This website is a blog post format that displays old newspaper articles and slavery advertisements from Colonial America 250 years ago. It was made by Carl Robert Keyes, a professor at Assumption College. The general purpose of this website is to show the old articles as a means of displaying history, followed by analysis and commentary.
The sources consist mostly of newspaper articles/advertisements that were accessed by the Accessible Archives website which digitized them.
What I like about this website is how they deliver their content. It is uploaded running parallel to the calendar of America 250 years ago. If an individual is really interested in history during this period, then they will always have something to look forward to every day/month. That makes the consistent schedule of releasing material kind of ironic in a way because what people are looking forward to seeing has technically already been in existence, yet it is presented as new reading material for the public. The page itself is neat and the list of months on the side is convenient for quick navigation to certain articles within that period of the year.
I have little to criticize about this page mainly because of the fact that it executes it’s sole intention: playing the role of a newspaper delivery man who time-travels 250 years into the future. Essentially what will be the death of this website will be time itself, then again, the 250 years in the past will never catch up to the present time since they move parallel to each other. But eventually the 250 years in the past will reach a point where computers and other technologies exist, decreasing the historical beneficial value of this website.
What is gained from this website is an engaging experience into what people read in the newspaper 250 years ago. It teaches how blunt and different people were back then, and just how inhuman human beings were during that time. Regardless if they were aware or not, the diction and vocabulary that they use in the advertisement is quite unsettling to be placed in a newspaper. It felt like I was in a black market sort of atmosphere (not that I ever shopped in a black market before). As for losses, I don’t necessarily think anything is lost from this website. It executes its purpose.
-Grant Boyd