphlet experienced even greater dissemination when John Sparhawk, a bookseller in Philadelphia, published an edition there and advertised it in the Pennsylvania Journal.  In addition to stocking it at his “London Book-Store,” Sparhawk advised readers that they could acquire copies from local agents, most of them printers and booksellers, in New York, Annapolis, Williamsburg, and Charleston.  That distribution network certainly made Quincy’s Observations more accessible to colonizers beyond New England, helping to explain how his “attempt to define and defend American rights” became, as Coquillette and York assert, “an essential part of the debate over rights in the empire.”

July 7

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

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

Massachusetts Spy (July 7, 1774).

“AMERICAN INK-POWDER.”

In an advertisement in the July 7, 1774, edition of the Massachusetts Gazette, Ann Norton of Boston and Samuel Norton of Hingham heralded “AMERICAN INK-POWDER” made by Samuel.  They encouraged “Gentlemen, Merchants, Attornies and others that travel” to purchase this product “found to be equal, if not superior to any imported.”  Most of the advertisement described the various qualities of the ink powder that made it better than imported alternatives.  As colonizers in Boston and other towns considered enacting nonimportation agreements to protest the Boston Port Act, entrepreneurs like the Nortons seized the opportunity to present “domestic manufactures” or goods produced in the colonies as patriotic choices for consumers.  On the same page as the Nortons’ advertisement for “AMERICAN INK-POWDER,” Philip Freeman once again ran his notice asserting that “we can manufacture enough [gloves] here, to supply the whole Continent” and recommending that “the importation of this article at least will be totally stopped” during such “threatning” times.

Both advertisements ran in a newspaper that featured a new addition to its masthead: a snake in several segments facing a dragon.  The words “JOIN OR DIE” appeared above the snake and abbreviations for New England and other colonies accompanied each segment.  Readers understood that the snake represented the colonies and the dragon represented Great Britain.  As Isiah Thomas, the printer of the Massachusetts Spy, explained in his History of Printing in America(1810), “The head and tail of the snake were supplied with stings, for defence against the dragon, which appeared furious, and as bent on attacking the snake.”[1]  It was a more elaborate version of the “JOIN, OR DIE” emblem that ran in Benjamin Franklin’s Pennsylvania Gazette twenty years earlier and the “UNITE OR DIE” emblem added to the masthead of the New-York Journal just two weeks earlier.  With this image, Thomas made the threat to American liberty explicit with the addition of the dragon.  That “political device,” as Thomas called it, joined a quotation from Joseph Addison’s Cato that had been part of the masthead for many months: “DO THOU Great LIBERTY inspire our Souls – And make our Lives in THY Possession happy – Or, our Deaths glorious in THY just Defence.”  An assertion that the Massachusetts Spy was “Open to ALL Parties, but Influenced by None” disappeared from the masthead.  The combination of the quotation from Cato and the “political device” made the editorial perspective of the newspaper clear.  Thomas ceased publishing the Massachusetts Spy in Boston and left the city in April 1775 and soon after established the Massachusetts Spy; or, American Oracle of Liberty in Worcester.  Throughout the remainder of the newspaper’s publication in Boston, the snake defending itself against the dragon was part of the masthead, setting the tone for all the news, editorials, and advertisements that appeared below.

Massachusetts Spy (July 7, 1774).

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[1] Isaiah Thomas, The History of Printing in America: With a Biography of Printers and an Account of Newspapers (1810; New York: Weathervane Books, 1970), 273.

July 5

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

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

South-Carolina Gazette and Country Journal (July 5, 1774).

“DONATIONS for the Relief of our distressed Brethren in BOSTON, now suffering for the common Cause of AMERICA.”

Parliament intended to punish Boston when it closed and blockaded the harbor, effective June 1, 1774, as punishment for the destruction of the tea the previous December, yet colonizers from New England to Georgia protested what some described as “that unconstitutional Act.”  The Boston Port Act halted trade in what had been a bustling port city.  In early July, a dozen prominent residents of Charleston and other towns in South Carolina published an advertisement that outlined their plans to send aid to Massachusetts.  They described how “MANY generous and charitable Persons in this Colony” were “desirous to send … DONATIONS for the Relief of our distressed Brethren in BOSTON, now suffering for the common Cause of AMERICA.”  Parliament had miscalculated if it believed that other colonies would not react to the Boston Port Act and the other Coercive Acts.  As many colonizers mobilized to protest, contemplating measures that included nonimportation agreements, some directed their attention to assisting the people of Boston whose patriotic spirit put them in the position of enduring Parliament’s retribution.  Bostonians had acted in the interests of all colonizers, so they had earned the support of colonizers near and far.

The committee that collected donations in Charleston described the Boston Port Act as the “most cruel, arbitrary and oppressive Act of the British Parliament.”  As they explained in their advertisement, it prompted them to organize a “laudable” and “necessary” plan to collect donations “for the Benefit of such poor Persons, whose unfortunate Circumstances, occasioned by the Operation of that unconstitutional Act, may be through to stand in most Need of immediate Assistance.”  The committee encouraged other to participate in this endeavor as “a Mark of real Sympathy and Union with our Sister colonies.”  They made that appeal at the same time that John Holt incorporated a “JOIN OR DIE” emblem into the masthead of the New-York Journal, another testament to belief in the “common cause of AMERICA.”  The committee pledged to “faithfully, and as expediously as possible” send donations to “Gentlemen of known Probity, Public Spirit, and Honour in Boston” to distribute as they deemed appropriate.  One member of the committee, Christopher Gadsden, even offered to store and ship rice donated in support of the people of Boston, likely hoping that gesture would inspire others to similar generosity.

News coverage of reactions to the Boston Port Act appeared elsewhere in the July 5 edition of the South-Carolina Gazette ad Country Journal, though the appeal from the committee ran among “NEW ADVERTISEMENTS.”  Throughout the imperial crisis, advertisements often relayed news and opinion that supplemented articles and editorials.  In this instance, the committee collecting aid for Boston made a forceful argument about politics and attempted to shape public opinion concerning current events.  Their advertisement bolstered commentary that readers encountered throughout the newspaper, not solely in the portion for “freshest Advices, both Foreign and Domestic” selected by the printer.

June 23

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

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

New-York Journal (June 23, 1774).

“AS USUAL, A GENERAL assortment of EUROPEAN and EAST INDIA GOODS.”

As readers perused the June 23, 1774, edition of the New-York Journal, they once again encountered Samuel Hake’s advertisements for a “GENERAL assortment of EUROPEAN and EAST INDIA GOODS, to be sold reasonably, for cash or credit.”  It was the fourth consecutive week that it appeared in that newspaper, having originated in the June 2 edition.  It was the first time, however, that the advertisement ran under a new image in the masthead.  The New-York Journal previously included the coat of arms of the United Kingdom, a lion and a unicorn flanking a shield with the words “DIEU ET MON DROIT” (“God and My Right”) on a banner beneath it.  After receiving word of the Boston Port Act that closed and blockaded the harbor until residents of that city paid for the tea destroyed during the Boston Tea Party, John Holt, the printer of the New-York Journal, selected a new image for the masthead, a snake severed into pieces with the words “UNITE OR DIE” beneath it.  Short abbreviations indicated each part of the snake represented New England or one of the other colonies.

Pennsylvania Gazette (May 9, 1754). Courtesy Library of Congress.

Holt drew inspiration from the “JOIN, or DIE” woodcut that appeared in Benjamin Franklin’s Pennsylvania Gazette twenty years earlier on May 9, 1754.  At that time, the American colonies faced a threat from the French and their Indigenous allies on the eve of the Seven Years War.  In an editorial, Franklin encouraged colonizers to support the Albany Plan of Union and recognize their shared identity as Americans.  The “JOIN, or DIE” political cartoon that accompanied that call to a common cause is the earliest known visual representation of such unity, a symbol repurposed during the imperial crisis.  According to public historians at the National Constitution Center, the “emblem appeared in colonial newspapers during the Stamp Act crisis” and again “during the American Revolutionary War, sometimes as part of a masthead.”  Holt was the first printer to deploy it in 1774, though in the coming months variations appeared in the mastheads of other newspapers.  Those newspapers carried editorials and coverage of the Boston Port Act and the rest of the Coercive Acts and the colonial response, including proposals to cease trade with Britain and stop purchasing imported goods.  Over the next several months, the “GENERAL assortment of EUROPEAN and EAST INDIA GOODS” advertised by Hake would take on new political meanings for colonial consumers.

New-York Journal (June 23, 1774).