The Origins of a Free Press in Prerevolutionary ... - Web Publishing

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for land to sell, slaves to sell, or runaways whom their masters wanted returned.
One 21-year-old man, about six feet tall, was “in want of a young Lady, of a good
family” for marriage. Being very bashful, this young advertiser said that he “dreads
the thought of courting.” 66 The very breadth of what could be found in the
newspaper ads was extolled in verse:
If any gentleman wants a wife,
(A partner, as ‘tis term’d, for life)
An advertisement does the thing,
And quickly brings the pretty thing.
If you want health, consult our pages,
You shall be well, and live for ages;
Our empiricks, 67 to get them bread,
Do every thing but raise the dead.
Lands may be had, if they are wanted,
Annuities of all sorts granted,
Places, preferments, bought and sold,
Houses to purchase, new and old,
Ships, shops, of every shape and form,
Carriages, horses, servants swarm,
No matter whether good or bad,
We tell you where they may be had.
Our services you can’t express,
The good we do you hardly guess;
There’s not a want of human kind,
But we a remedy can find. 68
The content and character of many ads were very similar to what one can see in
personal ads in today’s newspapers.
The popular prints and the advertisements within them were an important
part of an increasing market economy and expanding consumer culture that
prefaced social and political changes. As mentioned earlier, a “consumer revolution”
66 Virginia Gazette (Purdie & Dixon, March 16, 1769), 3.
67 A variant spelling of empiric, a charlatan or one who believes that practical experience is
the source of knowledge.
68 Virginia Gazette (Purdie & Dixon, Jan. 18, 1770), 2.