SLO# 7 Advertising Slaves in Boston (Discovery)

The newspaper and advertisements for slaves-for-sale came together in British America during the eighteenth century when a local merchant placed an ad to sell two Negro men, a woman and child. For sixteen years, the Boston News-Letter in Massachusetts continued to publish slave-for-sale notices, but the Boston Gazette was the leading newspaper during the American Revolution marketing newcomer and resident slaves.

Boston featuring the Long Wharf

Approximately 2,000 Africans were marketed in the Boston Gazette from 1719 to 1781 as slaves-for-sale. The newcomers and resident slaves were attained through advertisements, at auctions and even at the ships deck. Advertisements directed buyers to the busy stretch between the Long Wharf and Boston's public houses where auctions occurred. Slave merchants who imported Africans, by request or otherwise, were not the only people who played a role in the slaves-for-sale market through advertisements. Both single and large groups of Africans were bought and sold by independents such as butchers, bakers, gunsmiths, blacksmiths, midwives, and including upstanding men from political to religious leaders. It was common for advertisements to lead buyers in search of slave labor to personal homes and shops. Advertisements connected both urban and rural communities in the economics of slavery.

Boston Gazette

Individuals posting advertisements of slaves-for-sale played on the traits Masters desired. They included the slave quantity, their gender, age, years of service, abilities and performance level. They used words and phrases such as 'Negro stock', 'fit for town or country', 'indoor and outdoor work' and 'fit for tradesmen'.

In 1760, advertisements dropped significantly as problems with the labor system, and the opinions about slavery surfaced causing a decreased in the slave market. Yet in the days of the Emancipation, men continued their right to slaves but not in the same way as the days of advertising.¹

 

 

 

1Robert E. Desrochers, Jr. Slave-For-Sale Advertisements and Slavery in Massachusetts, 1704-1781. Omohundo Institute of Early American History and Culture. The William and Mary Quarterly, Vol. 59, No. 3 Slaveries in the Atlantic World (Jul., 20020, pp.623-664. www.jstor.org/stable/3491467.