New-England Chronicle

April 25

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

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

New-England Chronicle (April 25, 1776).

“An ORATION … on the re-interment of the remains of … JOSEPH WARREN.”

Samuel Hall, the printer of the New-England Chronicle, published the last issue of that newspaper “at his Printing-Office in Stoughton-Hall, HARVARD-COLLEGE,” in Cambridge on April 4, 1776.  Three weeks later, he resumed publication “at his Office next to the OLIVER CROMWELL Tavern, in SCHOOL-STREET,” in Boston.  The newspaper continued with the same volume and issue numbering.  The evacuation of the British and the end of the siege of Boston on March 17 presented an opportunity for Hall to enter the city, making the New-England Chronicle the only newspaper printed in Boston at the time.  Benjamin Edes continued publishing the Boston-Gazette in Watertown until late October and returned the newspaper to Boston in early November.

The end of the British occupation also allowed for events and rituals that could not be undertaken while they remained.  For example, the annual commemoration of the Boston Massacre occurred in Watertown rather than in Boston.  A month later, however, the British had departed and patriots gathered “at the King’s Chapel in Boston [for] the re-interment of the remains of the late Most Worshipful Grand Master, JOSEPH WARREN, Esq; President of the late Congress of this Colony, and Major-General of the Massachusetts forces; who was slain in the battle of Bunker’s-Hill, June 17, 1775.”  On that solemn occasion, Perez Morton delivered an oration, yet colonizers did not have to attend the reinterment on April 8 to learn about the minister’s message.  John Gill, Edes’s former partner in printing the Boston-Gazette, advertised that he published and sold Morton’s Oration in the April 25 edition of the New-England Chronicle, that first issue published in Boston.  It was simultaneously an act of commemoration and an act of commodification of the events of the revolutionary era, not unlike the publication and dissemination of the annual oration delivered on the anniversary of the Boston Massacre.  Putting copies of Morton’s Oration into circulation in Boston and beyond contributed to the veneration of Warren as a hero who made the ultimate sacrifice on behalf of his country.  The pamphlet met with such demand that Gill published a second edition.  In addition, John Holt published a local edition in New York and John Dunlap did the same in Philadelphia, disseminating Morton’s oration in memory of Warren beyond New England.

Hall, a savvy entrepreneur, piggybacked on Gill’s advertisement for Morton’s Oration.  Immediately below, he inserted his own advertisement for a “Mezzotinto Print of the late Gen. Warren.”  He apparently expected that demand for one would enhance demand for the other, providing consumers with another opportunity to demonstrate their patriotism through their decision to purchase commemorative items.

April 4

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

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

New-England Chronicle (April 4, 1776).

“Will be PUBLISHED … in BOSTON, A New Edition of COMMON SENSE.”

It did not take long after the siege of Boston ended with the evacuation of British troops on March 17, 1776, for printers in that town to set about publishing a local edition of Thomas Paine’s Common Sense.  An advertisement in the April 4 edition of the New-England Chronicle, published in Cambridge, announced that “Next week will be PUBLISHED, and to be SOLD, by T. and J. FLEET, and EDES and GILL, in BOSTON, A New Edition of COMMON SENSE.”  This edition would include “several additions in the body of the work: To which is added an Appendix, and an address to the representatives of the people called Quakers.”  That the printers described it as a “New Edition” suggested that they followed the second edition that Paine collaborated with William Bradford and Thomas Bradford in publishing rather than unauthorized editions that Robert Bell, the publisher of the first edition, marketed after having a falling out with the author.  The Bradfords described their edition as the “NEW EDITION” in their advertisements.  They also inserted a nota bene that declared, “This Edition contains upwards of one-third more than any former one.”  The Fleets and Edes and Gill replicated that nota bene in their own advertisement.

It likely came as no surprise to local readers that Benjamin Edes and John Gill got involved in publishing an edition of Common Sense.  For many years, they printed the Boston-Gazette, a newspaper known for its strident advocacy for the American cause.  After publishing the April 17, 1775, edition of the Boston-Gazette, they suspended the newspapers and dissolved their partnership following the battles at Lexington and Concord on April 19.  Edes removed to Watertown, where the Massachusetts Provincial Congress met, and resumed publication in early June 1775.  The Boston-Gazette remained there until the end of October 1776 and then returned to port city.  Thomas Fleet and John Fleet, the former printers of the Boston Evening-Post, had previously collaborated with Edes and Gill and other local printers on other projects, especially almanacs.  They published the final issue of the Boston Evening-Post on April 24, 1775, announcing that they “shall desist publishing their Papers … till Matters are in a more settled State.”  They never resumed publishing their newspaper, but they joined with Edes and Gill in publishing a Boston edition of Common Sense shortly after the British left the city.  Samuel Hall, the printer of the New-England Chronicle, may have attempted to give the enterprise a boost.  The news updates in the column to the left of the advertisement for the popular political pamphlet reported that a “favourite toast, in the best companies, is, ‘May the INDEPENDENT principles of COMMON SENSE be confirmed throughout the United Colonies.’”  The publication and dissemination of a Boston edition of Common Sense helped in spreading those “INDEPENDENT principles in New England.

March 28

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

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

New-England Chronicle (March 28, 1776).

“THE 2d Salem Edition of the celebrated Pamphlet, intitled COMMON SENSE.”

A brief advertisement in the March 28, 1776, edition of the New-England Chronicle alerted readers that “THE 2d Salem Edition of the celebrated Pamphlet, intitled, COMMON SENSE, is just published, and to be sold by EZEKIEL RUSSELL of that place.”  It was the fourth advertisement for Thomas Paine’s influential political pamphlet that appeared in a newspaper published in Massachusetts and perhaps the first one that promoted an edition of Common Sense printed in that colony.

On March 4, the Boston-Gazette, printed in Watertown during the siege of Boston, carried a notice offering “A few of those celebrated Pamphlets … to be Sold (if applied for soon) at Mr. Samuel Wait’s … in Cambridge; and at the Printing Office in Watertown.”  Benjamin Edes, the printer of the Boston-Gazette, did not indicate which edition he stocked.  The copies he had on hand may have come from the press of Judah P. Spooner in Norwich, Connecticut, or from the press of John Carter in Providence, Rhode Island.  Alternately, Edes may have acquired copies published in New York or Philadelphia.  Perhaps Russell had published a local edition in Salem by early March, doing so without fanfare in the public prints.  Edes ran the same advertisement again three weeks later.

In the time between the appearances of those advertisements in the Boston-Gazette, Samuel Hall offered for sale at his printing office in Cambridge “A few copies of that valuable pamphlet, intitled COMMON SENSE” in an advertisement in the March 14, 1776, edition of the New-England Chronicle.  Which edition did he sell?  Could it have been the first edition printed in Salem by Russell?  If so, why did the advertisement published on March 28 indicate that Russell sold the “2d Salem Edition” in that town but Edes did not have copies in Cambridge?

Whatever the answer to that question, this reference to a “2d Salem Edition” seems to suggest an edition published there but not listed in Richard Gimbel’s Bibliographical Check List of Common Sense.  Gimbel identifies only one edition published in Salem in 1776.[1]  Its title page identified it as the “Third Edition,” though that did not necessarily mean that Russell printed three editions.  Instead, it likely indicated that he knew of two previous editions.  When John Carter published local editions in Providence, he identified them as the “Sixth Edition” and the “Tenth Edition,” presumably taking into account editions printed in Philadelphia, New York, and other towns that came to his attention via newspaper advertisements, correspondence, and exchanges with fellow printers.[2]  That being the case, Russell almost certainly knew that any Salem edition he published was not the third edition printed in the colonies, but perhaps the disruptions caused by the war had an impact on his networks for collecting information at the time he first took a Salem edition to press.  That the advertisement in the New-England Chronicle cites a “2d Salem Edition” yet Gimbel lists only one edition of Common Sense printed there might indicate that yet another edition circulated in 1776 even though no known copies have survived in historical societies, research libraries, and private collections.  Paine’s pamphlet went through more editions than any other published during the era of American Revolution.  Perhaps it had one more edition than scholars previously realized.

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[1] Richard Gimbel, Thomas Paine: A Bibliographical Check List of Common Sense with an Account of Its Publication (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1956), 91.

[2] Gimbel, Thomas Paine, 90-91.

March 14

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , ,

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

New-England Chronicle (March 14, 1776).

“A few copies of the valuable pamphlet, intitled, COMMON SENSE, to be sold by the Printer hereof.”

Just three days before the British evacuated Boston, ending the siege that began nearly a year earlier following the battles at Lexington and Concord, the first advertisement for Thomas Paine’s Common Sense appeared in the New-England Chronicle.  Samuel Hall published that newspaper, according to the masthead, “at his Printing-Office in Stoughton-Hall, HARVARD-COLLEGE,” in Cambridge.  Most of the newspapers published in Boston before the fighting commenced ceased or suspended publication or relocated beyond the city.  Amid such disruption, Hall moved the Essex Gazette, formerly published in Salem, to Cambridge and renamed it the New-England Chronicle.  During the first year of the Revolutionary War, it served the towns outside of Boston and the American encampment where General George Washington oversaw the siege.

That first advertisement for Paine’s influential political pamphlet in the New-England Chronicle contained little fanfare.  Unlike the advertisements that ran in most other newspapers, it did not provide an overview by listing the several sections within the pamphlet.  Instead, two brief lines advised, “A few copies of that valuable pamphlet, intitled COMMON SENSE, to be sold by the Printer hereof.”  Perhaps Hall felt that Common Sense did not need much introduction, especially if prospective customers had already heard about it and discussed the radical ideas that Paine espoused.  After all, Robert Bell published the first edition in Philadelphia two months earlier.  That was plenty of time for word to spread to Cambridge.  In addition, the pamphlet was so popular that Bell quickly took a second (unauthorized) edition to press, Paine worked with William Bradford and Thomas Bradford to publish a new edition in Philadelphia, and printers in several towns in New York and New England published, advertised, and sold local editions.  Which edition did Hall have on hand to sell at his printing office?  He may have acquired copies of the edition jointly published by Timothy Green, the printer of the Connecticut Gazette in New London, and Judah P. Spooner, a printer in Norwich, or the edition published by John Carter, the printer of the Providence Gazette.  Alternately, he may have received copies of other editions sent to him from as far away as New York or Philadelphia … or perhaps even a local edition published in Salem by Ezekiel Russell not previously advertised in any newspaper.  Even if readers of the New-England Chronicle already knew about the ideas that Paine presented in Common Sense, few had likely read the pamphlet for themselves.  Hall provided an opportunity for them to do so, aiding in the dissemination of the pamphlet in the months before the Continental Congress declared independence.

January 4

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

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

New-England Chronicle (January 4-11, 1776).

“SEBRING, Sadler and cap-maker from London, at the White Horse in Providence.”

After migrating to the colonies from England in the early 1770s, John Sebring occasionally placed advertisements in the Providence Gazette, offering his services as a “Saddler, Chaise and Harness Maker.”  Though he remained in Providence at the beginning of the Revolutionary War, he saw an opportunity to advertise in the New-England Chronicle, printed in Cambridge, in January 1776.  As the siege of Boston continued, he introduced himself to readers as a “Sadler and cap-maker from London.”  Even though it had been more than three years since he left the largest and most cosmopolitan city in the British Empire, he continued to stress his connection to it.  Prospective customers, after all, associated both skill and taste with artisans who had trained in London or gained experience working there.  Sebring also deployed one of the signature elements of his advertisements, using solely his surname rather than his full name as the headline.  That initial proclamation, the mononym “SEBRING,” suggested celebrity and an established reputation.

In this advertisement, Sebring declared that he “Makes all sorts of Saddles, with proper furniture for them, in the most fashionable manner.”  Practical was good, but stylish was even better!  He listed a variety of items that he made “at the White Horse in Providence,” the location featured in his newspaper notices since he first began advertising, and then advised that “Any gentleman wanting any of the above articles may depend on being served with the greatest punctuality and dispatch, by directing a few lines” to him.  Sebring had previously confined his advertisements to the Providence Gazette, but he apparently believed that the disruptions of the war opened new markets to him.  American officers and soldiers gathered in Cambridge and nearby towns, many of them dispatched from distant places.  As they would have been unfamiliar with local artisans, Sebring presented his workshop to supply saddles and other equipment via a mail order system.  In a nota bene at the conclusion of the advertisement, he offered a chance to examine some of his wares before placing orders for customized items.  “Mussetees [or musette bags, lightweight knapsacks used by soldiers], boot garters and sword belts,” Sebring stated, “to be sold at Mr. William Allen’s, near the Anchor in Cambridge.”  Sebring apparently recruited a local agent to help him break into a new market.

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Clarification:  Readers of the New-England Chronicle did not encounter this advertisement in the issue distributed on January 4, 1776.  It should not have been the featured advertisement on January 4, 2026.  Here’s how the mistake happened.

The format for the date in the masthead of some colonial newspapers confuses modern readers.  That’s because some newspapers published weekly did not state only the date on which the newspaper was published but instead indicated the week that it covered.  The New-England Chronicle was one of those newspapers.  Rather than giving “January 4, 1776” as the date, the masthead for that issue stated, “From THURSDAY, Decem. 28, 1775, to THURSDAY, January 4, 1776.”  For the issue published on January 11, the masthead stated, “From THURSDAY, January 4, to THURSDAY, January 11, 1776.”

While America’s Historical Newspapers associates the correct publication date with the issues of the vast majority of newspapers in the database, a couple newspapers use the date for the beginning of the week rather than the publication date.  When an undergraduate research assistant downloaded digital copies of all American newspapers published in 1776, I neglected to warn him that was the case for the New-England Chronicle.  I compounded the error by not looking at the masthead closely enough when I consulted the issue for January 4-11 to select an advertisement to feature on January 4.  I only noticed the problem after publishing the entry.

Since advertisements for consumer goods and services typically ran for multiple weeks, I hoped that Sebring’s advertisement also appeared in the December 28 – January 4 issue.  If that had been the case, I would have simply cropped the image from that issue and substituted it in this entry.  However, Sebring’s notice made its first appearance in the January 4-11 issue.

I decided that the next best solution was updating the date in the citation that accompanies the image of Sebring’s advertisement and adding this clarification.  It provides insight into the process of conducting research with digitized sources … and a warning about the importance of attention to detail.  I have more than a decade of experience working with digitized eighteenth-century newspapers.  I initially saw what I expected to see, not what was actually there, and only discovered the error when I took a closer look at the newspapers as I continued production of this project.  Fortunately, I caught the error quickly and updated the filenames for the downloaded newspapers accordingly.  In addition to this clarification, I am also making small adjustments to the Slavery Adverts 250 Project to adhere to the dates advertisements about enslaved people were published in the New-England Chronicle.

December 28

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

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

New-England Chronicle (December 28, 1775).

“AN assortment of ENGLISH GOODS … too numerous to particularize.”

Isaac White placed an advertisement for an “assortment of ENGLISH GOODS” available at “his SHOP near the FERRY” in Haverhill, Massachusetts, in the December 28, 1775, edition of the New-England Chronicle.  Despite the outbreak of hostilities at Lexington and Concord eight months earlier and the Continental Association remaining in effect, his advertisement looked much like those that so frequently appeared in American newspapers at times when colonizers did not attempt to use nonimportation agreements as political leverage in their contest with Parliament.  White listed dozens of items, including many varieties and colors of textiles, ribbons, “a large assortment of double gilt coat & breast buttons,” “a few very genteel dressing, and other looking glasses,” and “a small assortment of cutlery ware, among which are a few dozen of very neat white and green ivory handle knives & forks, with carvers to match.”  As if that was not enough, White concluded his catalog with a promise of “a great variety of other articles, too numerous to particularize.”

The shopkeeper did not mention when he acquired his merchandise, whether all those items arrived in the colonies before the Continental Association went into effect, yet he did rely on a familiar marketing strategy by presenting readers with an array of choices and inviting them to imagine themselves visiting his shop, examining his inventory, selecting the goods they desired, and displaying their style and taste to others after they made their purchases.  Consumption certainly had political dimensions during the imperial crisis, but even after the Revolutionary War began habits that had developed (and that advertisers like White had helped in cultivating) did not easily fade.  In the same issue of the New-England Chronicle, Martin Bicker ran an advertisement about a “fresh supply” of “ENGLISH GOODS … just received from New-York and Philadelphia … now selling off at his store in Cambridge.”  Though not as extensive as White’s notice, Bicker’s advertisement listed several kinds of textiles and handkerchiefs.  It concluded with “&c. &c. &c.”  Repeating the common abbreviation for et cetera made the same promise of even more items as White’s assertions about “a great variety of other articles, too numerous to particularize.”  In addition, Bicker declared, “Those that intend to purchase must speedily apply, otherwise they will be disappointed.”  He expected to do brisk business.

That colonizers continued consuming during the Revolutionary War does not necessarily merit attention.  After all, people needed goods.  Then as now, warfare disrupted commerce but did not eliminate it.  Yet the advertisements placed by White and Bicker did not suggest that they served customers who merely sought to purchase necessities.  Instead, they continued to cater to the desires of consumers who continued to shop for many of the reasons they did before the war began.  Some may have had a new purpose, seeking distractions from current events.  How readers responded, these advertisements do not reveal, yet they do indicate that White and Bicker saw opportunities for business as usual.

December 14

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

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

New-England Chronicle (December 14, 1775).

“Fringe and Lace maker in Front street, between Race and Vine-streets, … Philadelphia.”

James Butland, a “Fringe and Lace maker,” placed several newspaper advertisements in 1775.  In February, he inserted an advertisement in the Pennsylvania Journal, advising prospective customers that he “Continues to make and sell” all sorts of fringes and laces equal in quality to any imported from England.  He also assured the public that “no advantage shall be taken on account of the troubles between Britain and America,” signaling that he abided by the Continental Association and did not raise prices once that nonimportation agreement went into effect.  In July, he placed a new advertisement in the Pennsylvania Evening Post, once again promoting his fringes and laces made in Philadelphia.  He also requested “unfashionable” scraps “not fit for sale,” asserting that he could upcycle them into new pieces.

In December, he published another advertisement.  Like the others, it included a list of the types of fringes and laces he made, including “Coach-maker’s lace and fringe, with other trimmings for all sorts of carriages; sadler’s and upholsterer’s lace and fringe, with line and tassels made to any pattern or colour; gold and silver epaulets for officers, with other uniforms, [and] footmen’s liveries made to any pattern.”  In a nota bene, Butland invited “Any person having gold, silver, silk, worsted or thread” who would like it “manufactured into any of the above articles” to apply to his shop “between Race and Vine-streets” in Philadelphia.  It was much like the advertisements he previously published … except for the newspaper that carried it.  This notice appeared in the New-England Chronicle, printed in Cambridge as the siege of Boston continued.  Other advertisements in the December 14 edition came from towns in the vicinity, including Beverly, Braintree, Brookline, Cambridge, Concord, Danvers, Gloucester, Medford, Menotomy, Newton, Plymouth, Roxbury, Salem, Topsfield, Waltham, and Woburn.  One concerning a stray horse came from Epping, New Hampshire.  Like other newspapers, the New-England Chronicle served an entire region, yet advertisements for artisans (or shopkeepers or merchants) in cities and towns beyond that region rarely appeared in any colonial newspapers.  Printers and booksellers often distributed subscription proposals and other advertisements more widely in their efforts to incite enough demand and generate enough sales to make their projects viable.  Other advertisers, however, focused on cultivating local clienteles.  Even those who offered mail order goods and services lived and worked within the region served by the newspapers that carried their advertisements.  That made Butland’s advertisement for fringe and lace made in Philadelphia in the New-England Chronicle quite unusual, raising questions without easy answers.  Why did he choose to advertise in that newspaper?  How did that fit into his overall marketing strategy?  How effective did he anticipate his advertisement would be?

September 21

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

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

New-England Chronicle (September 21, 1775).

“Uneasiness arising in the minds of people from the conduct of myself and family upon the fast day.”

The final page of the September 21, 1775, edition of the New-England Chronicle had an entire column of “RECANTATIONS.”  Five notices appeared under that header, four of them colonizers who expressed regret for signing an address to Thomas Hutchinson, the former governor of the colony, in February 1774.  Such advertisements had become a regular feature in newspapers published in New England over the past year.  In the first of the “RECANTATIONS,” however, Asa Dunbar, a minister in Salem, apologized for something else that had caused concern in his community.

He had been “acquainted by the gentlemen, the committee of correspondence in Weston” about “some uneasiness arising in the minds of people from the conduct of myself and family upon the fast day, the 20th of last July.”  Katherine Carté, author of Religion and the American Revolution: An Imperial History, explains that on June 12 the Second Continental Congress passed a resolution to declare the fast on July 20, allowing for enough time for the news to reach distant colonies from Philadelphia.  The fast day became, Carté asserts, “in effect our first national holiday.”  Furthermore, it “was probably one of the only moments of the Revolutionary War that Americans experienced simultaneously, though not everyone celebrated it.  In a short essay, “Why We Should Remember July 20, 1775,” she chronicles commemorations of the fast day throughout the colonies, noting that many embraced the occasion and a few “marked it in protest.”

Something happened that day that cast suspicion on Dunbar and his support for the American cause: “I beg leave publicly to declare, that the part I bore in those transactions that gave offence was dictated solely by the principles of religion and humanity, with no design of displeasing any one.”  Whatever had occurred, the minister had not intended to make a statement, unlike Samuel Seabury who had “closed the doors of his church in protest” on the day of the fast.  “As it has been suspected that I despised the day, and the authority that appointed it,” Dunbar proclaimed, “I must in justice to myself, and from the love of truth affirm, that I very highly respect and revere that authority.”  Furthermore, “were it not for the appearance of boasting, [I] could add, that I believe no person observed it with greater sincerity.”

A short note from Benjamin Peirce, the moderator of Weston and Sudbury’s Committee of Correspondence, accompanied Dunbar’s recantation.  He reported that the committee took into account Dunbar’s “declaration” and “questioned him respecting the transaction he refers to,” but he did not elaborate on that transgression.  Whatever had occurred, the committee considered Dunbar’s explanation “satisfactory, and think it ought to release him from any unfavourable suspicions that have arisen to his disadvantage.”  That must have been a relief to Dunbar.  Like so many others, he resorted to an advertisement in the public prints to confess, to apologize, and to assure his community that he was not an enemy to American liberties.

August 17

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , ,

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

New-England Chronicle (August 17, 1775).

“Cash given … for homespun Cloth … and for yarn Stockings.”

Stephen Hall III placed an advertisement in the August 17, 1775, edition of the New-England Chronicle to inform “the Publick” that he “has again opened his Shop” in Medford, Massachusetts, and offered a variety of textiles, “Gloves and Mitts,” “handsome Fans and Ribbons,” and other items for sale.  The shopkeeper did not indicate when he had acquired these imported items, whether they had arrived in the colony before the Continental Association went into effect on December 1, 1774.

He did, however, state that he paid cash for “homespun Cloth” and “yarn Stockings” produced locally rather than imported from Britain.  The Continental Association called on colonizers to “encourage Frugality, Economy, and Industry; and promote Agriculture, Arts, and the Manufactures of this Country” as alternatives to imported goods.  That gave textiles and garments made from them political meaning beyond testifying to taste and status as consumers deployed their choices in the marketplace as leverage in their contest with Parliament.  In response to the Stamp Act in 1765, the duties levied in the Townshend Acts in the late 1760s, and the provisions of the Coercive Acts in 1774, colonizers participated in boycotts – nonimportation and nonconsumption agreements – to pressure Parliament to repeal offensive legislation.  Each round of boycotts came with renewed efforts to produce and to consume “domestic manufactures.”

This also presented women with opportunities to participate in politics.  They did so when they made choices as consumers, such as selecting homespun cloth over the “Shalloons,” “Serges,” “Ginghams,” “Poplins,” “Calimancoes,” and other fabrics that Hall and other merchants and shopkeepers imported.  Yet their role as producers gained political significance as well.  They undertook carding and spinning with new purpose, sometimes holding spinning bees in public spaces rather than the usual domestic settings to make their contributions to the American cause more visible and to inspire others to join them.  Similarly, weaving and making clothing also became political acts.  Although Hall did not mention women as producers in his newspaper advertisement, readers knew that women produced the “homespun Cloth” and “yarn Stockings” he sought.  They participated in the American Revolution in their own way.

July 27

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

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

New-England Chronicle (July 27, 1775).

“An easy Plan of Discipline for a MILITIA. By TIMOTHY PICKERING.”

As the imperial crisis intensified when the Coercive Acts went into effect in 1774, the Massachusetts Provincial Congress recommended publication of a manual for training militia throughout the colony, The Manual Exercise as Ordered by His Majesty in 1764: Together with Plans and Explanations of the Method Generally Practis’d at Reviews and Field-Days.  Over the next several months, several printers in New England published their own editions.  Advertisements for The Manual Exercise appeared frequently in newspapers throughout the region.  Printers beyond New England followed their lead.  After the battles at Lexington and Concord, advertisements for other military manuals proliferated, including advertisements for Thomas Hanson’s Prussian Evolutions in Actual Engagements published by subscription in Philadelphia.

Samuel Hall and Ebenezer Hall, printers of the New-England Chronicle, published and advertised yet another military manual, An Easy Plan of Discipline for a Militia by Timothy Pickering, Jr.  An advertisement for the work appeared in the July 27, 1775, edition of their newspaper.  The Halls indicated that they had copies available at their printing office in Cambridge, where they had only recently moved from Salem and renamed and continued publishing the Essex Gazette. In addition, Joseph Hiller, a watchmaker in Salem, also sold the manual.  The advertisement consisted primarily of an extensive list of the contents, demonstrating to prospective customers what they could expect to find in the volume, followed by a short note that the “methods of performing the evolutions or manœuvres, wheelings, &c. are exhibited in 14 octavo copper-plate prints.”  The illustrations were an important addition that would aid readers in understanding the various maneuvers described in the book.

In addition to the advertisement the Halls inserted in the New-England Chronicle, Pickering pursued another means of marketing the book.  He sent a copy directly to George Washington with a request that he consider “recommending or permitting its use among the officers & soldiers under your command.”  Pickering flattered the commander of the Continental Army following his appointment to the post by the Second Continental Congress, declaring that the army had been “committed to your excellency’s care & direction” “to the joy of every American.”  Pickering asserted his own “duty & inclination” inspired him to compose the manual and present it to the general for his consideration.  He deemed it a “service [to] my country” that he hoped “may well prove advantageous in an army hastily assembled.”  Washington did indeed take note.  According to the American Revolution Institute, “Washington promoted the use of several published works, including Timothy Pickering’s An Easy Plan of Discipline for a Militia and Thomas Hanson’s The Prussian Evolutions” during the early years of the Revolutionary War.  In 1779, Baron von Steuben’s Regulations for the Order and Discipline of the Troops of the United States became the first official manual of the Continental Army.  Until then, Pickering’s manual was a popular choice for training American soldiers.