Joseph Warren

June 1

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , ,

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

Norwich Packet (June 1, 1775).

“One Dollar Reward [for] a Negro Man, named Jack.”

Among its other contents, the June 1, 1775, edition of the Norwich Packet carried an advertisement that offered a “One Dollar Reward” for the capture and return of “a Negro Man, named Jack” who had liberated himself by running away from his enslaver, Joseph Farnham, Jr. of Canterbury, Connecticut, on the morning of April 8.  Farnham provided a description that included Jack’s age, height, other physical characteristics, and clothing.  He also stated that Jack “speaks broken English,” hoping that would assist readers in identifying the fugitive seeking freedom.  In addition, Jack “has formerly been at Sea.”  He had experience as a sailor, making it even more important to include the standard warning that “All Masters of Vessels and others are forbid to harbour or carry off said Negro, or they may depend on being prosecuted.”  Farnham suspected that Jack was headed to Boston.  He departed before the battles of Lexington and Concord and the siege of Boston.  Those events may have worked to Jack’s advantage, distracting colonizers from taking too much notice of him.

What they certainly did notice was that the imperial crisis had entered a new stage.  “HOSTILITIES are at length commenced in this colony,” Massachusetts, “by the troops under command of General Gage,” Joseph Warren, president pro tem of the Massachusetts Provincial Congress declared in an address to “the INHABITANTS of GREAT-BRITAIN.”  He considered it vital that “an early, true, and authentic account of this inhuman proceeding should be known to you.”  He then outlined the recent battles, especially the “ravages of the troops” in “General Gage’s army.” Farnham’s advertisement about Jack appeared immediately below Warren’s address in the June 1 edition of the Norwich Packet, though most readers likely did not grapple with the contradictions.  On behalf of the Massachusetts Provincial Congress, Warren lamented that “ministerial vengeance against this colony, for refusing, with her sister colonies, a submission to slavery.”  He meant figurative slavery, yet Farnham’s advertisement concerned the literal enslavement of a Black man, prompted by Jack’s quest for his own liberty.  Time and time again, advertisements about enslaved men, women, and children appeared alongside news and editorials about the dangers that Parliament posed to the freedoms of colonizers.  The revenue from Farnham’s advertisement about Jack, for instance, helped in making it possible for the printers to publish an editorial from the president pro tem of the Massachusetts Provincial Congress.

May 2

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , ,

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

Essex Gazette (May 2, 1775).

“We do not find any Proof of an inimical Temper or Disposition to this Country.”

Advertisements in early American newspapers often delivered local news beyond the items that printers selected to cover.  Such was the case for an advertisement placed by the Committee of Safety in the May 2, 1775, edition of the Essex Gazette.  Convening in Cambridge a week after the battles at Lexington and Concord, the committee considered the case of “DOCTOR Nathaniel Bond, of Marblehead,” who had been accused of “acting an unfriendly Part to this Colony.”  The committee appointed a “Court of Enquiry” consisting of Joseph Warren, then serving as president pro tem of the Massachusetts Provincial Congress, Colonel Thomas Gardner, and Lieutenant Colonel Joseph Palmer to “examine Witnesses in the Case.”

On behalf of the Committee of Safety, Warren declared that a “full Enquiry” led him, Gardner, and Palmer to the conclusion that “Bond’s general Behaviour, has been friendly to American Liberty; and though he may have discovered an imprudent Degree of Warmth in some Instance, yet we do not find any Proof of an inimical Temper or Disposition to this Country.”  Accordingly, the Committee of Safety “recommend him to the Esteem and Friendship of his Country, that … no Impressions to the Doctor’s Disadvantage may remain on the Minds of any Person whatever.”  Given that Boston’s newspapers “are all stopt, and no more will be printed for the present,” as the printer of the New-Hampshire Gazette put it, some sort of coverage in the Essex Gazette, whether an article or an advertisement, was one of the few remaining options for Bond to rehabilitate his reputation in the public prints in Massachusetts.

While Bond may have been pleased with the Committee of Safety’s notice to the public to accord him “Esteem and Friendship” rather than shun him, readers may have been disappointed that the advertisement did not carry as much news as they wanted.  Warren noted that “the Error which occasioned [Bond] being brought before this Committee, appears to have been altogether involuntary, and was such as several of our most firm Friends were led into by false Rumours spread of the Transactions of the 19th Instant.”  What happened that brought Bond to the attention of the committee in the wake of the “Transactions” at Lexington and Concord?  What had the “Error” been?  Providing such details was not necessary to achieve Warren’s purpose of clearing Bond of the charges, yet not giving a more complete accounting may have left readers wanting to know more about what had supposedly transpired.  For some, gossip likely filled in the gaps left by an incomplete narrative in the newspaper advertisement.

April 12

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

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

Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Weekly News-Letter (April 9, 1772).

“The Second Edition.”

In the spring of 1772, Benjamin Edes and John Gill marked the second anniversary of the Boston Massacre by printing “AN ORATION DELIVERED MARCH 5th … TO COMMEMORATE THE BLOODY TRAGEDY Of the FIFTH of March, 1770.”  Dr. Joseph Warren gave the address to “the INHABITANTS OF THE TOWN OF BOSTON.”  Edes and Gill advertised the pamphlet widely, starting with a lengthy notice in their own Boston-Gazette on March 23.  The next day, the Essex Gazette carried an advertisement alerting readers in Salem and nearby towns that Samuel Hall stocked copies of Warren’s oration “published in Boston.”  Over the next week, Edes and Gill ran advertisements in other newspapers, including the Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Weekly News-Letter on March 26 and the Boston Evening-Post on April 1.

Did those advertisements work?  Perhaps.  Edes and Gill sold enough copies of Warren’s oration that they printed a second edition and began advertising it in the Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Weekly News-Letter on April 9.  Their new advertisement, much more extensive than the one that previously appeared in that newspaper, proclaimed that “The Second Edition” was “THIS DAY PUBLISHED … by EDES and GILL.”  It informed prospective customers that they could acquire the address for nine pence.  It also included two other details that appeared in Edes and Gill’s original advertisement in the Boston-Gazette but not in subsequent advertisements in other newspapers, a quotation in Latin by Virgil and a note that the printers also had on hand “A few of Mr. LOVELL’S ORATIONS Deliver’d last April, on the same Occasion.”  Why did Edes and Gill decide to include Lovell’s address from the first anniversary of the Boston Massacre in this new advertisement?  Did they believe that the advertisements in several newspapers incited such demand for the address that Warren recently delivered that they had a good chance of selling surplus copies of Lovell’s oration?  That Edes and Gill expanded their advertising campaign for “The Second Edition” of Warren’s oration suggests that they considered their first round of notices successful and effective.

April 1

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

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

Boston Evening-Post (March 30, 1772).

“An ORATION … to commemorate the BLOODY TRAGEDY.”

On the second anniversary of the Boston Massacre, Dr. Joseph Warren delivered “An ORATION … at the Request of the Inhabitants of the Town of BOSTON, to commemorate the BLOODY TRAGEDY of the FIFTH of MARCH, 1770.”  Colonizers gathered to listen to the address, but attending that gathering was not their only means of participating in the commemoration of such a significant event.  Benjamin Edes and John Gill, printers of the Boston-Gazette, published Warren’s “ORATION” and marketed it widely in Massachusetts.

They placed their first advertisement in their own newspaper less than three weeks after Warren addressed “the Inhabitants of the Town.”  Their lengthy notice in the March 23, 1772, edition of the Boston-Gazette included an extensive excerpt about “the ruinous Consequences of standing Armies to free Communities.”  Edes and Gill also stated that they stocked “A few of Mr. LOVELL’S ORATIONS Deliver’d last April, on the same Occasion.”  Prospective customers had an opportunity to collect memorabilia related to the “FATAL FIFTH OF MARCH 1770.”  The following day, Samuel Hall, one of the printers of the Essex Gazette, informed readers that he sold copies of Warren’s address “published in Boston.”  His advertisement did not include an excerpt from the address, nor did subsequent advertisements that Edes and Gill placed in other newspapers in Boston.  They inserted a brief notice in the Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Weekly News-Letter on March 26 and then repeated it in the Boston Evening-Post on March 30.

Edes and Gill advertised widely.  That increased the chances that consumers would see their notices and contemplate purchasing copies of Warren’s “ORATION,” but those patriot printers likely aimed for more than generating sales.  Their advertisements in several newspapers contributed to a culture of commemoration of the American Revolution years before the skirmishes at Lexington and Concord.  Their work in the printing office, publishing newspapers and marketing pamphlets that commemorated the Boston Massacre, played an important role in shaping public opinion as colonizers considered current events and the possibility of declaring independence.

March 24

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

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

Essex Gazette (March 24, 1772).

“Yesterday was published in Boston … An ORATION … to commemorate the BLOODY TRAGEDY.”

As soon as Benjamin Edes and John Gill informed readers of the Boston-Gazette that they published an oration that Joseph Warren delivered to commemorate the second anniversary of the “BLOODY TRAGEDY Of the FIFTH of March, 1770,” the printers of the Essex Gazette ran their own advertisement.  “Yesterday was published in Boston, and now to be sold by Samuel Hall, in Salem,” the notice announced, “An ORATION, delivered March 5th, 1772, at the Request of the Inhabitants of the Town of Boston, to commemorate the BLOODY TRAGEDY of the Fifth of March, 1770.  By Dr. JOSEPH WARREN.”  That advertisement did not include the lengthy excerpt from the address that Edes and Gill included in their notice, but it did encourage consumers to participate in commemorating the Boston Massacre by purchasing their own copy of Warren’s remarks.

Not surprisingly, given its location, the Essex Gazette engaged in the most extensive remembrances of “Preston’s Massacre–in King-Street … In which Five Persons were killed, and Six wounded” of any newspaper published outside of Boston.  On the occasion of the second anniversary, the Halls devoted the entire first page of their newspaper to a memorial that honored the patriots who gave their lives and listed grievances against the “British Ministry” that “contrived and effected the Establishment of the late Standing Army” in Massachusetts.  In addition to such memorials, the Essex Gazette carried advertisements for commemorative items connected to the Boston Massacre.  Nearly a year before promoting Warren’s address, the Essex Gazette carried an advertisement for “A few of Mr. Lovell’s ORATIONS on the Massacre in Boston, to be sold by the Printer hereof.”  Residents of Salem and surrounding towns had an opportunity to purchase the same commemorative pamphlet printed and sold in Boston.  The commodification and marketing of the Boston Massacre helped to create a culture of commemoration of the Boston Massacre throughout the colony.  Colonizers who did not live in the busy port and could not witness Warren’s oration themselves read the Essex Gazette and the various newspapers printed in Boston.  When they did so, they read coverage of the commemorative events and encountered invitations to purchase their own copies of orations and other items related to the Boston Massacre, opportunities to partake in civic participation through consumption even if they could not attend in person.

March 23

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

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

Boston-Gazette (March 23, 1772).

“AN ORATION … TO COMMEMORATE THE BLOODY TRAGEDY.”

Commemoration and commodification of the Boston Massacre commenced just weeks after British soldiers killed several colonizers when they fired into a crowd of protesters on March 5, 1770.  Paul Revere advertised “A PRINT containing a Representation of the late horrid Massacre in King-Street” in the March 26, 1770, edition of the Boston-Gazette.  He appropriated the image from a sketch done by Henry Pelham.  A week later, Pelham advertised “The Fruits of Arbitrary Power, An Original Print, representing the late horrid Massacre in King Street, taken from the Spot” in the April 2 edition of the Boston-Gazette.  A year later, colonizers in Boston determined that public orations should mark the event.  On April 2, 1771, James Lovell delivered “AN Oration … At the Request of the Inhabitants of the Town of Boston; To Commemorate the Bloody Tragedy of the Fifth of March, 1770.”  Not long after that, an advertisement in the April 15 edition of the Boston-Gazette promoted copies for colonizers to purchase.

In subsequent years, the annual oration occurred on March 5.  From 1771 through 1783, this commemorative event attracted more attention in Boston than Independence Day, but after the Treaty of Paris brought the Revolutionary War to an end July 4 became more widely recognized.  On the second anniversary of the Boston Massacre, Joseph Warren gave “AN ORATION … At the REQUEST of the INHABITANTS OF THE TOWN OF BOSTON TO COMMEMORATE THE BLOODY TRAGEDY Of the FIFTH of March, 1770.”  An advertisement quickly appeared in the March 23 edition of the Boston-Gazette, filling nearly two-thirds of a column.  The advertisement occupied so much space because Benjamin Edes and John Gill, the patriot printers of both the Boston-Gazette and the oration, included an extensive excerpt about “the ruinous Consequences of standing Armies to free Communities.”  The printers hoped that by giving prospective customers a taste of what Warren had to say about the “tyranny and oppression” of an “armed soldiery” who “frequently insulted and abused” the residents of Boston that would entice them to purchase the oration and read more.  Doing so also gave them an opportunity to remember the “horrors of THAT DREADFUL NIGHT” and venerate “the mangled bodies of the dead” who perished as a result of the “barbarous caprice of the raging soldiery.”

At the end of the advertisement, Edes and Gill noted that they also stocked “A few of Mr. LOVELL’S ORATIONS Deliver’d last April, on the same Occasion.”  They made it easy for patriotic consumers to collect memorabilia associated with the Boston Massacre.  Commemoration and commodification of that event occurred simultaneously in the years before the colonies declared independence.