AURORA GENERAL ADVERTISER, Philadelphia, May 14, 1798

• Rare 18th century American publication

Among the front page full of ads is one: "For Sale--A Negro Boy who is near thirteen years old..." with more. Page 2 has two early circus ads, and the bkpg. has a "Fifty Cents Reward" for a runway girl.
The back page also has an ad for a book: "Just Published...An Expostulatory Letter to Gen. Washington...On the subject of his continuing a Proprietor of Slaves".
Four pages, never bound nor trimmed with wide margins, numerical doodling to a front page margin, great condition.

Background: This four-page issue of Philadelphia’s Aurora General Advertiser from May 14, 1798—preserved in rare unbound, untrimmed condition with wide margins—captures the sharp cultural and political paradoxes of the early American republic under the editorship of Benjamin Franklin Bache. Published in the nation's temporary capital, the newspaper juxtaposes the mundane realities of human bondage alongside emerging anti-slavery critique: its front page advertises the sale of a thirteen-year-old enslaved boy, while its back page offers a reward for a runaway girl alongside a public notice for the groundbreaking abolitionist text, An Expostulatory Letter to Gen. Washington, in which English campaigner Edward Rushton directly confronted George Washington over the hypocrisy of owning enslaved people while championing human liberty. Rounded out by page-two advertisements for early American circus performances—reflecting Philadelphia's role as the birthplace of American equestrian circus culture—this single issue serves as a vital historical document, encapsulating the coexistence of chattel slavery, popular entertainment, and fierce political debate during the Federalist era.