Pennsylvania Evening Post

June 11

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

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

Pennsylvania Evening Post (June 11, 1776).

“I thus publicly deny ever carrying any such papers, or being privy to the carrying of them.”

As the printer and editor of the Pennsylvania Evening Post, Benjamin Towne made decisions about the news that appeared in his newspaper.  In the June 11, 1776, edition, for instance, he selected an open letter “To Mr. JAMES RANKIN, one of the Representatives for the country of York, in the province of Pennsylvania” from “A FREEMAN,” updates from Watertown, Massachusetts; New London, Connecticut; and New York, and local news from Philadelphia.  Yet that was not all the news that appeared in that issue of the Pennsylvania Evening Post.  Advertisers also played a role in choosing which news to disseminate, paying for the opportunity to do so.  Hamilton and Leiper announced the dissolution of their partnership in yet another newspaper, Captain Thomas Houston alerted the public about four men who “DESERTED … from on board the Provincial armed galley Warren,” and “Dr. L. BUTTE, Surgeon-Dentist,” advised the public of his new location on Chestnut Street.

Thomas Cumpston also placed an advertisement with the intention of spreading news that was especially important to him.  “WHEREAS a report has been propagated about this city,” he declared, “that I carried certain Remonstrances to York Town in order to get them signed, therefore in justice to myself, I thus publicly deny ever carrying such papers, or being privy to the carrying of them.”  To make it clear, he asserted that “the report is groundless, and without foundation.”  The open letter to Rankin from “A FREEMAN” that filled the entire first page and spilled over onto the second concerned the circulation of the “certain Remonstrances” that Cumpston supposedly carried to York to gather signatures,” though “A FREEMAN” did not mention Cumpston.  That letter was a response to Rankin’s own open letter “To the WORTHY INHABITANTS of YORK COUNTY” in the June 8 edition of the Pennsylvania Evening Post.  It also filled the entire first page and overflowed to the second page.  Rankin stated that he had been “injuriously treated by a Resolve of your County Committee, published in the several newspapers.”

The controversy revolved around Rankin’s reaction to the a resolution passed by the Second Continental Congress on May 15, 1776, a resolution that the “Assemblies and Conventions of the United Colonies, where no Government sufficient to the Exigencies of their affairs hath been hitherto established, … adopt such Government as shall in the Opinion of the Representatives of the People best conduce to the happiness and Safety of their Constituents in particular and America in General.”  In other words, each colony should establish its own government.  Tories and moderates took a different approach to this resolution than Patriots did.  In Pennsylvania, that resulted in both a “Remonstrance,” favored by Tories, and a “Protest,” favored by Patriots, circulating; “A FREEMAN” accused Rankin of embracing the former and ignoring the latter even though Rankin claimed that he wished to be guided by the views of all his constituents.  Rankin insisted that he acted from “love for the charter constitution of Pennsylvania” when he took into account “a Remonstrance …  sign[ed] by multitudes of the most respectable names in the city of Philadelphia, and the neighbouring counties, in opposition to the doctrines in the Protest.”  The “Remonstrance” argued that “public service has been, and might still be, carried on as vigorously by the Assembly of this province as by any other public body on the continent.”  Therefore, it was not necessary to create a new government.

Cumpston wanted no part of that controversy, at least not as an agent who circulated “certain Remonstrances … in order to get them signed.”  His advertisement served as a supplement to the news as he attempted to shape the narrative as far as his own actions were concerned.  Towne, the printer and editor, may not have had any interest in how the story that appeared on the first page of his newspaper had an impact on one resident of Philadelphia, but he did aim to generate revenue by selling advertising space.  Cumpston inserted a paid notice as a means of publishing news and rehabilitating his reputation as political debates in Pennsylvania intensified.

June 4

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , ,

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

Pennsylvania Evening Post (June 4, 1776).

“Impowering the Directors to remove the books and effects of the said company.”

Andrew Robeson had an urgent message for members of the Library Company of Philadelphia.  In an advertisement in the June 4, 1776, edition of the Pennsylvania Evening Post, he informed them that a “General Meeting” held on May 30 lacked a quorum for undertaking the important business of “impowering the Directors to remove the books and effects of the said company” if circumstances warranted.  The directors apparently anticipated a possible attack on Philadelphia and occupation of the city by British forces.  If such an event did occur, they wanted to see to the safety of the Library Company’s books.  As Robeson explained in the call to the meeting that ran in the Pennsylvania Evening Post on May 28, the directors sought the advice of the members to “determine on the place where the [books and effects of the Library Company] shall be deposited in case any future event should render that measure necessary.”

Robeson, the secretary of the Library Company, lamented “the number of members met not being competent to the passing of a law” or a motion giving the directors the authority to make such decisions.  Instead, those present “agreed to adjourn until Thursday the sixth day of June … when the members are requested to attend either in person or by proxy, to the consider of the propriety” of the matter.  He hoped that a new round of advertisements and the increasing urgency of the situation would convince members to attend or arrange for others to cast votes on their behalf.  To improve the chances of achieving a quorum at the next meeting, Robeson also inserted the notice in the June 1 edition of thePennsylvania Ledger, the June 3 edition of Dunlap’s Pennsylvania Packet, and the June 5 editions of the Pennsylvania Gazette and the Pennsylvania Journal.  He did not run the notice in Henrich Millers Pennsylvanischer Staatsbote, but it did appear in every other newspaper printed in Philadelphia at the time.  Robeson hoped that such a proliferation of notices would bring the meeting to the attention of members and convince them to attend.  The directors exercised good foresight in making contingency plans.  The following year, British forces began an occupation of the city on September 26, 1777, and remained until the spring of 1778.

May 29

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

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

Pennsylvania Gazette (May 29, 1776).

“THE TRUE INTERSEST OF AMERICA IMPARITALLY STATED.”

An advertisement for a new political pamphlet, The True Interest of America Impartially Stated, in Certain Strictures on a Pamphlet Intitled Common Sense, ran on the first page of the May 29, 1776, edition of the Pennsylvania Gazette. According to Thomas R. Adams, “only two pamphlet-answers to Common Sense appeared” after the publication of Thomas Paine’s influential pamphlet on January 9, 1776.[1]  In March, Robert Bell, the printer of the first edition of Common Sense and subsequent unauthorized editions in Philadelphia, printed, advertised, and sold “PLAIN TRUTH; addressed to the INHABITANTS of America, containing Remarks on a late Pamphlet intituled COMMON SENSE.”  At the same time, Samuel Loudon, a printer in New York, advertised the imminent publication of “The Deceiver unmasked, or Loyalty and Interest united; In answer to a Pamphlet, entitled, COMMON SENSE.”  However, Loudon never sold that pamphlet because Patriots destroyed almost all the copies.  That made True Interest the second pamphlet directly responding to Common Sense available to the public.

Charles Inglis, a minister at Trinity Church in New York and a Loyalist who later became the first Anglican Bishop of Nova Scotia, published the pamphlet anonymously, just as Common Sense and Plain Truth had been published anonymously.  Inglis presented a stronger rebuttal than the arguments in Plain Truth, but he did so too late to have much impact on the debate over declaring independence.  Adams notes that “True Interest (traditionally regarded by historians as a much more effectual reply to Common Sense [than Plain Truth]) did not appear until nine days before Richard Henry Lee actually introduced his resolution for independence in the Congress.  Clearly, Inglis’s pamphlet came too late to play any part in shaping opinion.”[2]  That was not for lack of effort on the part of James Humphreys, Jr., the printer of True Interest, in marketing the pamphlet.  In addition to the advertisement in the May 29 edition of the Pennsylvania Gazette, he inserted an advertisement in his own Pennsylvania Ledger on June 1, giving it a privileged place as the first item in the first column on the first page.  That might have helped in finding a market for the pamphlet among Loyalists and perhaps others curious about the pamphlet’s contents or eager to refute it.  It did well enough that Humphreys printed a second edition, but True Interest still did not have the influence that Inglis hoped as the Second Continental Congress considered declaring independence.

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[1] Thomas R. Adams, “The Authorship and Printing of Plain Truth by ‘Candidus,” Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America 49, no. 3 (1955): 230.

[2] Adams, “Authorship and Printing of Plain Truth,” 234.

May 28

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , ,

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

Pennsylvania Evening Post (May 28, 1776).

“TO be SOLD, a NEGRO BOY, about four or five years of age.”

Advertisements placed for a variety of purposes appeared in the May 28, 1776, edition of the Pennsylvania Evening Post.  Hyns Taylor, an upholsterer, and Ameia Taylor, a milliner and mantuamaker, once again offered their services.  Charles Eddy offered a reward for the return of a lost “RED MOROCCO LEATHER POCKET BOOK” and the papers it contained.  Andrew Robeson, the secretary of the Library Company of Philadelphia, called on members to attend a meeting later in the month.  Mary Jenkins advertised a vendue or auction of household goods and furniture.  An anonymous advertiser sought a buyer for “a NEGRO BOY, about four or five years of age, who had had the smallpox and measles,” instructing interested parties to “Inquire of the printer.”

That advertisement appeared immediately below one for a wet nurse and above one selling hay, undifferentiated from any of the paid notices in that issue of the Pennsylvania Evening Post.  News items in that issue concerned the war and meetings of provincial congresses or conventions held in other colonies.  A unanimous resolution from North Carolina, for instance, stated, “That the Delegates for this colony in the Continental Congress be empowered to concur with the Delegates of the other colonies in declaring independency, and forming foreign alliances, reserving for this colony the sole and exclusive right of forming a constitution and laws for this colony.”  A unanimous resolution, this one from Virginia, declared, “That the Delegates appointed to represent this colony in General Congress be instructed to propose to that respectable body TO DECLARE THE UNITED COLONIES FREE AND INDEPENDANT STATES, absolved from all allegiance to, or dependance upon, the Crown or Parliament of Great-Britain.”  Readers were thinking about their own freedom as they perused the advertisement offering “a NEGRO BOY, about four or five years of age,” for sale.

That was one of countless juxtapositions of liberty and enslavement in American newspaper published during the era of the Revolution.  Jordan E. Taylor notes that “was not unusual.  Many newspaper notices for enslaved people appeared alongside high-minded essays about politics and news of revolutions at home or abroad.”[1]  That did not seem as jarring to eighteenth-century readers as modern readers, he explains, because newspapers “provided a model of the mental compartmentalization that Americans needed to embrace in order to avoid recognizing their own hypocrisy and complicity.  …  Vertical and horizontal lines divided these items, drawing distinctions and signaling difference.  In this mapping of the public consciousness, newspaper printers assured readers that the topics were unrelated.”[2]  The business of the slave trade and the business of advertising enslaved people for sale continued to thrive during the era of the American Revolution.  The same newspapers that were engines of liberty for Patriots simultaneously played a significant role in perpetuating slavery.

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[1] Jordan E. Taylor, “Enquire of the Printer: Newspaper Advertising and the Moral Economy of the North American Slave Trade, 1704, 1807,” Early American Studies 18, no. 3 (Summer 2020): 314-315.

[2] Taylor, “Enquire of the Printer,” 291.

May 14

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

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

Pennsylvania Evening Post (May 14, 1776).

“Teapots, Cups and Saucers – Regimental Buttons, &c. &c.”

In the spring of 1776, Alexander Bartram “inform[ed] the public, that he has on hand a genteel Assortment of Merchandize.”  In an advertisement in the May 14 edition of the Pennsylvania Evening Post, he stated that he would sell his wares “for a small profit,” signaling to prospective customers that he would not take advantage of the disruptions to trade caused by the war to jack up prices.  Like any other shopkeeper, he needed to earn his livelihood, so a slight markup seemed reasonable under the circumstances.

Bartram devoted most of his advertisement to a list of some of his inventory, including “Broad Cloths and Trimmings, such as brown, buff, green, blue, and light colours, … a good Assortment of Glass Ware, … most sizes of China and Delph Bowls fit for taverns, blue and white and enamelled Dishes and Plates, [and] Teapots, Cups and Saucers.”  At what seemed to be the end of the list, he added “&c.” (the abbreviation for et cetera commonly used in the eighteenth century) to indicate that he had even more goods on hand at his shop.  Then he continued with shorter list that resonated with current events.  He declared that he also stocked “An Assortment of Queen’s Ware, Teapots, Cups and Saucers – Regimental Buttons, &c. &c.”  A month earlier, the Second Continental Congress relaxed the prohibition on buying and selling tea, so Bartram may have seen an opportunity to promote “Teapots, Cups and Saucers” more than once in his advertisement.  His reference to “Regimental Buttons” suggested that he sold other accessories for military uniforms.  Some men who refrained from other forms of conspicuous consumption during the imperial crisis welcomed the opportunity to outfit themselves in attire made fashionable by military service when the war began.  Bartram likely hoped that would work to his advantage.  By including “&c.” so many times, Bartram underscored that he carried so many more items than appeared in his short advertisement.  His extensive catalog of merchandise, after all, extended an entire column in an advertisement that appeared in Story and Humphreys’s Pennsylvania Mercury the previous fall.  While not nearly as long, his new advertisement spoke volumes to readers who perused it in the Pennsylvania Evening Post.

May 7

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , ,

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

Pennsylvania Evening Post (May 7, 1776).

“THE DISEASES incident to ARMIES … published for the use of military and naval surgeons.”

During the first week of May 1776, Robert Bell announced the publication of “THE DISEASES incident to ARMIES, with the Method of Cure; translated from the original of Baron Van Swieten, physician to their imperial Majesties.”  Yet that was not the only title in the volume.  Bell compiled an anthology that also included “the Nature and Treatment of GUN SHOT WOUNDS, by John Ranby, Esq; Surgeon General to the British army,” “Preventatives of the Scurvy at Sea, by William Northcote, surgeon many years in the sea service,” “Rules for preserving Health in warm and cold climates, by Doctor Lind,” and “Directions to be observed by sea surgeons in engagements.”  Bell presented the compilation “for the use of military and naval surgeons.”  Over the past year, Bell and other printers in Philadelphia published an array of military manuals for officers and soldiers.  The publication of this volume acknowledged another aspect of the war that began at the battles in Lexington and Concord in April 1775.

To promote this medical manual, Bell added a “Memorandum” to his advertisement in the May 7 edition of the Pennsylvania Evening Post.  “It is presumed,” he declared, “that whatever contributeth to promote the health and happiness of such valuable lives as those of American soldiers and sailors, should meet with a generous reception.”  He considered it appropriate that “those who are more immediately engaged in the pecuniary superintendment of [soldiers’ and sailors’] welfare” would purchase and consult the volume, yet those were not the only prospective customers who should support the publication of the medical manual.  The printer suggested that “all friends to liberty and humanity” should demonstrate their support for American soldiers and sailors, including civilians “who are in opulent circumstances” and, especially, “all the capital land sea officers, whose personal safety, wither from or in diseases (as well as the very large number of privates under their command) are so very dependent on the knowledge and abilities of their physicians.”  In other words, officers should purchase copies that they could later give or loan to the doctors and surgeons who provided medical care to the soldiers and sailors under their command.  Doing so, Bell suggested, was an obligation they assumed when they accepted the responsibilities of leadership.  That made his medical anthology an essential companion to the military manuals that he published and sold during the Revolutionary War.

April 30

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

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

Pennsylvania Evening Post (April 30, 1776).

“Apply for tickets … at a Pistole each, or one Shilling each time bathing.”

With the arrival of spring in 1776, Joseph Jewell opened the “COLD BATH, AT Bathtown, in Second-street, about a quarter of a mile from the Barracks in the Northern liberties” on the outskirts of Philadelphia.  Readers sometimes encountered promotions for spas, baths, and mineral springs as they perused newspapers in the decade before the Revolutionary War, including the “Cold-Bath at Jackson’s Mineral Well” in Boston and a “NEW and CONVENIENT BATH” in Perth Amboy, New Jersey.  The New-York Chronicle carried an advertisement for the “Chalybeat Springs, in the Borough of Bristol, in Pennsylvania.”  The facility “answers the Description of the celebrated GERMAN SPAW.”  In addition to the bath and mineral spring at Perth Amboy, residents of Philadelphia who read local newspapers encountered invitations to partake of “ABINGTON MINERAL WATER” when they visited the “most healthy Part of the Province of Pennsylvania.”  The “COLD BATH, AT Bathtown,” however, was a more convenient location that offered greater access to those who wished to purchase admission.

In an advertisement in the April 30, 1776, edition of the Pennsylvania Evening Post, Jewell announced that the facility was “now in the possession of the subscriber,” indicating a transfer of ownership since the previous season.  William Drewet Smith, an apothecary, previously operated the bath.  Regardless of who ran it, the “COLD BATH” was “in complete order, and fit for immediate use.”  Jewell instructed “[l]adies and gentlemen who are inclined to make use of it for the season” to acquire tickets directly from him or “at the bar of the London Coffee-house,” a popular place for socializing and conducting business in the bustling urban port.  Just as advertisers frequently enlisted printers in supplying additional information to readers who followed directions to “enquire of the printer,” some also made arrangements for the proprietor of the coffeehouse to act as their agent.  Such convenience likely increased sales.  Jewell charged the same amount for a season pass, “a Pistole each,” as Smith had the previous year, but he also allowed for day passes at “one Shilling each time bathing.”  Smith may have done so as well, though he did not promote it as an option in his advertisement.  Jewell may have hoped that highlighting a less expensive option would stimulate greater demand and more visitors to the “COLD BATH.”

April 23

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , ,

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

Pennsylvania Evening Post (April 23, 1776).

“THREE PENCE per pound … for the best sort of CLEAN WHITE LINEN RAGS.”

A year after the battles at Lexington and Concord, the landscape of newspapers published throughout the colonies had changed.  Some ceased publication, including most of the newspapers previously printed in Boston and Charleston as well as the only newspaper printed in Georgia.  During that time, one printer also launched a new newspaper.  Samuel Loudon commenced the New York Packet on January 4, 1776.  Printers and others experienced a scarcity of paper because of the war and nonimportation agreements.  That contributed to the suspension or irregular publication of some newspapers.  On April 23, 1776, William Trickett, a stationer in Philadelphia, ran an advertisement offering “THREE PENCE per pound … for the best sort of CLEAN WHITE LINEN RAGS.”  Readers knew that he planned to recycle that linen into paper.

I periodically provide a census of newspapers consulted for the Adverts 250 Project.  These are the newspapers published throughout the colonies as the Revolutionary War entered its second year.  This list includes only those that have been digitized and made widely accessible.  A couple titles have not survived or have not been digitized, so this list does not reflect every newspaper that circulated in the colonies in late April 1776.

Published on Mondays

  • Boston-Gazette (Watertown, Massachusetts)
  • Connecticut Courant (Hartford, Connecticut)
  • Dunlap’s Pennsylvania Packet (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)
  • Newport Mercury (Newport, Rhode Island)
  • New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury (New York, New York)
  • Norwich Packet (Norwich, Connecticut)

Published on Tuesdays

  • Dunlap’s Maryland Gazette (Baltimore, Maryland)
  • Pennsylvania Evening Post (Philadelphia Pennsylvania)

Published on Wednesdays

  • Connecticut Journal (New Haven, Connecticut)
  • Constitutional Gazette (New York, New York)
  • Henrich Millers Pennsylvanischer Staatsbote (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)
  • Maryland Journal (Baltimore, Maryland)
  • Pennsylvania Gazette (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)
  • Pennsylvania Journal (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)

Published on Thursdays

  • Maryland Gazette (Annapolis, Maryland)
  • New-England Chronicle (final issue in Cambridge, Massachusetts on April 4; first issue in Boston, Massachusetts, on April 25)
  • New-York Journal (New York, New York)
  • New York Packet (New York, New York)
  • Pennsylvania Evening Post (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)

Published on Fridays

  • Connecticut Gazette (New London, Connecticut)
  • Essex Gazette (Newburyport, Massachusetts)
  • Henrich Millers Pennsylvanischer Staatsbote (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)
  • Thomas’s Massachusetts Spy (Worcester, Massachusetts)
  • Virginia Gazette [Purdie] (Williamsburg, Virginia)

Published on Saturdays

  • Constitutional Gazette (New York, New York)
  • Pennsylvania Evening Post (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)
  • Pennsylvania Ledger (Philadelphia Pennsylvania)
  • Providence Gazette (Providence, Rhode Island)
  • Virginia Gazette [Dixon and Hunter] (Williamsburg, Virginia)

These American newspapers published in late April 1776 either have not survived or have not been digitized for greater accessibility.

  • Germantowner Zeitung (Germantown, Pennsylvania; few numbers known)
  • North-Carolina Gazette (New Bern, North Carolina; possibly suspended)

April 20

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , ,

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

Pennsylvania Evening Post (April 20, 1776).

“OBSERVATIONS on the RECONCILIATION of GREAT-BRITAIN and the COLONIES … ARGUMENTS for and against.”

As colonizers marked the first anniversary of the battles of Lexington and Concord in April 1776, they debated the purpose of the war.  When it began, most wanted a redress of grievances within the imperial system, just as they had sought in response to the Stamp Act in 1765 and 1766 and the Townshend Acts in the late 1760s.  Yet as the war continued, more and more colonizers determined that it was no longer possible nor desirable to return to their position within the British Empire before the imperial crisis began.  The publication and widespread dissemination of Thomas Paine’s Common Sense in January 1776 convinced many readers to support declaring independence.

Robert Bell, the bold printer who published the first edition of Common Sense, contributed to the debate by printing, advertising, and selling several political pamphlets that expressed a range of views.  For instance, he published and sold “PLAIN TRUTH … containing Remarks on a late Pamphlet intituled COMMON SENSE,” a pamphlet that argued that “permanent Liberty, and true Happiness can only be obtained by Reconciliation” with Great Britain.  For readers interested in a pamphlet that considered both sides of the issue, Bell also marketed “OBSERVATIONS on the RECONCILIATION of GREAT-BRITAIN and the COLONIES.  In which are exhibited ARGUMENTS for and against that MEASURE.  By a FRIEND of AMERICAN LIBERTY.”

When Bell’s advertisement for that pamphlet appeared in the April 20, 1776, edition of the Pennsylvania Evening Post, much of the other content argued against reconciliation.  The column next to Bell’s advertisement featured a list of seven “Reasons for a DECLARATION of the INDEPENDANCE of the American Colonies” submitted by a reader.  On the final page, another item submitted by a reader outlined “The PROGRESS of an American’s CREED for obtaining a redress of grievances, and brining about a reconciliation with Great-Britain.”  That timeline mocked colonizers who consistently advocated for one more effort to restore the colonies’ relationship with George III and Parliament.  It started with the rationale given in September 1774, “I believe in the efficacy of the union of the colonies,” and continued with other milestones, including “I believe in the efficacy of Lord Chatham’s speech, and Mr. Wilke’s opposition to the court,” invoking support from politicians in Britain, in January 1775, “I believe in the efficacy of a second petition to the King,” now known as the Olive Branch Petition, in July 1775, and “I believe in the efficacy of the reduction of Chamblee, St. John’s and Montreal,” referring to the invasion of Canada, in November 1775.  The final item, dated March and April 1776, stated, “I believe in the efficacy of COMMISSIONERS coming over to redress all our grievances, and to bring about a constitutional reconciliation with Great-Britain.”  Colonizers who advocated for reconciliation, this litany suggested, snatched at false hope as they made rationalization after rationalization for not declaring independence.  No matter the political or military measures that should have worked to the colonies’ advantage, they were never enough to get the king and Parliament to reach a satisfactory settlement.  It was time to stop generating new excuses and insisting that their opponents would finally see the light and negotiate in good faith.  The correspondents who submitted these items to the Pennsylvania Evening Post did not have much use for the arguments for reconciliation presented in latest pamphlet that came off Bell’s press.

April 13

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

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

Pennsylvania Evening Post (April 13, 1776).

“LINEN to be SOLD at the Manufactory in Union-street.”

Nearly a year after the battles at Lexington and Concord, many colonizers continued to support the American cause through the decisions they made in the marketplace.  Such efforts began before the Revolutionary War.  Colonizers attempted to use commerce as political leverage, departing from the imperial system they previously embraced.  They experienced a British Empire defined by commerce rather than conquest, one in which England produced goods and the colonies consumed them.  When Parliament enacted new commercial regulations and other measures the colonies found oppressive in the 1760s and 1770s, they enacted nonimportation agreements.  Simultaneously, they encouraged “domestic manufactures” in the colonies as alternatives to imported goods.

That movement led to the establishment of “the Manufactory in Union-street” in Philadelphia.  In the April 13, 1776, edition of the Pennsylvania Evening Post, the proprietors advertised “LINEN to be SOLD” there.  They also informed the public that they sought to hire two or three journeymen weavers who would enjoy “an advantageous seat of work.”  Yet “domestic manufactures” did not solely refer to goods produced in the colonies as opposed to those made elsewhere.  “Domestic manufactures” could also mean goods produced in homes, in domestic spaces, often by women.  Although not as fine as imported fabrics, wearing “homespun” cloth became a mark of distinction because of the political principles at play.  In addition to the journeymen to be employed “at the said factory,” the proprietors announced, “Weavers that have got looms in their own houses … will meet with good encouragement, the best prices, and constant employment.”  The “Manufactory in Union-street” served as a clearinghouse for textiles produced on site and in homes in and near Philadelphia.  It provided employment for local men and women and merchandise for consumers, allowing everyone involved to support the American cause as more and more colonizers considered the possibility of declaring independence rather than a redress of their grievances and a return to how the empire operated before the imperial crisis.