What was advertised in a revolutionary American newspaper 250 years ago today?
Pennsylvania Evening Post (August 10, 1776).
“Hare’s American best bottled PORTER.”
Most goods advertised and sold in eighteenth-century America did not have brand names associated with them. Patent medicines were the exception. Consumers were familiar with a variety of patent medicines, so much so that advertisers could mention them by name without giving any further explanation of their use and purpose. In an advertisement in the August 10, 1776, edition of the Pennsylvania Evening Post, for instance, George Weed informed the public that he stocked “Dr. Bateman’s pectoral drops[,] Turlington’s balsam of life[,] Dr. Anderson’s pills[,] Dr. Hooper’s female pills[, and] Dr. Benjamin Godfrey’s cordial” at his apothecary shop in Philadelphia.
On the same page, Robert Appleby once again advertised “Hare’s American best bottled PORTER.” Unlike the generic descriptions of the other items in his notice, “OLD MEDEIRA WINE” and “SPRUCE BEER,” Robert Hare’s porter described a particular beer produced by a particular brewer. When Hare, the son of an English brewer, migrated to Pennsylvania, he became the first brewer to produce porter in the colonies. He did so at a time that patriotic Americans boycotted imported goods and made a point of supporting “domestic manufactures” and their producers. Consumers knew Hare’s Best American Draught Porter by name and for many months by the time Appleby ran his advertisement consumers already associated drinking it with support for the American cause. In a notice in the Pennsylvania Evening Post published the previous November, William Dibley expressed his confidence “that the sturdy friends of American freedom will afford due honor to this new and glorious manufacture.” A few weeks later, Dibley’s advertisement appeared alongside one from Patrick Meade who promoted Hare’s porter to “the TRUE FRIENDS to LIBERTY” and another from Joseph Price that offered “HARE’s and Co. best DRAUGHT and BOTTLED AMERICAN PORTER” to “all the SONS of AMERICAN LIBERTY.” Beyond those accolades, Hare’s porter achieved the distinction of becoming one of the dew products other than patent medicines known to consumers by a brand name during the era of the American Revolution.
What was advertised in a revolutionary American newspaper 250 years ago today?
Pennsylvania Evening Post (August 6, 1776).
“No advertisement will be inserted in this paper, if the money be not sent with it.”
Benjamin Towne, the printer of the Pennsylvania Evening Post, published a dozen advertisements in the August 6, 1776, edition of his newspaper. They appeared at the end of the issue, following “EXTRACTS from the Minutes of the Proceedings of the Convention for the State of Pennsylvania” held in Philadelphia shortly after the Continental Congress declared independence and news updates from Williamsburg, Boston, Providence, Newport, New Haven, and New York. Immediately above the first advertisement, Towne issued instructions to prospective advertisers: “No advertisement will be inserted in this paper, if the money be not sent with it.” The printer included three asterisks to call attention to his notice.
Historians of the early American press have long contended that newspaper printers extended generous credit to subscribers but insisted that advertisers had to pay in advance. Printers, they explain, prioritized their circulation numbers as a means encouraging advertisers to purchase space in their newspapers. In turn, revenue from advertising more than made up for losses from subscribers who did not pay. Notices like this one from Towne likely contributed to that narrative. Other printers sometimes ran similar notices … yet some also ran notices calling on advertisers to make payment, suggesting that they did not require advertisers to submit payment with the copy for their advertisements. In addition, Towne’s notice indicates his policy for new advertisements that he anticipated receiving at his printing office but did not necessarily reflect the practice he previously adopted. In an address to readers that ran in the first issue of the Pennsylvania Evening Post, Towne solicited advertisements, stating that they “shall be punctually and conspicuously inserted at the usual Rates,” but he did not specify those rates, nor did he demand payment in advance. Perhaps Towne found it necessary to institute a new policy – payment in advance – only after too many advertisers neglected to pay for their notices in a timely fashion.
What was advertised in a revolutionary American newspaper 250 years ago today?
Pennsylvania Evening Post (August 1, 1776).
“The managers hope for public assistance in detecting the villain.”
Reports of burglaries and robberies frequently appeared among the advertisements in early American newspapers, but this notice with a headline that proclaimed, “ROBBERY,” was different than most. Rather than a house or shop that had been targeted, this time “the Cellar of the Public Manufactory at the corner of Market and Ninth streets” in Philadelphia “was broke open” sometime during the night of July 29, 1776. The culprits absconded with “two pieces of goods cut out of the looms,” approximately “twenty yards of Cotton, Barragon, or Fustian” and approximately “fifty yards of narrow striped Corded Dimity.” That was quite a haul, but the managers of the Public Manufactory noted that the fabrics were “rough and unfinished,” making them easy to recognize “if offered for sale, or carried to any of the bleachyards” for processing.
The managers requested “public assistance in detecting the villain” who perpetrated this crime. They hoped that merchants, shopkeepers, millers, consumers, or anyone else who might spot these stolen textiles would aid them in “detecting the Robber, so that he may be prosecuted to conviction.” In return, they would receive “FIFTY DOLLARS Reward.” The size of the reward testified not only to the value of the fabrics but also to patriotic mission of the Public Manufactory. It had been established to produce textiles that local consumers could purchase instead of imported goods. The managers believed that the Public Manufactory played a vital role in making “domestic manufactures” that supported the local economy and reduced reliance on imports. This enterprise played a symbolic as well as practical role in the contest with Great Britain. The managers lamented that “losses of this kind (by discouraging weavers and manufacturers) may prove a fatal injury to America.” Less than a month after the Continental Congress declared independence, the managers of the Public Manufactory envisioned high stakes for this “ROBBERY.” The “villain” did not merely deprive them of several years of unfinished fabric; instead, he demoralized weavers who contributed to the American cause and might have even out the fate of the entire nation in jeopardy. The managers of the Public Manufactory framed this unfortunate event and the potential reverberations as more than just everyday theft.
What was advertised in a revolutionary American newspaper 250 years ago today?
Pennsylvania Evening Post (July 6, 1776).
“TO be SOLD, the brigantine TWO FRIENDS.”
After the Continental Congress approved the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, John Dunlap, the printer of Dunlap’s Pennsylvania Packet, set about printing approximately two hundred broadside copies. By the next morning, they were ready to dispatch to colonial assemblies, provincial conventions, and military commanders to inform them of the reasons and rationale for declaring independence. The Dunlap Broadside was the first printing of the Declaration of Independence … but Dunlap was not the first printer to publish the Declaration of Independence in a newspaper. He did indeed print it in the next edition of his weekly newspaper on July 8, but he did not move up the publication day, nor did he issue a supplement or extraordinary issue to disseminate the Declaration of Independence to his subscribers before the usual publication day.
Benjamin Towne, the printer of the Pennsylvania Evening Post, was the first to publish the Declaration of Independence in a newspaper. His newspaper had also been the first to inform the public that the Continental Congress voted in favor of independence on July 2. Unlike other newspapers published in Philadelphia and most other newspapers published in America at the time, the Pennsylvania Evening Post was not a weekly newspaper. Instead, Towne distributed new issues on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. Without deviating from its usual publication schedule, the Pennsylvania Evening Post was the first newspaper to (twice!) deliver momentous news about independence to the public.
This timeline shows when the news circulated in newspapers printed in Philadelphia and cities with their own newspapers nearest Philadelphia:
Wednesday, July 3 – The Pennsylvania Gazette and the Pennsylvania Journal both report that the Continental Congress declared independence from Great Britain.
Thursday, July 4 – The Pennsylvania Evening Post makes no mention of a declaration of independence. Towne does not repeat the same-day scoop he managed two days earlier.
Friday, July 5 – Henrich Millers Pennsylvanischer Staatsbote, published in German, reports that the Continental Congress declared independence and makes first mention of the Declaration of Independence in a newspaper: “Die Declaration in Englisch ist jetzt in der Presse; sie ist datirt, den 4ten July, 1776, und wird beut order morgen im deuct erscheinen.” [The Declaration in English is now in the press; it is dated July 4, 1776, and will appear in German today or tomorrow.]
Saturday, July 6 – The Pennsylvania Evening Post publishes the Declaration of Independence. The Pennsylvania Ledger does not.
Monday, July 8 – Dunlap’s Pennsylvania Packet publishes the Declaration of Independence and announces a public reading: “THIS DAY, at Twelve o’clock, the DECLARATION of INDEPENDENCE, will be PROCLAIMED at the STATE-HOUSE.”
Tuesday, July 9 – The Pennsylvania Evening Post reports, “Yesterday, at twelve o’clock, INDEPENDANCY was declared at the State-House in this city, in the presence of many thousand spectators, who testified their approbation of it by repeated acclamations of joy.” Henrich Millers Pennsylvanischer Staatsbote publishes a translation of the Declaration of Independence in German. Dunlap’s Maryland Gazette, printed in Baltimore, publishes the Declaration of Independence. News quickly spread beyond Philadelphia. Newspapers in Philadelphia adhered to their regular publication schedules. That meant that some did not publish the Declaration of Independence until after it appeared in newspapers in other cities.
Wednesday, July 10 – The Pennsylvania Gazette and the Pennsylvania Journal publish the Declaration of Independence. The Maryland Journal, another newspaper printed in Baltimore, publishes the Declaration of Independence. The Constitutional Gazette becomes the first newspaper in New York to publish the Declaration of Independence.
Thursday, July 11 – The New-York Journal and the New York Packet publish the Declaration of Independence. The Pennsylvania Evening Post reports on the reception the “DECLARATION OF INDEPENDANCY” received in Easton, Pennsylvania. After a public reading, a “great number of spectators … gave their hearty assent with three loud huzzas.”
Saturday, July 13 – The Pennsylvania Ledger publishes the Declaration of Independence a week after it appeared in the Pennsylvania Evening Post. The Pennsylvania Ledger was the last newspaper published in Philadelphia to print the Declaration of Independence. On the same day, the Pennsylvania Evening Post carries a report of “INDEPENDANCY proclaimed under a triple volley of musketry” in Princeton, New Jersey. It met with “universal acclamation for the prosperity of the UNITED STATES.”
What was the connection to advertisements that appeared in the Pennsylvania Evening Post on July 6 when it became the first newspaper to publish the Declaration of Independence? John Parry’s advertisement for the sale of two ships, the brigantine Two Friends and the schooner Mary Ann, followed the Declaration of Independence, immediately below the signature of “JOHN HANCOCK, President.” Parry’s advertisement previously appeared right after that newspaper’s announcement on July 2, the first in print, that the “CONTINENTAL CONGRESS declared the UNITED COLONIES FREE and INDEPENDENT STATES.” That was almost certainly by coincidence rather than by design. Quite by accident, Parry’s advertisement twice followed the first publication of one of the most consequential stories ever reported in American newspapers.
What was advertised in a revolutionary American newspaper 250 years ago today?
Pennsylvania Evening Post (July 2, 1776).
“TO be SOLD, the brigantine TWO FRIENDS.”
The most significant news from the Continental Congress first appeared in just three lines between an update from Pennsylvania’s Committee of Safety and an advertisement offering a brigantine and a schooner for sale in the June 2, 1776, edition of the Pennsylvania Evening Post. At the end of the news and before the paid notices, Benjamin Towne, the printer, informed readers that “[t]his day the CONTINENTAL CONGRESS declared the UNITED COLONIES FREE and INDEPENDENT STATES.” The following day, the Pennsylvania Gazette and the Pennsylvania Journaleach carried the news in their weekly issues, though neither provided many more details. The Pennsylvania Gazette replicated what appeared in the Pennsylvania Evening Post almost exactly, changing “This day” to “Yesterday” and placing the news first among the updates from Philadelphia but after news from London, Halifax, Charleston, Williamsburg, Watertown (outside of Boston), Providence, and New York. The Pennsylvania Journal have the news similar treatment, but did note that “the Congress Unanimously Resolved to Declare the UNITED COLONIES FREE AND INDEPENDANT STATES.”
Three newspapers reported that the Continental Congress declared independence before July 4, 1776. How does that square with the most common narrative about the American Revolution and the long practice of celebrating Independence Day on July 4? On July 2, the Continental Congress approved the Lee Resolution. On June 7, Richard Henry Lee, a delegate from Virginia, acting on instructions received from the Virginia Convention, proposed that the colonies declare independence, seek foreign alliances, and form a confederation for their mutual benefit. The Second Continental Congress did not immediately vote on Lee’s resolution since many delegates were waiting for instructions from their own colonies. Even though they delayed the vote, they established three committees to work on the elements of the resolution, including a committee to draft a declaration of independence. On July 2, the Continental Congress approved this resolution: “That these united colonies are and of right ought to be free and independent states; that they are absolved from all allegiance to the british crown and that all political connection between them and the state of great Britain is and out to be totally dissolved.”
The following day, John Adams included the news in a letter to his wife, Abigail. “The Second Day of July 1776,” he proclaimed, “will be the most memorable Epocha, in the History of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance by solemn Acts of Devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more.” Yet history did not work out that way. On July 4, 1776, the Continental Congress approved a revised draft of a declaration of independence submitted by Thomas Jefferson and the other members of that committee. The Declaration of Independence then circulated in newspapers and on broadsides, each bearing the date July 4, 1776, the date that became associated with declaring independence.
News that the Continental Congress declared independence was much more substantial than the details of the sale of the brigantine Two Friends and the schooner Mary Ann that appeared immediately below it in the Pennsylvania Evening Post on July 2, 1776, yet such a momentous event has been largely overlooked in the narrative most familiar to the public. Historians of early America chronicle what occurred, but the importance of July 2 is not widely recognized in the popular memory of the events of the imperial crisis and the American Revolution.
What was advertised in a revolutionary American newspaper 250 years ago today?
Pennsylvania Evening Post (June 25, 1776).
“SPRUCE BEER made in Chesnut-street … Hare’s American best bottled PORTER.”
Was advertising in early American newspapers effective? Robert Appleby apparently thought so. At the end of June 1776, he invested in placing an advertisement in the Pennsylvania Evening Post that he previously published in March. “SPRUCE BEER made in Chestnut-street,” he announced. For the convenience of his customers, “Cags [or kegs] as small as five gallons are sent to any part of the city at sixpence per gallon” or three shillings for a dozen bottles of spruce beer. That was not the only product that Appleby stocked. “At the same place may be had,” de declared, “Hare’s American best bottled PORTER, [and] Philadelphia bottled BEER and CYDER, by the grose or dozen.” He was one of several tavernkeepers and other purveyors of beer in Philadelphia who promoted Hare’s Best American Draught Porter. Other than patent medicines, Robert Hare’s porter was one of the first products recognized by a brand name. Appleby also promised quality: “None will be sent out but what is exceeding fine.”
Appleby deployed the same copy in both advertisements, but this was not a case of the type remaining set and inserting it once again. The new iteration of his advertisement had a different format. The use of capital letters for “SPRUCE BEER,” “PORTER,” “BEER,” and “CYDER” remained the same and the first two lines broke at the same point, but the remainder of lines did not. The compositor may have referred to a clipping of the previous advertisement when setting the type for the new one. In addition, this version removed the date, “March 19,” and featured a variant spelling of the advertiser’s name, “APPELBY” rather than “APPLEBY.” Sometimes type for advertisements remained set and undisturbed in printing offices for weeks, but that was not the case for Appleby’s advertisement. The differences make clear that the compositor set the type for the same advertising copy a second time. Appleby seemingly had confidence that his notice worked the first time and merited inserting in the Pennsylvania Evening Post once again.
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.
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.
“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.
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.
