Women and Resistance

November 6

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

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

Postscript to the Virginia Gazette [Purdie and Dixon] (November 3, 1774).

“It has been thought necessary, for the publick Good, to enter into several particular Resolves.”

As the imperial crisis intensified in the fall of 1774, the distinction between news items and advertisements in colonial newspapers became blurry with greater frequency.  Such was the case with letter-advertisements expressing regret for signing “an Address to the late Governor Hutchinson, on his leaving this Province” in several newspapers in Massachusetts.  Another instance appeared in the Virginia Gazette, published by Alexander Purdie and John Dixon in Williamsburg.  On November 3, they distributed a two-page Postscript to accompany the standard four-page issue.  That supplement included nothing but advertising except, perhaps, the first item in the first column on the first page.  With a dateline that read, “EDENTON, NORTH CAROLINA, October 25, 1774,” it featured the petition signed by fifty-one women at the Edenton Tea Party and listed their names in two columns.

Those women expressed their support for resolutions protesting the Tea Act of 1773 passed by the North Carolina Provincial Congress in August.  They proclaimed, “AS we cannot be indifferent on any Occasion that appears nearly to affect the Peace and Happiness of our Country, and as it has been thought necessary, for the publick Good, to enter into several particular Resolves, by a Meeting of Members deputed from the whole Province, it is a Duty which we owe, not only to our near and dear Connections, who have concurred in them, but to ourselves, who are essentially interested in their Welfare, to do every Thing as far as lines in our Power to testify our sincere Adherence to the same; and we do therefore accordingly subscribe this Paper, as a Witness of our fixed Intention and solemn Determination to do so.” In a single sentence, the women of Edenton declared their position on current events and pledged to participate in politics through the decisions they made about consumption.  They added their voices to those who adopted nonimportation agreements.

Why did their petition appear in an advertising supplement?  Had the women involved in the Edenton Tea Party sent their petition to Purdie and Dixon to feature in the Virginia Gazette?  Probably not, but they may have submitted it to the printer of the North-Carolina Gazette in New Bern.  The few extant issues of that newspaper have not been digitized for greater accessibility, making it difficult to determine if the petition appeared in that newspaper and then Purdie and Dixon reprinted it.  After all, colonial printers constantly reprinted items from other newspapers.  The printers in Williamsburg could have received an issue of the North-Carolina Gazette with the petition from the Edenton Tea Party after they printed the November 3 edition of the Virginia Gazette but did not wish to wait a week to disseminate it in the next issue.  Take into consideration as well that news, especially “Extracts from the Votes and Proceedings of the AMERICAN CONTINENTAL CONGRESS,” filled much of the newspaper, crowding out advertisements.  The printers had reason to produce an advertising supplement, yet they may have also wished to highlight the petition signed by patriotic women in Edenton.  The “Extracts” started with an overview of the Continental Association, a nonimportation agreement, as the first news item.  The women’s petition ran as the first item in the Postscript, mirroring the placement of the Continental Association and demonstrating the commitment already expressed for such measures even before the First Continental Congress formally adopted them.  At a glance, it looked like another advertisement among those in the Postscript, yet it delivered important news to readers.

February 16

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

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

Pennsylvania Journal (February 16, 1769).

“Their love of liberty … will induce them to give their assistance in supporting the interest of their country.”

On February 16, 1769, readers of both the New-York Journal and the Pennsylvania Journal encountered advertisements that called on them to save “CLEAN LINEN RAGGS” and turn them over to a local “Paper Manufactory.” John Keating’s advertisement largely reiterated a notice that he inserted in the New-York Journal more than six months earlier. In it, he advanced a political argument concerning the production and consumption of paper, made from linen rags, in the colonies, especially while the Townshend Act remained in effect. Colonists could outmaneuver Parliament and avoid paying duties on imported paper by supporting the “NEW-YORK Paper MANUFACTORY.”

William Bradford and Thomas Bradford made similar appeals in their advertisement in the Pennsylvania Journal. The “British Parliament having made” manufacturing paper “worthy the attention of every one who thinks his own interest, or the liberty and prosperity of this province and country worth his notice,” the Bradfords proclaimed, “it’s therefore hoped, that all those will consider the importance of a Paper Manufactory carried to its full extent.” They then explained that in the past year colonists had collected “a small quantity of fine rags,” but a sufficient supply to make nearly “a hundred reams of good writing paper” that “sold cheaper than English paper of the same quantity.” The Bradfords challenged readers to consider how much production could increase if colonists made concerted efforts to save their rags in support of the local “Paper Manufactory.”

To that end, the Bradfords envisioned a special role for women in this act of resistance to Parliament overstepping its authority. They noted that “the saving of rags will more particularly fall within the sphere of the Ladies.” Those ladies expressed “their love of liberty” in a variety of ways, including altering their consumption practices by participating in nonimportation pacts, producing garments made of homespun cloth, and drinking Labrador tea. Collecting rags, a seemingly mundane task, presented another means for women “to give their assistance in supporting the interest of their country.” The Bradfords outlined a method for efficiently incorporating this practice into the daily household routine. Given how easy that would be to accomplish, the Bradfords issued another challenge, this one directed explicitly to “those ladies who have a regard for their country.” Which women who purported to support the colonies in their clash with Parliament “would decline taking this inconsiderable trouble, to save the sums of money that will annually be torn from us to maintain in voluptuousness our greedy task masters?” The Bradfords concluded by underscoring how much women could achieve by sacrificing only a small amount of time in collecting rags. They would create jobs for “the industrious poor” who labored in the paper manufactory as well as serve “the public” as colonists continued to voice their opposition to the duties levied by the Townshend Act. Everyday tasks like shopping or disposing of rags took on political meaning during the imperial crisis; women vigorously participated in resistance to Parliament through their participating in those activities.