The Datasets

El Semanario de Agricultura, Industria y Comercio (1802-1807)

Contributor: Sigi Macias 

The Buenos Aires based newspaper El Semanario de Agricultura, Industria y Comercio ran from 1802 to 1807, with brief interludes during British invasions. Edited by Juan Hipólito Vieytes, a loyal follower of Adam Smith and his ideology, El Semanario… reflects a strong enlightenment ideology and retains a commitment to informing and educating the public. Organized in five volumes, the newspaper covers the entries and departures of ships, agricultural tips, information on various vaccine campaigns and medical treatments, and passages from enlightenment figures. El Semanario… is ideal for those searching for examples of emerging colonial identities, connections in the Atlantic world, and the movement of products, people, and ideas. 

This newspaper was selected as a primary resource in research about the introduction and dissemination of the smallpox vaccine in Río de la Plata. El Semanario… contains rich information about the arrival of the first vaccine in the southern cone, via a Portuguese trader and his cargo of vaccinated enslaved men, and its propagation to other regions. Additionally, it provides its readers with details on the vaccine’s side effects, warns them against the false vaccine, dispels myths with scientific information, and advocates for widespread vaccination in hopes of strengthening the colonial population. 

New-England Palladium, Port of Boston, Massachusetts (1803-1840)

Contributors: Xincheng (Andrew) Hou, Beckett Hunecke

The New-England Palladium, formerly known as the Massachusetts Mercury, was a Federalist newspaper printed bi-weekly in Boston between 1803 and 1840. Federalists Alexander Young and Thomas Minns, employed by the state, printed the Palladium until their deaths in the 1830s. The newspaper was openly partisan but, for as much partisan discourse they published, Young and Minns published an equal amount of impartial shipping news, local advertisements, and government correspondence. The Global Americas Project uses the Palladium because Young and Minns remained the sole editors for decades and their updates on the port of Boston were extensive. The political perspective helps to explain shipping trends in the Americas. 

The third and fourth pages of each issue were typically a combination of advertisements and shipping news. Each issue contains a “Marine List” section with vessel names, vessel type (i.e. brig, frigate, schooner), the captain’s name, port of origin/last port, and days of travel between ports. Some feature minimal cargo descriptions. Cities outside of Boston vary by issue but include Philadelphia, New Orleans, Kingston, and Havana. Some advertisements report the ship the goods arrived on, the captain's name, or the goods’ port of origin. Vessels advertised cargo remaining from their last voyage to sell before their next departure. Furthermore, the Palladium reported on Latin American politics and trade regularly under headings such as “Correspondence relative to South America” or “of Spanish America.” The newspaper ran alongside Jefferson’s Embargo of 1807, the Spanish American Wars of Independence, negotiations of the Adams-Onís Treaty of 1819, and Boston’s establishment of trade partnerships with the newly-independent Latin American countries. Overall, there is a rich cache of shipping information about the port of Boston in the New-England Palladium and its predecessor, the Massachusetts Mercury.

Charleston Courier, Port of Charleston, South Carolina (1803-1852)
Contributors: Jonas Konefal, Bennett Snyder

The Charleston Courier was a daily Federalist newspaper established in 1803 by Aaron S. Willington in Charleston, South Carolina. He retained sole ownership of the Courier until the paper’s conclusion in 1852. Willington advertised the Courier as moderately Federalist and promised not to participate in party conflict and smear campaigns. With this goal in mind, Willington emphasized “such public and domestic intelligence as news-papers usually communicate.” Shipping news in the Courier included marine intelligence, captains seeking cargo or passengers for their ships, and notices of ships’ cargo with their destinations. 

Advertisements and notices typically formed the bulk of the first page; they were evenly distributed throughout the other pages. In the Courier’s early years, shipping advertisements were displayed independently on the page with the destination as its headline. These notices contained the name of the captain, a description of the ship, and if the captain was seeking cargo or passengers. Arrivals and departures from Charleston were under the headline “Marine List.” Significantly for our purposes, marine lists highlighted unsuccessful transports. They described circumstances such as naval battles, impressment, and stolen goods that interfered with trade. Moreover, they indicated the countries involved and the thieves’ destinations.

The newspaper ran concurrently with several important events in Rio de la Plata’s history. For example, in 1810 alone, prominent issues the Courier reported included the May Revolution, the Argentine War of Independence, the defeat of Viceroy Baltasar Hidalgo de Cisneros, and the dissolution of the Primera Junta. The Courier reprinted from sources across the world. Due to its extensive shipping news and diverse sources on politics, the Courier makes a helpful source for the Global Americas Project.

Poulson's American Daily Advertiser, Port of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (1801-1839)

Contributors: Alan Edwards, Katie Magee

Poulson’s American Daily Advertiser was a Philadelphia newspaper issued daily (excepting Sundays) between 1800 and 1839, originally edited by Zachariah Poulson, a Federalist. Poulson’s American Daily Advertiser published shipping news from ports across the country as well as advertisements for individuals and businesses within Philadelphia. The Global Americas Project uses this newspaper because Poulson remained its sole editor for twenty years and he published shipping news with foreign intelligence daily. Moreover, Poulson prioritized advertisements over political disputes and commentary, which gives the Global Americas Project more advertisements to work with. 

Poulson printed ads from businesses and private merchants whose goods had recently arrived or would arrive within the week. Shipping news headlines were either the port in which the ship arrived, the name of the seller, the type or source of goods (e.g. “dry goods” or “Calcutta goods”), the specific merchandise (e.g. “Tobacco now landed” or “Rum”), or the name of the ship. Additionally, captains submitted advertisements about the day’s exports and imports, and they requested that readers apply to transport freight or travel on their ships. Aside from nonpartisan shipping news, domestic politics and foreign intelligence were often featured on the second and third pages. The foreign intelligence section reflected Poulson’s international context of the Spanish-American Wars for Independence, the Embargo Act of 1807, the decline of the Viceroyalty of Rio de la Plata, the War of 1812, and the Adams-Onís Treaty of 1819. Poulson’s American Daily Advertiser contains a wealth of information regarding commerce in the port of Philadelphia and how the United States interacted with other nations, including those in Latin America, to expand commerce as it globalized.

Gazette Politique et Commerciale d'Haïti (1804-1806)

Contributor: Bennett Snyder 

The Gazette Politique et Commerciale d'Haïti was the Haiti's official state newspaper during the first three years of Haitian independence (1804-1806). The paper was printed by P. Roux, "imprimeur de l'Empereur," or Printer of the Emperor, Jean-Jacques Dessalines. The paper was replaced by the Gazette Officielle de l'état d'Hayti shortly after Dessalines's assassination in October 1806.

The paper was printed weekly and included a "Mouvement de la Rade" section about once a month. In this section, the paper would list the ships that arrived and departed Cap-Haitïen during the stated time period. Since the newspaper listed a date range of ship movements instead of specific dates, the last date in the listed range is listed in the "day" column. In order to easily source which issue included what information, the source column details the specific issue the data was sourced from, rather than just the paper.

Quantifying Haitian trade during this period is an important task, since it demonstrates that nations like the United States and Britain did not commercially isolate the newly independent black nation. This dataset provides quantitative evidence for historian Julia Gaffield's argument that "Foreign governments were willing to extend economic recognition to Haiti even while they withheld official diplomatic recognition." and that "This economic recognition meant that Haitians were not isolated from the Atlantic World after the Declaration of Independence, despite their exclusion from the international diplomatic community" (Gaffield, Haitian Connections in the Atlantic World, 13). This dataset provides quantitative evidence of the extent of this economic recognition, at least for the ships printed by P. Roux in Cap-Haitïen.

Beginning in the July 3, 1806 issue, the paper becomes incredibly vague on the list of ships entering and leaving the port, merely stating that a certain number of foreign ships arrived or departed. The timing of this shift is telling, since the United States banned commercial relations with Haiti in February 1806. For these issues, I included every information available in the paper. In columns like the "ship name" and "origin," I put "null,"  since there were ships that came from places with names that just were not listed. For the "dest_decl" column I put "diverses destinations," since that is the declared destination the newspaper listed.