South-Carolina Gazette

December 11

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , ,

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

South-Carolina Gazette (December 11, 1775).

“The Times make it uncertain how long he will be able to keep his Store open in Town.”

Joseph Atkinson placed an advertisement in the December 11, 1775, edition of the South-Carolina Gazette to advise prospective customers that he “Continues to keep open his Store, in Charles-Town as formerly.”  He listed an array of merchandise, including a variety of textiles, “Mens Cotton and Worsted Caps, two Cases of Silver handled Knives and Forks, Womens Beaver and Chip Hats, … Gloves and Ribbons a good Assortment, Complete Sets of Table and Tea China, … and sundry other Articles in the Ironmongery Way.”  Atkinson sought to liquidate his stock, declaring that “Considerable Allowance will be made to any Person taking to a large Amount for Cash.”  Furthermore, “any one purchasing the Whole, shall have them at a good Bargain.”

The shopkeeper also confessed that the “Times make it uncertain how long he will be able to keep his Store open in Town.”  He declared that he “therefore would be glad to receive the Orders of his Customers as soon as possible.”  To underscore the point about uncertain times, the items on the first page of that issue featured updates from the Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia and the colony’s own congress, including a call for provisions “to supply the REGIMENT of ARTILLERY in the Service of this Colony.”  What Atkinson and readers of the South-Carolina Gazette did not know was that the newspaper would soon cease publication.  The December 11 edition became the last known issue, though Clarence S. Brigham reports it “was followed by one other number, probably Dec[ember] 18.”[1]  Peter Timothy, the printer, revived the newspapers as the Gazette of the State of South-Carolina sixteen months later, on April 9, 1777.  As the title indicates, the colonies declared independence by the time Timothy resumed publishing his newspaper.

The demise of the South-Carolina Gazette meant less news and advertising circulating in that colony and the region.  Four months earlier, the South-Carolina Gazette and Country Journal folded.  Now only the South-Carolina and American General Gazette remained.  For nearly a decade, three competing newspapers served Charleston and the rest of the colony, many issues devoting more space to advertising than news.  Although the South-Carolina and American General Gazette continued publication, with occasional suspensions, until February 28, 1781, issues published after 1775 have not been preserved and digitized for wider access.  That means that advertisements from South Carolina, including the urban port of Charleston, will no longer be part of the Adverts 250 Project and the Slavery Adverts 250 Project.  As the projects continue to tell stories about the era of the American Revolution, they will focus on New England, New York, Pennsylvania, and the Chesapeake, drawing on those newspapers that continued publication (or commenced publication during the Revolutionary War) and that have been preserved and digitized.  So many stories remain to be told, but, for a time, South Carolina will be largely absent from this project’s featured advertisements.

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[1] Clarence S. Brigham, History and Bibliography of American Newspapers, 1690-1820 (Worcester: American Antiquarian Society, 1947), 1038.

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.

September 17

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

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

Addition to the South-Carolina Gazette (September 17, 1774).

“MRS. WINDSOR … has declined being connected with Mrs. SAGE, in a Boarding-School.”

In an advertisement that ran in a midweek supplement to the South-Carolina Gazette, Ann Sage announced that she opened a “New Boarding-School, FOR YOUNG LADIES” on September 15, 1774.  The curriculum included “READING, TAMBOUR, EMBROIDERY, and all Kinds of NEEDLE-WORK.”  Sage presumably taught reading and those feminine arts herself.  For an additional price, students could learn “WRITING, ARITHMETIC, DANCING and MUSIC.”  Sage may have provided some of that instruction, but another advertisement suggests that she hired tutors to supplement the lessons she provided.

Immediately below Sage’s notice, Mrs. Windsor declared that she “declined being connected with Mrs. SAGE, in a Boarding-School; which is to be opened on the 15th.”  Dated September 1, Windsor’s advertisement previously appeared separately from Sage’s announcement, including in the September 13 edition of the South-Carolina Gazette and Country Journal.  She did not elaborate on her reasons for not joining Sage’s endeavor, instead advising “her FRIENDS in particular, and the PUBLIC in general” that she “continues, as usual, to instruct Young LADIES upon the HARPSICHORD.”  Windsor requested the “Continuance of the Patronage and Encouragement of her Friends and Acquaintances.”  She had her own enterprise to oversee.

What was Windsor’s purpose in even mentioning Sage’s school in her advertisement?  She could have sought pupils without commenting on her refusal to be affiliated with the boarding school.  Perhaps Sage had attempted to recruit Windsor as a partner in the endeavor rather than merely a tutor who occasionally gave lessons to students who paid additional fees.  In that case, Sage may not have had time to continue offering lessons to her existing clientele.  Her newspaper notice made it clear that she wished to continue those relationships as well as gain new students.  Yet the details she provided (and those she did not) hinted at an untold story, perhaps some interesting gossip, especially when Windsor’s advertisement appeared immediately below Sage’s notice.  The “Friends and Acquaintances” that Windsor thanked for the “Continuance of [their] Patronage and Encouragement” (and other readers as well) otherwise may not have thought anything about Windsor’s other prospects, but her intervention in the public prints could have prompted some to discreetly ask questions here and there to discover if they had missed out on something interesting.

June 3

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

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

South-Carolina Gazette Extraordinary (June 3, 1774).

“The Vestry have assessed the Parish, for the Relief of the POOR.”

Peter Timothy usually published the South-Carolina Gazette on Mondays in 1774, but upon receiving the text of the Boston Port Act he considered the news momentous enough to merit an extraordinary edition on Friday, June 3.  Word certainly circulated via conversations among colonizers, yet Timothy gave them the opportunity to read the act for themselves and see all the details that might otherwise have been distorted as the news traveled.  The masthead for the extraordinary featured thick black lines, a symbol of mourning that usually signified the death of a prominent official but in this case lamented the death of liberty in the colonies.

The “Act to discontinue … the landing and discharging, lading or shipping of Hoods, Wares, or Merchandize, at the Town, and within the Harbour of Boston” accounted for the entire front page of the extraordinary.  News and editorials originally published in Boston and Philadelphia ran on the second page and most of the third.  Timothy had too much content for a two-page supplement, so he opted for four pages.  That left a page and a half to fill.  The printer opted for advertisements, items with type already set.  He certainly had enough of that kind of content at his printing office.  Advertising comprised three of the twelve columns in the previous standard edition of the South-Carolina Gazette and all four pages of the supplement distributed on the same day.  Yet Timothy may have been selective with which advertisements he chose to deliver with confirmation of the Boston Port Act.  The extraordinary did not include any notices from purveyors of goods and services hawking their wares.  Instead, Timothy chose advertisements that delivered news, including the “PRESENTMENTS of the GRAND-JURORS” for several districts in the colony, an announcement that the Recess Society would hold its quarterly meeting, and a “PUBLIC NOTICE” about taxes “for the Relief of the POOR” in the Parish of St. Andrew’s.  Given the significance of the news that the extraordinary carried, Timothy may have aimed to accompany the Boston Port Act with advertisements that also delivered news rather than attempts to convince consumers to make purchases.  The following Monday, he returned to business as usual with all manner of advertising in the standard issue and supplement published on June 6.

South-Carolina Gazette Extraordinary (June 3, 1774).

May 6

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

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

Top to bottom: South-Carolina and American General Gazette (May 6, 1774); South-Carolina Gazette and Country Journal (May 10, 1774); Supplement to the South-Carolina Gazette (May 16, 1774).

“Whom he has had under his [illegible] these ten Years past.”

It had been a while since Mr. Pike, the dancing master, ran advertisements in any of the newspapers printed in Charleston in the 1770s.  In September 1773, he announced that he opened his “Dancing and Fencing SCHOOLS … for the Season.”  A little more than six months later, he once again took to the public prints with a final notice that he would leave “the Province some Time next Month” due to ill health.  It appeared in the May 6 edition of the South-Carolina and American General Gazette and the May 10 edition of the South-Carolina Gazette and Country Journal.  He likely placed it in the South-Carolina Gazette simultaneously, but some issues have not survived.  It ran in the Supplement to the South-Carolina Gazette on May 16, probably moved to that portion of the newspaper after appearing in the standard issue in previous weeks.  By placing his notice in all three newspapers published in the colony, Pike disseminated his farewell message widely, making his intended departure as visible as possible.

The reiteration of his advertisements across multiple newspapers eventually made it more accessible to historians and other modern readers, especially those who rely on digital surrogates.  However, Pike’s advertisement is fully legible in only one of the digital images of the issues listed above.  It is possible to make out most of the content of the advertisement from the South-Carolina and American General Gazette, but not all of it.  While it might be tempting to blame poor printing, that does not seem to be solely responsible for the quality of the image.  Robert Wells, the printer, would not have been able to keep his newspaper in business for years if the contents were not legible, especially when competing with two other newspapers.  Digital images of some, but not all, pages of the May 6 edition of the South-Carolina and American General Gazette are more legible.  Others are much less legible.  The primary problem seems to lie with the photography rather than the printing.  Technological errors that occurred during the digitization of the South-Carolina Gazette certainly made a portion of Pike’s advertisement in the May 16 supplement illegible.  A glitch of some sort cut off the bottom third of the first page of the supplement, presenting solid grey rather than an image of the advertisements on that portion of the page.  The first several lines of Pike’s advertisement are visible, but not the rest.  In contrast, the entire advertisement is legible in the digital image of the South-Carolina Gazette and Country Journal for May 10, though some combination of printing, wear over time, and modern photography has made some words more difficult to decipher than others.

These examples demonstrate that digitization is not a panacea for providing access to primary sources.  Digital images do not always offer the same access as examining the original documents.  The lower third of the page is not actually missing from the South-Carolina Gazette.  The South-Carolina and American General Gazette may be much more legible when viewed in person.  Unfortunately, the quality of the digital images undermines their accessibility.

December 6

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , ,

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

Supplement to the South-Carolina Gazette (December 6, 1773).

“CHRISTOPHER GADSDEN, Gives Notice to his Friends … THAT he is ready to serve them as FACTOR.”

In the fall of 1773, Christopher Gadsden took to the pages of newspapers published in Charleston to offer his services “as FACTOR, upon the usual Terms,” to plantation owners who raised rice, indigo, and other crops “in the Country.”  For those who did not wish to employ him as an agent buying and selling commodities on their behalf, he also rented space in a “great Plenty of Stores” or warehouses “on his Wharf.”

The copy in Gadsden’s advertisement read much the same as the notices placed by his competitors.  The format, however, distinguished his advertisement from the dozens of others placed for many different purposes.  At least that was the case in the South-Carolina Gazette.  In that newspaper, Gadsden’s advertisement extended across two columns.  His name served as a headline, the size of the font rivaling the title of the newspaper in the masthead.  The rest of the copy appeared in larger font than other notices, also demanding the attention of readers.

South-Carolina Gazette and Country Journal (December 7, 1773).

That differed from Gadsden’s advertisement in the South-Carolina Gazette and Country Journal.  Featuring identical copy, it had a much different format.  His name once again served as a headline, but in a font the same size used for headlines of other advertisements.  Most significantly, the compositor confined that advertisement to a single column, one more notice among the many that ran in that newspaper.

Compositors usually made decisions about the format of advertisements after advertisers submitted copy to printing offices.  In this instance, however, the extraordinary format for Gadsden’s advertisement in the South-Carolina Gazettesuggests that he successfully negotiated for some sort of design to set his notice apart from others.  Did he envision an advertisement spanning two columns?  Or did the compositor make that decision after learning that Gadsden wanted something different?  Did Gadsden make a similar request for his advertisement in the South-Carolina Gazette and Country Journal, only to have it rejected?  Some printers and compositors seemed more amenable to instructions from advertisers than others.  In Boston, for instance, decorative borders enclosed Jolley Allen’s notices in every newspaper except the Massachusetts Spy.  Isaiah Thomas, the printer, presumably rejected Allen’s trademark format.  Similarly, Gadsden may have had more luck working with Peter Timothy and the South-Carolina Gazette than with Charles Crouch and the South-Carolina Gazette and Country Journal.

November 15

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , ,

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

South-Carolina Gazette (November 15).

“New Advertisements.”

“Advertisements.”

The November 15, 1773, edition of the South-Carolina Gazette carried more advertising than news or other content.  Advertisements filled the entire first page, except for the masthead, most of the second and third pages, and all of the final page.  Peter Timothy, the printer, also published a four-page supplement devoted almost exclusively to advertising, though it did feature an essay raising “an ALARM” over the “INTRODUCTION of TEAS into AMERICA, immediately from the East-India Company’s Ware-houses, so that the Duties imposed thereon by the British Parliament, may be paid in America.”  Advertisements comprised twenty-one of the twenty-four columns in the standard issue and supplement.  From legal notices to calls to settle accounts to notices hawking consumer goods and services to descriptions of enslaved men and women who liberated themselves by running away from their enslavers, those advertisements delivered news in an alternate format.

Unlike content selected by the printer, most paid notices ran in multiple issues.  Readers likely encountered many of them more than once as they perused the latest edition of the South-Carolina Gazette each week.  To help readers navigate the advertisements, the compositor inserted headers in the standard issue (but not in the supplement).  Headers for “New Advertisements” appeared on the first, second, and third pages.  Another header for “Advertisements” also appeared on the third page, suggesting that anything that appeared below or after it (including in the supplement) had been published in at least one previous issue.  The same headers regularly appeared in the South-Carolina Gazette.  Although the headers usually provided reliable guidance, occasionally advertisements from previous issues found their way into the “New Advertisements,” as was the case with Edmund Egan’s notice promoting “CAROLINA BEER” on the first page of the November 15 edition.  Printers and compositors generally did not classify advertisements by placing those inserted for similar purposes together.  Headers like “New Advertisements” and “Advertisements,” along with “Timothy’s Marine List” introducing the shipping news,” accounted for the first efforts to organize some of the contents and aid readers in navigating the pages of the South-Carolina Gazette.

October 25

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , ,

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

South-Carolina Gazette (October 25, 1773).

“Let the Beer justify itself.”

As October 1773 came to a close, Edmund Egan promoted his “CAROLINA BEER” in the South-Carolina Gazette and the South-Carolina Gazette and Country Journal.  The prospects of this new product hitting the market excited the compositor for the South-Carolina Gazette enough to enclose the headline within a border of decorative type, distinguishing it from all other news and notices in the October 25 edition.  The headline did not receive the same treatment in the South-Carolina Gazette and Country Journal, though in both publications it had a prime spot at the top of the column in a section for “New Advertisements.”  Readers could hardly miss it.

To incite demand for the beer, Egan told a story about it.  He began by declaring that the “BREWERY … long laboured under many Disadvantages,” but Egan overcame them and the brewery “is now complete, and amply supplied with a Stock of the best MALT and HOPS.”  In so doing, the brewer crafted a narrative that only briefly focused on resilience in the face of adversity before extolling the factors that made his beer such a quality beverage.  Egan cited his own “unwearied Application” in launching the brewery as well as his experience and his “first Connection in London,” perhaps where he learned “the most regular Principles” of his craft.

South-Carolina Gazette and Country Journal (October 26, 1773).

All of that led Egan to assert that he would produce a “constant Supply of BEER and ALE … equal to any imported from any other Country.”  He also suggested that consumers should not take his word for it.  Instead, he proclaimed, “Let the Beer justify itself.”  That declaration appeared in italics in both the South-Carolina Gazette and the South-Carolina Gazette and Country Journal, suggesting that Egan did indeed instruct the compositors in both printing offices to give it some sort of special treatment to make it stand out from the copy in the rest of the notice.  The brewer did not need to say anything else about his “CAROLINA BEER.”  He could not say anything else that would be a better recommendation than consumers drinking his beer and ale and experiencing it for themselves.  “Let the Beer justify itself” simultaneously resonated as an affirmation, an invitation, and a challenge.  Egan was confident that customers would not be disappointed.

August 25

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , ,

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

Postscript to the South-Carolina Gazette (August 25, 1773).

“New Advertisements.”

It was a busy week in the printing offices of T. Powell and Company in Charleston.  The printers distributed the weekly issue of the South-Carolina Gazette on Monday, August 23.  Like other newspapers published in the colonies at the time, the standard issue consisted of four pages created by printing two on each side of a broadsheet and folding it in half.  Yet that did not provide enough space for all of the content that T. Powell and Company received in the printing office, prompting the printers to produce a four-page supplement to distribute on the same day.  Many printers regularly resorted to supplements, but they usually devoted a half sheet, only two pages, to the venture, rather than doubling the amount of content with a second broadsheet.  Even then, Powell and Company were not finished printing the news that week.  Two days later, the printers issued a Postscript to the South-Carolina Gazette, a two-page supplement.  Rather than four pages, subscribers received ten pages of news and other content that week.

Advertising accounted for a significant portion of that content, so much that the newspaper might better have been entitle the South-Carolina Gazette and Advertiser.  Other colonial newspapers did include “Advertiser” in their extended titles, including the Maryland Journal and Baltimore Advertiser, the Massachusetts Gazette and the Boston Post-Boy and Advertiser, the New-York Journal, or the General Advertiser, and the Pennsylvania Chronicle and Universal Advertiser.  The standard issue for the South-Carolina Gazette featured “New Advertisements” on the first page.  That header reappeared on both the second page, also filled with paid notices, and the third page, which contained a single column of news.  The fourth page consisted entirely of advertising.  Overall, advertisements filled eleven of the twelve columns in the August 23 standard issue.

The supplement distributed that day did not use the “New Advertisements” header, but it still ran many advertisements.  Paid notices filled the first two columns on the first page, leaving the third column for news.  The second page included more news, a column and a half, as well as more advertisements.  Advertising filled the third and fourth pages.  That brought the running total to two and half columns of news and twenty-one and a half columns of advertising between the standard issue and the supplement.  Only one-tenth of the space delivered news selected by the editor, though the advertisements, including legal notices and descriptions of enslaved people who liberated themselves, featured news in another format.

The Postscript to the South-Carolina Gazette commenced with a column of “New Advertisements” under the familiar header, though the printers placed a letter to the editor and other news in the two remaining columns on the front page.  News, including “Timothy’s Marine List” of ships recently arrived in port, filled most of the three columns on the reverse, with only two short advertisements completing the final column.  Those news items included an unhappy letter to the editor from Philo-Patriæ that quoted in its entirety an advertisement about a proposed theater that ran in the South-Carolina Gazette and Country Journal and the South-Carolina and American General Gazette within the past week.  Just as advertising often delivered news, the news sometimes incorporated advertisements.

All of this advertising meant revenues for Powell and Company at the printing office near the Exchange.  Advertisements placed to promote consumer goods and services as well as for a variety of other purposes underwrote the production and dissemination of the news.  There hardly could have been a case that made the point more visibly than the South-Carolina Gazette, its Supplement, and its Postscript published during the week of August 25, 1773.

August 9

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , ,

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

South-Carolina Gazette (August 9, 1773).

“Lands, Houses, and Negroes, Bought and sold at private Sale, upon the usual Commissions.”

Jacob Valk opened a brokerage office in Charleston in the early 1770s.  For months in 1773, he ran an advertisement in the South-Carolina Gazette and the South-Carolina Gazette and Country Journal to alert “the PUBLIC in general, and his Friends in particular” about the various services he provided.  He presented five primary categories of tasks undertaken in his office:  “Merchants and Tradesmen may have their Books regulated,” “Sets of Books opened properly, for Persons newly commencing any Kind of Business and superintended with the utmost Care,” “Persons desirous of settling their yearly Business expeditiously, by sending their Books to him may have it done,” “Money borrowed and lent at Interest,” and “Lands, Houses, and Negroes, Bought and sold at private Sale, upon the usual Commissions.”  Among the various jobs that he did on behalf of colonizers who employed him, Valk facilitated buying and selling enslaved men, women, and children.

To that end, he also placed advertisements on behalf of his clients.  In the August 9, 1773, edition of the South-Carolina Gazette, one of those advertisements ran immediately below his weekly notice about his various services.  On behalf of his clients, the broker described “Four valuable and seasoned Negroes” available “by private Contract” rather than auction.  Two young men were “fit for the Field,” but another young man as well as a woman possessed skills for contributing to a household.  The “young FELLOW” had experience as a “complete Waiting-Man” who had also seen to the “Care and Management of Horses, and can drive a Carriage.”  The woman was a “complete” housekeeper, “who is also a good ordinary Cook.”  Valk concluded with instructions that prospective buyers should contact him for more information about the enslaved men and woman and the “Terms of Sale.”

In another advertisement in the same issue, the broker described a house and lot for sale.  Valk’s newspaper advertisements outlining his services likely helped generate business in his brokerage office.  In turn, he placed additional notices that increased his visibility and, when successful, augmented his reputation among his clients and the general public.  Those advertisement also demonstrated that the broker actively worked on behalf of his clients, confirming for prospective customers that they might do better by entrusting sales to him “upon the usual Commissions” rather than invest their own time and effort.  In addition, those additional advertisements testified to the fact that others did indeed employ Valk, perhaps elevating the confidence that prospective clients had in his abilities.