To Be Sold

Advertisements for Enslaved People in Colonial Boston, 1765-1770

Alex Bice, Sebastien Hardinger, Mahala Nyberg, Claire Tratnyek, Adam Tomasi, Shannon Webber

“’Tis pity there should be more Caution used in buying a

Horse, or a little lifeless dust; than there is in purchasing Men and Women: 

Whenas they are the Offspring of GOD, and their Liberty is, 

-- Auro pretiosior Omni [more precious than gold]”

Samuel Sewell, The Selling of Joseph, 1700

Slavery in Massachusetts

Public memory often says that slavery was limited to the southern United States, or that slavery in the north was minimal and quickly abolished. However, slavery was an important part of commerce in Massachusetts; even though the area is often overlooked as the hub of enslavement that it truly was. Boston, Massachusetts may have been the “Cradle of Liberty,” but it was not devoid of slavery. In fact, Massachusetts was the first colony to legalize slavery in 1641 and it was not abolished in the state until 1783 (Johnson). 

As colonial Boston grew from a small Puritan settlement to a major hub of commercial activity, so too did its number of enslaved people. In 1752, approximately 10% of Boston’s population were of African descent, many of whom were not free (Harper). From its earliest years as an emergent colony, Massachusetts sold human beings into slavery from Africa, the Caribbean, and the West Indies. Native Americans were frequently enslaved as well, notably the Wampanoag prisoners of war sold to the Caribbean at the end of “King Philip’s War” in 1676. But historically, African enslavement had a significant, yet often overlooked, role in the Massachusetts merchant economy. 

A 19th century depiction of the first slaves to arrive in Boston aboard the ship Desire

The first enslaved Africans  arrive  in Massachusetts in 1638, aboard the ship Desire

Once the Royal African Company lost its monopoly over the British slave trade in 1698, Boston merchants continued to perpetuate enslavement for almost a century. Boston merchants imported enslaved people from Africa and sold them to the West Indies in exchange for sugar, to make rum; thus participating in the Triangle Trade (African Americans and the End of Slavery in Massachusetts: The Slave Trade). Boston was not only a way-station for Caribbean slavery, but also an epicenter of the domestic slave trade in the New England colonies. According to scholar Robert Desrochers, Boston “never had a single slave marketplace. It had many” (Desrochers Jr., 626). In addition to the sales that occurred at these marketplaces, public slave auctions took place throughout the city and were advertised in prominent newspapers. The auctions and private sales of enslaved people took place at a number of locations including ships, in taverns, at offices, and more. This project focuses on advertisements for the selling of enslaved peoples found in  The Boston Gazette and Country Journal  between the years of 1765 and 1770. These years are significant for the contradictions that existed between liberty and slavery. Between 1765 and 1770, The Boston Gazette and Country Journal covered liberty protests against the Stamp Act, in 1765, and the Boston Massacre, in 1770, on the same pages as advertisements for enslaved people. This project analyzes the advertisements to determine what they can tell us about the enslaved people in Boston, those who sold them, and where they were sold.

New public history initiatives, such as the New York Times Magazine’s “1619 Project,” have stimulated conversation around the foundational role of chattel slavery in America’s founding. As the public wrestles with America's history of slavery in the context of present-day problems related to racial justice, this project seeks to digitize indicators of Boston’s history of enslavement, as well as the city’s role in African-American survival and resistance. 

Sale Locations

Following data collection, we had a group of about 15 locations where the sales of enslaved people were advertised. Some of these were very recognizable and could be located easily. Others were simply the houses of individual people, or otherwise difficult to locate. In locating these sites we utilized Samuel C. Clough’s 1798 Atlas of Boston, Anne Haven Thwing’s The Crooked and Narrow Streets of Boston, and Samuel Adams Drake’s and Walter K. Watkins’ Old Boston Taverns and Tavern Clubs to view potential locations. Additional supplementary information was provided by Nathaniel Bardstreet Sherliff’s A Topographic and Historical Description of Boston. Some locations are approximate, meant to highlight a particular area that included the site, since there is no direct information about a buildings exact location. These locations are Andrew Hall’s House on Cole Lane, the auction houses near Market Square, and Parker’s Goldsmith Shop near the Conduit. For the scope of this project, we only focused on mapping locations in the city of Boston and did not include locations outside the city, even if they were listed in the newspaper. 

01 / 11
1

Edes and Gill

Edes and Gill was a publishing company located on Queen Street in downtown Boston that printed the focal newspaper for this project, The Boston Gazette and Country Journal. The newspaper ran under the partnership of Edes and Gill from 1755 to 1776, and then continued to run under Benjamin Edes until it officially shut down in 1798 (Thomas, 53-56).

The Boston Gazette and Country Journal, like many other newspapers at the time, attempted to remain neutral on political issues. But, after the implementation of the Stamp Act in 1765, Edes and Gill, along with other printers, “began to abandon the ideal of neutrality to embrace or reject colonial resistance of British imperial reform” (Parkinson). Edes and Gill chose to support the patriot resistance and, as a result, were forced to flee the city of Boston in 1775. When the war ended in 1776, Edes brought the newspaper back to Boston and continued to publish it while Gill moved on to publish a new paper called The Continental Journal (Thomas, 55).

Edes and Gill actively participated in the slave trade by advertising the sales of enslaved people for many years, but interestingly, they also published abolitionist writings. In 1767 the printers published a letter entitled “Considerations on slavery. In a letter to a friend.” by Nathaniel Appleton who discussed the ways in which slavery went against Biblical teachings and how it was “inconsistent with the interest of the provice” (Appleton, 12). Yet, The Boston Gazette and Country Journal’s advertisements of enslaved people promoted the inhumane actions of the slave trade to its readers and helped slavery prosper in New England.

2

The Bunch of Grapes Tavern

The Bunch of Grapes Tavern was one of the most recognizable taverns in colonial Boston, alongside the Royal Exchange, the Golden Ball, and the Green Dragon. Located near the corner of King Street (now State Street) and Kilby Street, the Bunch of Grapes served as a major gathering place since it’s opening in 1712 (Drake and Watkins, Old Boston Taverns and Tavern Clubs). More than just the haunt of weary workers or an inn for travelers, the tavern was a crucial hub of Whig and revolutionary politics during the leadup to the American Revolution (Ibid.).

Following the evacuation of British forces from the city at the end of the war, the tavern became a site of celebration for colonists who supported independence and even entertained George Washington (Ibid.). Less than 15 years before the Bunch of Grapes would become a gathering place to celebrate revolutionary independence and freedom, Boston residents were here bidding at an auction to purchase human beings.

3

The Royal Exchange Tavern

The Royal Exchange Tavern, founded in 1727, was located at the southwest corner of King Street (present-day State Street) and Exchange Street. British officers frequented this tavern before the American Revolution (Drake and Watkins, Old Landmarks and Historic Personages of Boston). The first floor of the Tavern was open for citizens of Boston to “walk about, discuss the news, or bargain in,” according to Samuel Drake and Walter Watkins in their volume of Old Boston Taverns and Tavern Clubs.

The bargaining space of the tavern’s ground floor allowed for enslavers, such as Joseph Russell, to sell black men and women in public auctions. Owing to its multi-use environment, the Royal Exchange Tavern was also the site where Dr. Benjamin Church performed an autopsy on the slain Crispus Attucks after the Boston Massacre in 1770 (Neylund). Reflecting the irony of Patriots battling for liberty while profiting from slavery, the Royal Exchange Tavern was also a significant headquarters for protests against British rule in the 1760s (Scribner). 

4

Sign of the Schooner

The “Schooner in Distress” and “Sign of the Schooner” were both in reference to a Boston tavern on Fish Street in 1761, according to the Town Records (Thwing). The Schooner Tavern was owned by Edward Proctor Jr., the son of a tailor (Ibid.). Proctor used the tavern as a meeting place for his private sales of enslaved people, as inferred from advertisements that directed buyers to meet him at the Sign of the Schooner.

One of the women Proctor enslaved may have appeared in the proceedings of the Boston selectmen: in January 1764, Proctor Jr. reported that “a Maid in his House was supposed to have the Small Pox, upon which he was urged...to consent that she should be removed.” The minutes acknowledged that Proctor “keeps the Schooner Tavern in Fish Street” (Proceedings of the Boston Selectmen). 

5

Harris and Aves, on Foster Hutchinson's Wharf

Foster Hutchinson was the brother of Thomas Hutchinson, the colonial governor of Massachusetts. Both of the Hutchinsons were Loyalists and fled to Halifax, Canada with other partisans of Britain during the Revolutionary War. In 1761, Foster Hutchinson’s wharf was the site at which the publishers Harris and Aves sold four black men and one black girl from Barbados, alongside rum and sugar. This sale was mentioned in William Vincent Wells’ 1865 biography on Samuel Adams in a chapter to “Negro Servitude in Massachusetts in the Olden Time.”

After the American Revolution’s end, Hutchinson’s wharf was confiscated by authorities and sold because many of the new state governments, including Massachusetts and New York, passed laws permitting the authorities to seize Loyalist property (Stark). 

6

Dock Square Auction Houses

Peter Fanueil, one of the wealthiest merchants in eighteenth-century Boston, participated in the slave trade and owned five enslaved people of his own. He made a massive fortune from selling slaves and his profits from the slave trade contributed to the building of Fanueil Hall, which was completed in 1743, a year after his death (National Park Service). Faneuil Hall became a geographical reference point in the advertisements for nearby slave auctions at Dock Square. A few advertisements refer to auctions at the public venue of Dock Square, “opposite the West End of Faneuil Hall.” Dock Square earned its name from its location next to the Town Dock, where dozens of enslaved people were sold in the early 1700s by merchants such as Jacob Royal.

In 1717, Captain Thomas Smith sold a fourteen-year-old enslaved boy at Dock Square, evidence of the presence of sales in Boston prior to our case study (Huang, 61). Another regular site of slave sales was the “Newest Auction Room” of Moses Deshon, also opposite the West End of Faneuil Hall. Deshon was also paid by the town of Boston to carve the Faneuil coat of arms to be hung inside the new hall.

7

Leigh's Intelligence Office

Benjamin Leigh’s Intelligence Office was one of several in colonial Boston. These businesses were crucial to the broader merchant economy of Boston, “making it their business to know when ships were arriving and departing and what goods and commodities merchants were importing into the colonies or exporting abroad” (Kuettner, 39). On top of supplying information, Leigh also made money by selling various goods from his shop. Alongside his advertisement selling molasses and rum, ships and rigging, he also sold “negro men, women, boys and girls.” 

8

Parker's Goldsmith Shop

Daniel Parker was a prominent goldsmith and silversmith. A Patriot and peer of Paul Revere's, some of his surviving work is displayed in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, and the art museums of Harvard and Yale.

9

Andrew Hall's House on Cole Lane

Little is known about Andrew Hall or the house mentioned in the advertisement with his name. Andrew Hall posted this advertisement for two weeks in December 1766.

10

Mrs. Sterling's in Court Square

There is no known information about Mrs. Sterling or her house on Court Square other than her presence in this series of advertisements. This advertisement was posted for three weeks in January and February, 1766.

11

Warehouse 5 on Long Wharf

Henry Lloyd was a prominent Boston merchant and aristocrat who owned large amounts of property on Long Island. He posted this advertisement for three weeks in June 1768, directing potential buyers to a warehouse on Long Wharf.

Enslavers of Boston

When we first started this project, we believed that we would find a large number of sellers with locations spread throughout the city. While this did occur to a certain extent, we were surprised by the large number of sales that went through the publishers of the The Boston Gazette and Country Journal, Edes and Gill. Edes and Gill were not the direct sellers of enslaved people, only the middle men between buyers and sellers, so they are often listed in the advertisements as the business to contact in order to buy an enslaved person. Out of 139 total advertisements collected, Edes & Gill were listed as the contact for 96 advertisements. This has greatly limited our ability to learn about all of the sellers that advertised in The Boston Gazette and Country Journal and dramatically limited the number of locations that we were able to research. 

The information that we do have about individual enslavers reveals that slavery in Boston was ubiquitous. Farmers and merchants, soldiers and sailors, and patriots and loyalists all participated in the slave trade.

01 / 11

Richard Clarke, Amos Muzzy, Joseph Lee

In Boston, slavery transcended politics

Richard Clark was a prominent Boston merchant, loyalist and one of the East India Company's tea factors. He partially owned the tea destroyed during the Boston Tea Party and his shop was ransacked by Patriot mobs. As a result of the Revolution, he fled to London and never returned to Boston. 

Amos Muzzy, from Lexington, was a patriot, member of the Committees of Correspondence, and served in the Lexington militia. His relative Issac was one of eight men killed when the first shots of the Revolution were fired in Lexington.(Daughters of the American Revolution).

Joseph Lee was a judge from Cambridge, MA (Hudson).

Together, these three men sold a 14 year old boy in September 1765.

Daniel Parker

Daniel Parker was a prominent Boston goldsmith, patriot and colleague of Paul Revere. His name is engraved on the Liberty Bowl made by Paul Revere.

Some of his work survives and is housed in institutions including the Museum of Fine Arts, Harvard University Art Museum, and Yale University Art Gallery (New England Antiquities).

In October 1766, he sold a 25 year old man and an 8 year old boy.

Colonel Edward Proctor

Colonel Edward Proctor was a leading Boston merchant, who specialized in lemons and other Caribbean goods (House of Proctor Genealogy).

Proctor was also a Son of Liberty and commanded the boarding party during the Boston Tea Party (Carp). He fought in the Revolution, rising to the rank of Colonel, and remained a leading Boston citizen until his death (Roberts). He served as one of Boston’s “Overseers of the Poor,” commissioned by a 1692 law to help children with no support and belonged to the wealthiest ten-percent of Boston’s individuals (Colonial Society of Massachusetts).

In September 1765 he sold two teenage boys.

Henry Lloyd Jr

Henry Lloyd was a prominent Boston and Long Island slave trader and aristocrat. The town of Lloyd Harbor on Long Island is named after the Lloyd family.

Jupiter Hammon, a black man enslaved by successive generations of the Lloyd family, was the first African-American to be published in North America (Lloyd Harbor Historical Society; Long Island History Journal).

In June 1768, Lloyd sold a 25 year old man, a boy, and three girls.

Benjamin Leigh

Benjamin Leigh was the owner and operator of an "Intelligence Office". Leigh's Intelligence Office operated as a merchant house, information broker, moneylender, and slave trader.

Benjamin Leigh frequently advertised for the sale of enslaved people, alongside products like tea, flour, beer, rum, fish, and ships (Adverts 250).

Foster Hutchinson

Foster Hutchinson was a judge of the Massachusetts Bay Supreme Court, and the younger brother of Thomas Hutchinson, the Loyalist governor of Massachusetts. He was a Harvard graduate and was forced to flee Boston during the Revolution (Cummings).

He owned the wharf where four young men and a young girl were sold in June 1766.

Joseph Gould

Joseph Gould was a church deacon, a member of the Committees of Correspondence, and later served as a Captain in the Massachusetts militia. His company fought at Lexington and Concord (Tuller).

In 1757 - years before posting this ad - Gould helped arrange for a marriage between an enslaved woman he owned, named Venus, and an enslaved man named Prince, owned by Zaccheus Collins (Essex Institute).

In April 1770, he sold a 12 year old girl.

Moses Deshon

Moses Deshon was a prominent Massachusetts Freemason (Mackey). He was a skilled carver by trade and he carved the coat of arms of the Faneuil family which hung in Faneuil Hall. He was also contracted to carve the coat of arms for the Colony of Massachusetts, which hung in the Old State House (Drake; Bacon).

During the Seven Years War, Deshon commanded a Massachusetts militia company.

In December 1766, he sold a 22 year old woman.

Joseph Russell

Joseph Russell was an auctioneer who advertised frequently in the Boston Gazette (Adverts 250). He was also a publisher that ran an auction office at Green & Russell’s Printing Office (Numismatic Bibliomania Society).

In April 1766, he sold four children - aged 19, 15, and 10.

Gustavus Fellows

Gustavus Fellows was a prominent merchant and sea-captain (Babson). He owned the ship Speedwell, which fought for the Continental Navy as the USS Hancock (Government Printing Office).

In March 1765, he sold a 13 year old boy.

Captain Moses Bennett

Captain Moses Bennett served as the commander of the militia frigate Massachusetts during the Seven Years War (Winsor and Jewett).

In April 1767, he sold a 38 year old woman.

Lives of Enslaved People in Boston

We have mainly focused on the enslavers and the locations where they conducted their oppressive business. We recognize the inherent limitations of working with auction advertisements which, by their nature, efface the identities of enslaved people being sold. The advertisements reduced people of African descent to commodities. We have included an analysis of the lives of Boston’s enslaved people so that our project does not reduce them to data or replicate the process of commodification. The people in these advertisements deserve to have their voices heard and their lives as human beings acknowledged.

Historical Background

The advertisements of The Boston Gazette and Country Journal that dealt with the sale of enslaved people offer little information on their lives. These advertisements intentionally did not treat enslaved people as human beings. Instead, they were often presented as simple commodities that were part of the economy of colonial Massachusetts. Enslaved people were much more than the “fine English, Indian, and Irish goods” that they were advertised alongside. In colonial Massachusetts, which could not support the agricultural economy that would come to define the American South, enslaved African people became involved in other aspects of the economy: “domestic service, farming, skilled and unskilled labor, maritime trades, innkeeping, catering, and other small industries.” (The Lives of Individual African Americans before 1783).

A 1766 ad where enslaved people are sold alongside rum, sugar, and wine

Beyond these industries, enslaved people were often involved in smithing, woodworking, printing, and other trades that sustained the city (Hardesty, 73). Slavery was an important part of the economic life of the city, and was directly tied to several industries that defined Boston in the public imagination. The enslaved, by definition, did not receive wages from this labor, even as that labor helped to grow and support the city. At the same time, their enslavers benefited tremendously from the same industries that slavery supported.

An ad from April 1768 emphasizes the enslaved person's experience working as a cooper (barrel maker)

These connections are important, but they contrast heavily with how African Americans were treated under the law. The day-to-day life of enslaved people was limited by legislation that hampered their rights and movement. Many elements of colonial life were not fully available to enslaved people. A law passed in 1703 prevented African Americans, Native Americans, and people of mixed race from leaving their homes after 9:00 pm (The Lives of Individual African Americans before 1783). There were other laws governing curfews, marriage, shopping, ownership of livestock, travel, and trade (Ibid.). Enslaved people in Northern states, just like their Southern counterparts, suffered immense struggles at the hands of those who believed they had the right to control them.

The (Enslaved) People Behind the Advertisements

While The Boston Gazette and Country Journal advertisements can make a case for the prevalence of slavery in Boston, they unfortunately provide scant information about the individuals who were subjected to enslavement. We created a series of visualizations using Tableau and Data Wrapper to interpret the advertisements and their presence in The Boston Gazette and Country Journal over time. We were especially interested in creating data visualizations that would provide some insight into who these people were as individuals. In the majority of advertisements, the only information consistently available is the age and gender of the enslaved persons. However, many advertisements described the skills and talents of these individuals, and occasionally, might list a country of origin or a language spoken. Although there is often danger in reducing people to data, we used these visualizations to bring attention to the scarce biographical information that was available. 

Trends in Age and Gender 

The following charts break down the advertisements by the age and gender of the people being sold. Unfortunately, the ages and genders of the listed enslaved people are often the only information that can be gathered about these individuals. 

Broken down by year, this chart shows that the majority of the enslaved persons advertised for sale were male. Note: The “Both” category is the result of advertisements where multiple individuals of both genders were listed.

A chart showing the gender of enslaved people, broken out by age group

This chart shows that enslaved persons advertised in The Boston Gazette and Country Journal were more often male.  Of those men, the majority of them were teens and young adults. Note: The “Both” category is the result of advertisements where multiple individuals of both genders were listed.

This chart shows that on average most enslaved persons advertised in The Boston Gazette and Country Journal were teenagers or young adults. It is important to note, however that many of the advertisements included middle aged adults and young children as well.

Trends in Advertised Skills 

The following charts show the skills held by the enslaved persons who were sold through advertisements in The Boston Gazette and Country Journal. These visualizations read between the lines of these advertisements and recognize the skills and talents of these individuals. It is important to acknowledge that while this is the most personal data we were able to collect about enslaved people, in the context of these advertisements they are only acknowledged in terms of the labor they can provide.

Enslaved people were advertised as having a wide variety of skills

This chart shows that the skills held by the enslaved persons described in The Boston Gazette and Country Journal were not only diverse, but that many of these individuals were skilled craftsmen. Many of these specialized skills were held by young adults or even teenagers.

This chart shows that while both male and female enslaved persons held a variety of skills, many of the specialized skills, particularly those skills relating to a craft or trade, were held by men.

About this Project

Course Initiatives

This project was conducted as part of the course initiatives for the graduate course Digital Space and Place at Northeastern University, taught by Dr. Cameron Blevins in Spring 2020. The final project for the course was meant to focus on the Beacon Hill neighborhood of Boston, a historically black neighborhood in the 19th century. Alex Bice, Sebastien Hardinger, Mahala Nyberg, Adam Tomasi, Claire Tratnyek, and Shannon Webber are MA and PhD students in Notheastern’s Public History program.

Project Goal

After a visit from a representative with the National Parks of Boston to learn about how this class project might be able to contribute to the interpretation of Beacon Hill and Boston’s African American history, we settled on the topic of slavery’s presence in Boston. The basis of our research was to use newspaper advertisements for the auction and sale of enslaved persons in the 18th century, then map the locations of these sales to demonstrate that Boston might have been a hub for the slave trade in the late 18th century.

Data Collection and Findings

We used a digitized collection of The  Boston Gazette and Country Journal papers available through the Massachusetts Historical Society to find instances of advertisements for the sale of enslaved people. Our hope was that we would be able to collect information about where the sales took place, how many enslaved persons were sold for each location and, if possible, information about the individuals who were subjected to these sales. The Boston Gazette and Country Journal had been published in Boston since 1719, and the earliest year of issues available through the Massachusetts Historical Society was 1765. We began with this year and conducted an initial survey of the papers for 1765 through 1770.

We were surprised to find that, though the advertisements were frequent, the number of sites where these sales took place were limited. The majority of the advertisements directed inquiries to Edes & Gill, the publishers of The Boston Gazette and Country Journal. After collecting the advertisements for 1765 through 1770, we realized that expanding the temporal scope would likely yield no further location data. We considered collecting through to 1775 when the Revolutionary War interrupted the publications, and likely would have interrupted the sale of enslaved persons as well, but for the sake of time and scope, chose to interpret the data we had collected for the earlier five year period.

Working with The Boston Gazette and Country Journal

Masthead of the paper

During the period that we surveyed, The Boston Gazette and Country Journal was published as a weekly, four page newspaper. Consistently, the third and fourth pages of the publications listed advertisements for a variety of goods, such as furniture, food and other wares. Generally, this is also where we found the advertisements for the sale of enslaved people. Over the six years of publications that we surveyed, we found 139 unique advertisements, discluding those which were repeated, as most advertisements ran in at least two consecutive issues. Within those 139, accounting for advertisements where multiple individuals were listed, a total of approximately 174 enslaved persons were advertised for sale.  

This chart shows the trends in the number of advertisements during each month from 1765-1770. The trends change from year to year, but demonstrate that The Boston Gazette and Country Journal was consistently advertising the sale of enslaved persons each month. In the months following the Boston Massacre in March 1770, the number of advertisements actually increased.

View our Data

You can use  this excel file  to look at our spreadsheet with the data we collected from the slave ads in The Boston Gazette and Country Journal between 1765-1770.

Further Reading

Boston's early history was that of being the center of the New England slave trade. But in the wake of slavery's abolition in Massachusetts and a growing abolitionist movement in the United States, Boston became a center of abolitionist agitation. Please use  this link  to view a map of Boston's Beacon Hill neighborhood as a center of the Underground Railroad.

Bibliography

This chart shows that enslaved persons advertised in The Boston Gazette and Country Journal were more often male.  Of those men, the majority of them were teens and young adults. Note: The “Both” category is the result of advertisements where multiple individuals of both genders were listed.

Masthead of the paper

The first enslaved Africans  arrive  in Massachusetts in 1638, aboard the ship Desire

A 1766 ad where enslaved people are sold alongside rum, sugar, and wine

An ad from April 1768 emphasizes the enslaved person's experience working as a cooper (barrel maker)

Broken down by year, this chart shows that the majority of the enslaved persons advertised for sale were male. Note: The “Both” category is the result of advertisements where multiple individuals of both genders were listed.

This chart shows that on average most enslaved persons advertised in The Boston Gazette and Country Journal were teenagers or young adults. It is important to note, however that many of the advertisements included middle aged adults and young children as well.

Enslaved people were advertised as having a wide variety of skills

This chart shows that the skills held by the enslaved persons described in The Boston Gazette and Country Journal were not only diverse, but that many of these individuals were skilled craftsmen. Many of these specialized skills were held by young adults or even teenagers.

This chart shows that while both male and female enslaved persons held a variety of skills, many of the specialized skills, particularly those skills relating to a craft or trade, were held by men.

This chart shows the trends in the number of advertisements during each month from 1765-1770. The trends change from year to year, but demonstrate that The Boston Gazette and Country Journal was consistently advertising the sale of enslaved persons each month. In the months following the Boston Massacre in March 1770, the number of advertisements actually increased.