News about Revolutionary War

August 14

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

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

Massachusetts Spy (August 14, 1776).

“The freshest and most important intelligence from the Grand Continental Army at New-York.”

An advertisement in the August 14, 1776, edition of the Massachusetts Spy promoted the services of a “Post Rider to Fitchburg,” a town twenty-five miles north of Worcester.  The unnamed post rider stressed that there was no quicker way for residents of that town and others in the vicinity to receive the latest news, especially updates about the war being waged for independence.

The post rider explained that he set out from Worcester on Wednesdays, the same day that William Stearns and Daniel Bigelow published a new issue of the Massachusetts Spy, and “arrive[d] in … Fitchburg every Wednesday night,” supplying the “freshest and most important intelligence from the Grand Continental Army at New-York.”  Readers could depend on it being the latest news because Stearns and Bigelow printed the Massachusetts Spy “the next morning after the arrival of the Southern Mail” on Tuesdays, giving them just enough time to glean the most significant news to include in new issues on Wednesdays.  The letters and newspapers the printers received “contain[ed] ALL the LATEST advices from the grand seat of military operation” as well as “the latest news by the Government Post from Ticonderoga.”  Stearns and Bigelow likely collaborated with the post rider in providing this service as well as in writing an advertisement that promoted the Massachusetts Spy to readers throughout central Massachusetts and southern New Hampshire.  The Massachusetts Spy competed with newspapers published in Boston and Watertown in Massachusetts and Exeter and Portsmouth in New Hampshire, yet subscribers who received the Massachusetts Spy via the “Post Rider to Fitchburg” would “obtain the freshest news much Sooner and Cheaper, than from any other part of the Continent.”  An annual subscription with delivery cost “Ten Shillings per annum (Postage included)” or two shillings more than the base price, “Eight Shillings, per Annum, exclusive of Postage,” listed in the newspaper’s colophon.

The Massachusetts Spy carried all sorts of news, including updates from the Continental Congress in Philadelphia, yet the printers and the post rider believed that readers were most interested in the latest news about the progress of the war. Better than any other newspaper printed in Massachusetts or New Hampshire, the Massachusetts Spy and the “Post Rider to Fitchburg” could deliver that news to subscribers and other readers.

September 19

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , ,

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

South-Carolina Gazette (September 19, 1775).

“Bonneau & Wilson … Continue to sell … fashionable Trimmings.”

It was the type of advertisement that often appeared in colonial newspapers from New England to Georgia during the middle third of the eighteenth century.  In the September 19, 1775, edition of the South-Carolina Gazette, Bonneau and Wilson listed an array of imported goods available at their store on Broad Street in Charleston.  They stocked everything from “Tambour Suits of Muslins and single Aprons” to “Persian and Sattin quilted Coats” to “black and coloured Silk Gloves and Mits” to “Men, Women, and Childrens Silk, Cotton and Thread Hose.”

The merchants did not indicate when they acquired those items, whether they had arrived before the Continental Association went into effect on December 1, 1774, but they did state that they “Continue to sell” them.  Perhaps they meant that they continued to sell goods received before the nonimportation agreement went into effect.  After all, the familiar format of their advertisement lacked some elements that often appeared in such notices.  It did not proclaim that they had just imported their merchandise on the latest vessels from English ports, nor did it name which ships had transported their wares so prospective customers could confirm that they stocked new items.

Neither did Bonneau and Wilson assure the public that they sold goods according to the provisions of the Continental Association.  They may not have believed it necessary considering the surveillance underway at the time.  Just a few days earlier Richard Lushington ran an advertisement in the South-Carolina and American General Gazette to defend his reputation against allegations by “some evil, malicious designed Person or Persons” to the “Committee of Charlestown” that he did not abide by the Continental Association.  In addition, no reader could have perused Bonneau and Wilson’s advertisement without keeping current events in mind, especially since the first page of that issue featured “A DECLARATION By the REPRESENTATIVES of the United Colonies of NORTH-AMERICA, now in General Congress, at PHILADELPHIA, setting forth the Causes and Necessity of their taking up Arms.”

Some aspects of Bonneau and Wilson’s advertisement suggested business as usual at their store, especially the extensive list of imported goods, yet missing elements, news items that accompanied their notice, and current events all indicated that both the merchants and their prospective customers thought about the marketplace differently than they had when similar advertisements ran in newspapers before the imperial crisis.