Virginia Gazette [Dixon and Hunter]

May 6

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , ,

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

Virginia Gazette [Dixon and Hunter] (May 6, 1775).

“LADIES RIDING HABITS made in the newest Fashion.”

When James Davis, a tailor, opened a shop at a new location in Yorktown in the spring of 1775, he placed an advertisement in John Dixon and William Hunter’s Virginia Gazette.  He opened by extending “his most grateful Acknowledgments to all those who have hitherto been his Customers,” incorporating an appeal in common use throughout the colonies.  Advertisers often thanked existing customers as a means of enhancing their reputations.  Yet that was not Davis’s only purpose; instead, he “takes this Opportunity to inform them, as well as the Public in general, that he has just opened Shop nearly opposite Swan Tavern.”  Any client could expect the tailor’s “close Application to his Business, and the utmost Endeavours to give Satisfaction,” prompting Davis to hope for “general Encouragement” from the residents of Yorktown.

The tailor concluded with a note that singled out one item in particular: “LADIES RIDING HABITS made in the newest Fashion.”  He may have benefited from where his advertisement appeared within the May 6 edition of the Virginia Gazette, immediately following the “POETS CORNER.”  That entry presented a new poem each week.  This time it featured “VERSES by a Lady, on gathering a SNOW-DROP in the garden of her lover.”  That was almost certainly by coincidence rather than by design.  After all, Davis’s advertisement ran at the bottom of the middle column on the fourth page of the supplement the previous week.  Still, the poem may have helped in directing more readers, especially “LADIES” interested in “the newest fashion,” to Davis’s notice.  Even if the verses did not, the decorative printing that called attention to the “POETS CORNER” also distinguished Davis’s advertisement from others on that page.  It was not the first time it had such a fortuitous place.  Two weeks earlier, it followed “AN ODE TO LIBERTY” in the “POETS CORNER.”  If the tailor perused the pages of the Virginia Gazette to confirm that it indeed carried his notice, he may have been more satisfied with where it happened to appear in some issues.  Its proximity to the “POETS CORNER” may have boosted engagement on those occasions that the one followed the other, though via happenstance rather than sophisticated and intentional marketing strategy.

April 29

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , ,

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

Supplement to the Virginia Gazette [Dixon and Hunter] (April 29, 1775).

“RUN away … a Mulatto Boy named SAM … will endeavour to pass for a free Boy.”

As the imperial crisis intensified in 1774 and erupted into a war in 1775, Sam, an enslaved youth, had his own concerns and fought his own battle for independence.  Like so many other enslaved people, Sam did not author his own story; instead, it was recorded by an enslaver in a newspaper advertisement that offered a reward for the capture and return of the young man after he had liberated himself by running away.

John Bland’s efforts to recover Sam and return him to bondage stretched over many months.  His advertisement indicated that he composed it on November 10, 1774, three weeks before the Continental Association, a nonimportation agreement enacted in response to the Coercive Acts, went into effect.  It ran regularly, including in the supplement that accompanied the April 29, 1775, edition of John Dixon and William Hunter’s Virginia Gazette.  That supplement included the first reports of the battles at Lexington and Concord that appeared in newspapers published in Virginia.  What did Sam think of those events?  Perhaps he welcomed the distraction they provided, shifting attention away from efforts to discover his whereabouts as he “endeavour[ed] to pass for a free Boy.”

Bland offered a brief biography of Sam, likely not emphasizing the details that the youth would have chosen had he written his own narrative.  The enslaver stated that Sam was a mulatto “born in Frederick Town, Maryland,” but did not say anything about his parents or other relations.  Bland considered Sam a “great Villain” with a “smooth artful Tongue,” but acknowledged that he was “a very good Barber,” a rare note of praise in an advertisement of that type.  Bland reported that in June 1774 Sam had been imprisoned in Yorktown “on Suspicion of having stolen some Money in Williamsburg,” but escaped and made his way to Norfolk.  He had been captured and jailed there before being sent back to Bland.  On September 20, Sam once again made a bid for freedom, escaping from Bland’s overseer and “has not since been heard of.”  Having lived in Fredericksburg, Norfolk, and Yorktown, Sam was “well acquainted with most Parts of Virginia,” a factor that likely aided in eluding Bland.  In addition, the enslaver considered it “probable” that Sam “will procure Clothes” to disguise himself.  Bland warned “Captains of Ships” and “Masters of Vessel” against employing Sam or transporting him out of the colony.

Where was Sam?  Did he manage to get aboard a ship?  What other strategies did he deploy to make good on his escape?  Did he have assistance from other enslaved people, free Black men and women, or even sympathetic white colonizers?  What kind of freedom had he experienced in the months since he fled from Bland?  Was he aware that Bland published an advertisement and offered a reward for him?  What was Sam thinking and feeling over those many months?  Bland’s advertisement does not answer those questions, but it does chronicle Sam’s courage and resilience as well as his commitment to seizing his own liberty during an era when colonizers claimed that Parliament and the king perpetrated acts of tyranny against them.  Like so many other fugitives seeking freedom advertised in newspapers from New England to Georgia, Sam made a declaration of independence.

April 22

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , ,

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

Virginia Gazette [Dixon and Hunter] (April 22, 1775).

“I purpose going to England as soon as I dispose of my Goods (till Liberty of Importation is allowed).”

In the spring of 1775, Catherine Rathell advertised a “large and well chosen Assortment of GOODS” available at her store in Williamsburg in John Dixon and William Hunter’s Virginia Gazette.  She demonstrated the choices available to consumers with a lengthy list that included “black, white, and other coloured Silk Petticoats,” “fine stamped Irish Muslims for Ladies Gowns, which are remarkable for their beautiful Colours,” “plain Gold and Paste Brooches and Lockets,” “a few Dozen of neat flowered Wine Glasses,” and “Dolls and other Toys.”

Rathell did not mention when she acquired her merchandise.  Taglines that proclaimed, “Just Imported,” or some variation of that sentiment no longer appeared in American newspapers as often as they had in recent years.  The Continental Association, a nonimportation agreement devised by the First Continental Congress in response to the Coercive Acts, had been in effect since December 1, 1774.  The shopkeeper did not state that her inventory arrived in the colony before that date, yet she suggested that was the case when she declared that she planned to go to England “as soon as I dispose of my Goods (till Liberty of Importation is allowed).”  In acknowledging the Continental Association, Rathell implied that she abided by it.

She also indicated the effect it had on her business.  She did not consider it viable to continue operating her store in Williamsburg.  She planned to close it as soon as she could liquidate her wares and visit England until regular trade resumed, not knowing when she composed her advertisement that a war for independence would disrupt commerce even more significantly.  For the moment, she insisted on cash sales instead of credit, “not parting with a single Shilling’s Worth” with payment in hand, and settling accounts with both those indebted to her and others “having demands against” her.  Except for “an exceeding good Silver Watch to be sold at 50 per Cent,” Rathell did not mention any discounts, but prospective customers may have recognized an opportunity to bargain with a shopkeeper determined to leave the colony.

April 8

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

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

Virginia Gazette [Dixon and Hunter] (April 8, 1775).

“JOURNAL of the PROCEEDINGS OF THE CONVENTION held at RICHMOND.”

John Carter once again advertised that “A few Copies of The Proceedings of the late Continental CONGRESS May be had at the Printing-Office” in the April 8, 1775, edition of the Providence Gazette.  That same day, John Dixon and William Hunter advertised that they “have for SALE … the Journal of the Proceedings of the Congress held at Philadelphia” in the Virginia Gazette.  When the First Continental Congress concluded its meetings near the end of October 1774, printers in many towns rushed to publish local editions of the Extracts from the Votes and Proceedings of the American Continental Congress.  Dixon and his partner at the time, Alexander Purdie, printed the Extracts.  So did Carter.  Advertisements for the Extracts quickly appeared in newspapers.  Not nearly as many printers published the Journal.  William and Thomas Bradford produced a Philadelphia edition about a month after they published the Extracts.  In New York, Hugh Gaine published the only other edition.  In contrast to marketing for the Extracts, advertisements for the Journal did not immediately pepper newspapers throughout the colonies.

Yet over time printers and booksellers acquired copies of the Journal from the Bradfords or from Gaine and informed prospective customers that they stocked that volume.  Dixon and Hunter did so when they advertised a publication that came off their own press, “A JOURNAL of the PROCEEDINGS OF THE CONVENTION held at RICHMOND ON THE 20th OF MARCH, 1775.”  Although listed first in the advertisement, the Journal for the First Continental Congress received secondary attention.  Dixon and Hunter used larger type for the title of their new publication and created greater visual interest by breaking the title into several lines and centering each line.  Dixon and Hunter did not diminish the significance of the Journal for the First Continental Congress; instead, they treated the Journal for the convention at Richmond as breaking news, an important local update, and a continuation of coverage of proceedings that commenced with delegates in Philadelphia and then moved to meetings held throughout the colonies.  They also had an interest in selling the volume that they produced, yet they recognized an opportunity to package it with the Journal for the First Continental Congress and increase revenue.  Both publications kept the public informed while simultaneously commodifying American responses to the imperial crisis that ultimately became a revolution.

April 2

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , ,

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

Virginia Gazette [Dixon and Hunter] (April 2, 1775).

“Advertisements … will be ranged, without partiality as they come to Hand.”

Baltimore did not have its own newspaper until William Goddard commenced publication of the Maryland Journal on August 20, 1773.  Less than two years later, John Dunlap, the printer of Dunlap’s Pennsylvania Packet, proposed publishing a second newspaper in that growing port on the Chesapeake Bay.  He followed a model designed by Goddard, who had been publishing the Pennsylvania Chronicle in Philadelphia when he set about opening a second printing office and establishing another newspaper in a neighboring colony.

Dunlap disseminated subscription proposals widely, including inserting them in John Dixon and William Hunter’s Virginia Gazette.  He announced a plan for an “OPEN AND UNBIASED NEWS-PAPER,” a claim made by many printers during the era of the American Revolution even though they often took an editorial stance that favored either Patriots or Loyalists.  He planned to call it the “MARYLAND GAZETTE, AND THE BALTIMORE ADVERTISER,” distinguishing it from the Maryland Gazette published in Annapolis since 1745, but he would not take it to press until he attracted “one thousand subscribers, which is the smallest number that can possibly support this undertaking.”  The proposed newspaper apparently drew that many subscribers (or at least enough that Dunlap considered it a viable enterprise) because he issued the “first number” of Dunlap’s Maryland Gazette; or the Baltimore General Advertiser on May 2, just two months after the date on the proposals.  Perhaps subscribers grew eager for an additional source of news as the imperial crisis intensified, or perhaps news of the skirmishes at Lexington and Concord in April convinced Dunlap that the time was right to launch his newspaper, even if he did not yet have one thousand subscribers, because current events would guarantee its success.

His subscription proposal covered some of the usual nuts and bolts, what many printers called “conditions,” yet Dunlap referred to as “the QUINTESSENCE.”  He indicated that the newspaper “shall be printed with a new and well-founded type, and a paper in size and quality to the Pennsylvania Gazette,” curiously drawing comparison to another newspaper published in Philadelphia rather than his own.  He planned to publish a new issue “every Wednesday morning,” the same day that Goddard distributed copies of the Maryland Journal.  He promised delivery “on that morning to the subscribers in the city and liberties.”  Those in “the distant places on the continent,” such as readers of Dixon and Hunter’s Virginia Gazette, could expect “the earliest and most expeditious conveyance of land and water, post, or carriage.”  Subscriptions cost five shillings, due at the time of delivery of the first issues, and then another five shillings upon receiving fifty-two issues.  They continued at ten shillings each year.

While many subscription proposals for newspapers solicited advertisements, few specified how much they cost; instead, they declared that they charged the same fees as their competitors.  In the proposals for the Pennsylvania Ledger that also circulated in the first months of 1775, for instance, Jame Humphreys, Jr., stated, “Advertisements to be inserted on the same Terms as is usual with other Papers in this City.”  Similarly, Isaiah Thomas pronounced that advertisements in the Worcester Gazette would be “inserted in a neat and conspicuous [manner], at the same rates as they are in Boston.”  Dunlap, in contrast, gave a price: “advertisements of a moderate length shall be inserted for 5s.”  He did not, however, indicate how many times notices ran for that rate nor whether advertisers received discounts for subsequent insertions.  He did assert that they “will be ranged, without partiality, as they come to Hand.  The greatest correctness shall be adhered to.”  In other words, he would print notices in the order they arrived in the printing office; no advertisements would receive a privileged place based on their content, the printer’s relationship with the advertiser, or other factors.  All advertisers could depend on their notices appearing accurately in the Maryland Gazette.  The inaugural issue featured one advertisement.  The Adverts 250 Project will turn its attention to that advertisement and others in the coming months.

March 11

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , ,

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

Virginia Gazette [Hunter and Dixon] (March 11, 1775).

“The American Pocket Dial.”

It was an unusual publication promoted in the March 11, 1775, edition of John Dixon and William Hunter’s Virginia Gazette.  Was it really a publication at all?  A subscription notice proclaimed that “The American Pocket Dial” was “Now ready for Publication.”  This handy device, according to “the Editor,” Robert Cockburn of Berkeley County, showed the “Hour of the Day and Night by the Sun and Stars” as well as the “Sun’s Place and Declination,” the “Sun’s Altitude,” the “Latitude of the Place of Observation,” and the “Height and Distance of any accessible or inaccessible Object.”  That it also showed the “Variation of the Compass” suggests that the pocket sundial had a magnetic compass embedded in it.  Each dial came with a “small Book of Directions” easily understood by “any Person of common Abilities, without any Knowledge of the Mathematicks.”  In “European Pocket Sundials for Colonial Use in American Territories,” Sara H. Schechner notes that “tables of latitude, known as gazetteers” were sometimes “printed in a broadsheet, which was a sundial accessory.”[1]

Cockburn declared that the American Pocket Dials “are to be published by Subscription.”  With the Continental Association in effect, colonizers were not supposed to import or purchase finished goods from Great Britain.  Instead, that pact called on them to “encourage … Industry” and “promote … the Manufactures of this Country.”  Schechner notes that when Anthony Lamb advertised “large Pocket Compasses, with or without Dials” in the April 7, 1760, edition of the New-York Mercury that he likely sold imported items.[2]  Fifteen years later, the political turmoil of the imperial crisis presented an opportunity to market an American alternative, though Cockburn did not take the risk of producing or “publishing” the American Pocket Dial without first lining up buyers or “subscribers.”  He asserted that the sundials “will be engraved in the neatest Manner, on Copper, or Brass.”  Did he find “subscribers” for this project?  During the American Revolution, Schechner states, “American patriots favored compass sundials” while their French allies preferred inclining dials but does not indicate that American makers like Cockburn “published” and sold such products to officers and soldiers.[3]  Addressing that question falls beyond the scope of Schechner’s chapter on “European Pocket Sundials for Colonial Use in American Territories.”  Having encountered Cockburn’s “subscription proposal,” I am curious to see if he published additional advertisements, especially any calling on “subscribers” to collect their pocket sundials once he “published” them.  I will also be looking for other work on early American scientific instruments to learn whether Cockburn and others established an industry during the American Revolution.

**********

[1] Sara J. Schechner, “European Pocket Sundials for Colonial Use in American Territories” in How Scientific Instruments Have Changed Hands, ed. A.D. Morrison-Low, Sara J. Schechner, and Paolo Brenni (Leiden: Brill, 2017), 125.

[2] Schechner, “European Pocket Sundials,” 148.

[3] Schechner, “European Pocket Sundials,” 147.

January 14

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

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

Virginia Gazette [Dixon and Hunter] (January 14, 1775).

“Seven Parcels of Goods … delivered to the Committee to be disposed of agreeable to the tenth Article of the Continental Congress.”

As an advertisement in the January 14, 1775, edition of Dixon and Hunter’s Virginia Gazette made clear, Thomas McCulloch of Norfolk abided by the Continental Association.  The First Continental Congress adopted that nonimportation, nonconsumption, and nonexportation agreement when it met in Philadelphia in September and October 1774, intending to use economic leverage to convince Parliament to repeal the Coercive Acts passed in retaliation for the destruction of tea during the Boston Tea Party.

“BY Direction of the Committee for this County,” the advertisement informed readers, “on Monday the 23d Instant, will be disposed of, at publick Sale, for ready Money, seven Parcels of Goods … imported in the Richmond, Captain Patterson, from Glasgow, by Mr. Thomas McCulloch.”  The “Committee for this County” referred to the local Committee of Inspection, empowered to oversee the sale of imported goods that arrived between December 1, 1774, and February 1, 1775.  According to the tenth article of the Continental Association, importers had several options for dealing with such items.  They could return the goods, surrender them to the committee to store until the nonimportation agreement concluded, or entrust them to the committee to sell.  McCulloch “delivered [his goods” to the Committee to be disposed of agreeable to the tenth Article of the Continental Congress.”  In that case, the committee would reimburse him what he paid but apply any profit to the relief of Boston where the harbor had been closed since the Boston Port Act went into effect on June 1, 1774.

Another advertisement in the same issue of Dixon and Hunter’s Virginia Gazette advised the public of the sale of “SUNDRY Parcels of Goods lately imported from Great Britain” for sale “Under the Direction of the Committee for the County of CHARLES CITY.”  In this instance, the committee divided the merchandise into “Lots not over ten Pounds Value” to encourage sales.  These local Committees of Inspection joined their counterparts in Massachusetts, New York, and other colonies in advertising imported goods sold according to the tenth article of the Continental Association and, in the process, demonstrating compliance with that measure.

January 7

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

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

Virginia Gazette [Dixon and Hunter] (January 7, 1775).

“We now present the Publick with our Paper, as a Sample of what they are to expect from us in Future.”

When John Dixon and William Hunter commenced their partnership as publishers of the Virginia Gazette, they inserted a notice “To the PUBLICK” as the first item in the first column of the first page of the January 7, 1775, edition.  A month earlier, Alexander Purdie and John Dixon announced the end of their partnership, alerting readers that Dixon and Hunter would continue publishing the Virginia Gazette and that Purdie would endeavor to launch his own Virginia Gazette once he attracted enough subscribers.  The numbering for Dixon and Hunter’s newspaper continued uninterrupted, though there were some changes.  They distributed it on Saturdays instead of Thursdays.  For several years, Purdie and Dixon had published their Virginia Gazette on the same day that William Rind, Clementina Rind, and John Pinkney, in succession, took a competing Virginia Gazette to press.  Readers in Williamsburg now had access to newspapers on both Thursdays and Saturdays.  The new partners published their Virginia Gazette “early every Saturday Morning” so it could be “despatched by the several Posts on the same day” for “speedy Conveyance to the Subscribers.”

Dixon and Hunter also updated the combination masthead and colophon beyond merely changing the names of the printers.  The woodcut depicting the arms of the colony that previously adorned the Virginia Gazette now appeared within an ornate baroque border.  The new partners also incorporated a note about the services they provided: “ALL Persons may be supplied with this Paper at 12s6 a Year, and have Advertisements (of a moderate Length) inserted for 3s. the first Week, and 2s. each Week after. – Printing Work done at this Office in the neatest Manner, with Care and Expedition.”  Those lines transformed the masthead and colophon into an advertisement.  In their notice, Dixon and Hunter reported that only a few readers “have withdrawn their Subscriptions,” leaving them feeling confident about the prospects for their newspaper because they received “many Orders … from the Subscribers to this Gazette for continuing them on our List.”  At twelve shillings and six pence for an annual subscription, the price remained the same.  The price for advertising did as well.  Dixon and Hunter charged a shilling for setting type and two shillings for the space the first time an advertisement appeared and then two shillings for each subsequent insertion.

The new partners also signaled their editorial stance in their message “To the PUBLICK.”  They declared that they would published “Whatever may be sent us in Favour of LIBERTY, or for the PUBLICK GOOD … with Cheerfulness.”  In the event of “Scarcity of News,” they planned to fill the pages with “such moral Pieces, from the best Writers, as may contribute to the Improvement of Mankind in general” and, occasionally, “Pieces of Wit and Humour, that tend both to amuse and instruct.”  It went without saying that advertisements would also fill the pages of the Virginia Gazette.  Indeed, paid notices accounted for nearly half the content in Number 1222, the first issue published by Dixon and Hunter.