Meaghan N. Duff

From the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries, Englishmen mounted an extraordinary literary campaign intended to encourage exploration, trade, and settlement in North America. Historians know much about the substance of this promotional propaganda; many of these writings, circulated in both manuscript and printed form, survive today and are published in anthologies or colonial documentary collections. Despite our understanding of the content of early American written propaganda, little is known about the dissemination of all forms of promotional information - including not only published pamphlets, but also colonial constitutions, maps, shipping schedules, land advertisements, and personal correspondence. Who sponsored the creation of this information? How was it distributed and how widely did it circulate? Most important, what was its direct influence on individual and collective emigration to America? A close look at the patrons of London's Carolina Coffee House, founded in the 1680s, offers the unique opportunity to observe the influence of promotional information from its commission and creation through the settlement of immigrants across the Atlantic.

[WP #96018]