South-Carolina Gazette

October 31

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

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

South-Carolina and American General Gazette (October 31, 1770).

“MRS. SWALLOW begs Leave to inform the Publick.”

Newman Swallow and Mrs. Swallow, presumably husband and wife, both ran newspaper advertisements in late October and early November 1770.  Newman advised prospective clients that he “proposes carrying on the FACTORAGE BUSINESS,” serving as a broker in Charleston.  Mrs. Swallow planned to open a boarding school for “young Ladies” at a new house “next Door to his Honour the Lieutenant-Governour’s” in Broad Street.  Their advertisements first appeared, one above the other, in the October 30, 1770, edition of the South-Carolina Gazette and Country Journal.  The following day both advertisements also ran, again one above the other, in the South-Carolina and American General Gazette.  The November 1 edition of the South-Carolina Gazette included both notices, once again one above the other.  In the course of three consecutive days, the Newmans disseminated their advertisements in all three newspapers published in Charleston, maximizing exposure for their enterprises among readers throughout the busy port and the rest of the colony.

Careful examination of their advertisements reveals differences in format but not content.  The Newmans submitted the same copy to the three printing offices in Charleston, but the compositors who set type for the newspapers exercised discretion over typography and other aspects of graphic design.  Variations in font sizes, font styles, words appearing in all capital letters or italics, and the use of ornaments all testified to the role of the compositor in making decisions about how each advertisement would look on the page.  In two of the newspapers, “NEWMAN SWALLOW” and “MRS. SWALLOW” served as headlines, but not in the third.  Similar examples appeared in newspapers published in Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and Williamsburg during the era of the American Revolution.  In towns large enough to support more than one newspaper, advertisers frequently placed notices in two, three, or more publications.  The copy remained consistent across newspapers, but the graphic design varied.  This demonstrated an important division of labor in the production of newspaper advertisements in eighteenth-century America.  Advertisers dictated the contents, but usually asserted little control over the format.  Compositors exercised creativity in designing how the copy appeared on the page, influencing how readers might engage with advertisements when they encountered them in the public prints.

October 28

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

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

South-Carolina Gazette (October 25, 1770).

“New Advertisements.”

What qualified as front page news in eighteenth-century American newspapers?  Even asking that question reveals a difference between how newspapers organized their content then compared to what became standard practice in the nineteenth century and later.  Today, most readers associate massive headlines and the most significant stories with the front page, but that was not the approach to delivering the news in the eighteenth century.

In general, news items did not include headlines that summarized their contents.  They did have datelines, such as “BOSTON, AUGUST 27,” that indicated the source of the news, yet those datelines did not necessarily mean that they covered events from a particular place, only that the printer received or reprinted news previously reported there.  For instance, a dateline might say “New York” and deliver news from London elsewhere in England that was first reported in newspapers published in New York.  Similarly, a dateline for “Boston” could lead news items that included events from other towns in New England.  Printers sometimes listed their sources, such as another newspaper or a letter, but not always.  Along with the dateline for “BOSTON, AUGUST 27” in the October 25, 1770, edition of the South-Carolina Gazette, printer Peter Timothy stated that the following news came from “An extract of a letter from a gentleman of distinction in Connecticut, dated August 14, 1770.”  The news under that dateline consisted of a single story, but printers often grouped together many different stories without distinguishing them with their own datelines.  Without headlines and other visual markers to aid them in understanding how the contents were organized, subscribers and others had to read closely as they navigated newspapers.

The placement of advertisements testifies to another stark difference between eighteenth-century newspapers and those published today.  Modern readers are accustomed to news appearing on the front page, especially above the fold.  Eighteenth-century printers and readers, however, did not associate the front page with the most significant news.  Instead, advertising often appeared on the front page.  On October 25, 1770, the front page of the Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Weekly News-Letter consisted of three columns, the first two devoted to news and the final one containing several advertisements.  The edition of the South-Carolina Gazette published the same day commenced with a column of “New Advertisements” as the first item on the first page.  The other two columns delivered news.  Most newspapers consisted of only four pages created by printing two on each side of a broadsheet and then folding it in half.  The first and fourth pages, printed simultaneously, often contained advertisements received well in advance, while the second and third pages, also printed simultaneously featured the latest news that had just arrived via newspapers from other towns, letters, and other means.  Colonists looking for what modern readers would consider front page news understood that they often would not encounter those stories until they opened their newspapers to the second page.

Then and now, newspapers delivered news and advertising, the latter providing much of the revenue necessary for the former.  The appearance and organization of newspapers, however, has changed over time.  Modern readers are accustomed to newspapers overflowing with advertising, but not advertising on the front page, a space now reserved for the lead stories.  Eighteenth-century readers, on the other hand, often saw commercial messages and other sorts of paid notices as soon as they began perusing the front page.

Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Weekly News-Letter (October 25, 1770).

October 18

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , ,

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

“FOR SALE, THE FOLLOWING VALUABLE TRACTS OF LAND.”

South-Carolina Gazette (October 18, 1770).

This advertisement for “VALUABLE TRACTS OF LAND” offered for sale in South Carolina raises questions about its production and distribution.  Accessible Archives includes it as the fifth page of the October 18, 1770, edition of the South-Carolina Gazette.  Like most colonial newspapers, the South-Carolina Gazette consisted of four pages created by printing two pages on each side of a broadsheet and then folding it in half.  Peter Timothy, the printer, distributed one new issue each week, occasionally printing a supplement to accompany the standard four-page issue when he had sufficient content to justify doing so.

This advertisement deviates from several common elements of newspaper publication familiar to historians of eighteenth-century print culture.  Even though printers sometimes circulated supplements, they rarely distributed one-page supplements.  Instead, they created two-page or four-page supplements by printing on both sides of a sheet.  On rare instances did they print one-page supplements, an expensive venture given that paper was such a valuable commodity.  Blank space that could have been filled with news or, even better, advertising that generated revenues was wasteful.  Timothy included a short note on the final page of the October 18 edition that “ADVERTISEMENTS omitted this Week, will be in our next.”  It seems that he had additional content that could have been printed on the other side of the sheet promoting tracts of land for sale.

This suggests that Timothy did not consider the advertisement on the additional sheet part of the issue he published and distributed that week.  Like most newspaper printers, he did job printing as an additional revenue stream.  Orders included broadside advertisements, today known as posters, that could be handed out or hung up around town.  This advertisement was most likely a broadside printed separately.  How did it get associated with the October 18 edition of the South-Carolina Gazette?  It is possible that the advertisers made a deal with Timothy to distribute the broadside with the standard issue, though that was not a common practice.  More likely, at some point someone who acquired the newspaper and the broadside put them together.  Whether that person was a reader, collector, or librarian, their association of the two items took hold.  Accessible Archives replicated it when producing the digitized database of extant issues of the South-Carolina Gazette.

That is the most likely scenario, but certainly not a definitive answer.  The broadside’s inclusion with the October 18, 1770, edition of the South-Carolina Gazette in the digital archive suggests that it could have been part of that issue from the very start.  If so, that raises questions about innovation on the part of both the printer and the advertisers who deviated from standard practices.  It also raises questions about negotiations between the printer and the advertisers, especially in terms of cost and format.  That the broadside is now treated as the fifth page of the newspapers may be the result of an error introduced sometime after the two were printed.  Alternately, this may be evidence of creativity and innovation in the production and distribution of advertising in eighteenth-century America.

September 27

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , ,

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

South-Carolina Gazette (September 27, 1770).

“Some Thousand Pairs of NEGRO SHOES.”

Simon Berwick and John Berwick had a variety of customers in mind when they advertised “MEN’s SHOES and PUMPS” in the September 27, 1770, edition of the South-Carolina Gazette.  They began their advertisement with footwear intended for white colonists, proclaiming that these shoes were “made in the neatest Manner” and cost fifty shillings per pair.  They also stocked “A great Quantity of strong black Shoes and Pumps” that cost between twenty-five and forty shillings.  The Berwicks presented those shoes “for House-Negroes and others.”  The “others” presumably included white colonists from more humble backgrounds than the customers who would purchase the more expensive shoes that led the advertisement.  The Berwicks also had in stock “some Thousand Pairs of NEGRO SHOES” that they described as “all fresh, and equal to any made in the Province.”

Were enslaved artisans involved in the production of these shoes?  Did the Berwicks enslave others who did not make shoes?  The answers to those questions are not apparent from their advertisement.  Yet the answers make little difference when it comes to disentangling the Berwicks from the commercial and economic web of slavery in the eighteenth-century Atlantic world.  They pitched their advertisement to enslavers who need to outfit the men, women, and children they held in bondage.  They provided moderately-priced shoes for “House-Negroes” who would be seen by enslavers and their guests as well as less expensive “NEGRO SHOES” for those who labored beyond the house and thus relatively out of sight.  The Berwicks did not have to have enslaved people making shoes in their workshop or otherwise serving them in order to reap the benefits of slavery.  Instead, a significant portion of their business revolved around provisioning enslavers.  They sold shoes, while others, like Henry Rugeley, advertised “NEGRO CLOTH,” a rough and inexpensive fabric intended for clothing for enslaved people.  The business model developed by the Berwicks depended on enslavers engaging them as customers.

September 20

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

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

South-Carolina Gazette (September 20, 1770).

“Such Articles as the Resolutions of the Inhabitants of this Province will admit of.”

As summer turned to fall in 1770, Brian Cape advertised “a tolerable Assortment of Goods” for sale in the South-Carolina Gazette.  This unusual description, “a tolerable Assortment,” had at least two meanings.  Like their counterparts in Boston, New York, and Philadelphia, the merchants of South Carolina enacted nonimportation agreements to protest duties imposed on certain imported goods by the Townshend Acts.  Cape assured prospective customers that he carried “such Articles as the Resolutions of the Inhabitants of this Province will admit of.”  In that sense, his merchandise was “tolerable” according to the standards adopted by the community.  It was also “tolerable” in the sense that it was as extensive as could be expected under the circumstances.  Consumers grew accustomed to vast arrays of choices in the eighteenth century.  Nonimportation agreements constrained those choices, but Cape suggested that the ability and pick and choose had not been eliminated at his shop.

He also vowed that prospective customers would not encounter exorbitant prices for his “tolerable Assortment of Goods” as the result of scarcity caused by the nonimportation agreement.  Indeed, scarcity may have been a relative term since many merchants and shopkeepers seized the opportunity to sell inventory that had lingered on their shelves and in their storerooms.  Cape asserted that he sold his wares “at moderate Prices” that were fair to consumers.  He also included a nota bene that offered a special bargain: “Ten per Cent will be discounted for ready Money.”  In other words, he rewarded customers who paid in cash rather than credit with significant savings.  Credit was one of the primary features that made the consumer revolution possible in the eighteenth century, yet it could be tricky to manage.  Merchants and shopkeepers frequently placed advertisements calling on customers to settle accounts or face legal action.  Cape presented an opportunity to avoid future troubles by paying with “ready Money” from the start.

Compared to modern marketing campaigns, eighteenth-century advertisements have sometimes been dismissed for being so straightforward as to be merely announcements of goods for sale.  That approach underestimates the appeals that advertisers worked into their notices in their attempts to entice customers to visit their shops.  Cape addressed both price and politics in his advertisement in 1770, incorporating issues that resonated with consumers at the time.