Smallpox

July 28

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , ,

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

Freeman’s Journal (July 27, 1776).

“All persons coming from places infected with the Small Pox will stop to be properly smoaked.”

It was important news, but it appeared among the advertisements in the July 27, 1776, edition of the Freeman’s Journal, or New Hampshire Gazette.  The selectmen for the town of Portsmouth placed the advertisement to “notify the public that a Smoak-house is erected at the Great Swamp, where it is expected all persons coming from places infected with the Small Pox,” such as Boston, “will stop to be properly smoaked and cleaned from infection.”  In addition, the selectmen demanded “that no traveller coming from any infected place will presume to enter this town by any other way.”

The notice could have appeared with the local news from Portsmouth that Benjamin Dearborn, the printer of the Freeman’s Journal, selected for that issue.  Instead, it ran as an advertisement in another column, to the right of the header for news from “PORTSMOUTH,” below an advertisement that offered a “LARGE commodious BRICK HOUSE in York” for rent, and above an advertisement about a horse left at the Globe Tavern.  The notation at the end of the notice, “10—12,” indicated that it was indeed an advertisement.  It first appeared in issue “No. 10” on July 27 and would run in each issue through “No. 12” on August 10 before being discontinued.  The notation was meant for the compositor who set the type rather than for readers.  Dearborn presumably generated revenue from the advertisement.  Treating it as an advertisement had the benefit of disseminating such an important announcement multiple times and increasing the chances that travelers learned about the policy for entering Portsmouth before approaching the town.  Still, Dearborn could have chosen to insert the notice among the news in several consecutive issues of the Freeman’s Journal rather than consigning it to the space reserved for advertisements.  Instead, he followed the same practice as other early American printers who published newspapers.  Within the past week, a notice concerning voting for delegates to attend a convention “for the express purpose of forming a New Government” in Maryland appeared as an advertisement in Dunlap’s Maryland Gazette and a notice instructing Committees of Safety in Worcester County to “transmit … the Names of such Persons … who are deemed to be notoriously inimical to the rights of America” ran as an advertisement in the Massachusetts Spy.  Subscribers and other readers knew that important news updates sometimes took the form of advertisements.  They perused notices placed for all sorts of purposes to keep informed about local news.

August 21

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , ,

Who was the subject of an advertisement in a colonial American newspaper 250 years ago this week?

Aug 21 - 8:15:1768 Newport Mercury
Newport Mercury (August 15, 1768).

“A likely new Negro Boy … just got clear of the Small-Pox.”

When he wished to sell an enslaved youth in the summer of 1768, James Roach turned to the pages of the Newport Gazette. He placed a brief advertisement that announced: “To be SOLD A likely new Negro Boy, about 13 Years of Age, fit to be put to a Trade, or any other Employment, just got clear of the Small-Pox.” Roach squeezed a significant amount of information into this short advertisement. In addition to identifying the approximate age of the unnamed youth he also revealed that the “new Negro Boy” did not yet possess any particular skills or training that might make him suitable for purchase by a particular master. Instead, he was “fit to be put to a Trade, or any other Employment.” With some instruction, a prospective buyer could put the enslaved youth to work on a farm, in a household, or in a workshop. Roach also made a nod towards the slave’s origins. That he was a “new Negro Boy” meant that he was an African who had survived the Middle Passage and transshipment within the colonies rather than an African American born in the colonies.

Furthermore, the reference to surviving smallpox was not inconsequential. It was a standard element in advertisements for enslaved men, women, and children, operating as a guarantee of sorts when it came to the health of those offered for sale. Smallpox, one of the most deadly diseases of the eighteenth century, could only be contracted once. It did not discriminate; having survived smallpox then made people – whether enslaved or free – immune. In advising prospective buyers that the youth offered for sale “just got clear of the Small-Pox,” Roach assured them that this particular slave was a safe investment. Choosing to purchase the unnamed youth did not involve the risk that he might soon afterward become ill with smallpox and perhaps not survive. This small bit of medical knowledge served an important purpose, providing a safeguard on the buyer’s investment.