ABSTRACT
As Patricia Anderson discovered in her research on broadsides in England, ‘the working people who wrote about their lives and tastes remained remarkably silent on subject of broadsides. Broadsides can still be studied for the light they shed on the city’s social, cultural, commercial and political history, as well as on the broader history of printing and publishing. By 1764, broadsides had enjoyed a long European tradition. These broadsides — single sheets of paper, printed on just one side, and for the most part intended ‘to be posted up for general information’ — conveyed proclamations of government officials and other public notices. The broadsides which increasingly lined the streets of New Orleans contributed to new venues for public reading, although opportunities were intermittent and the content remained firmly controlled. Until the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, some Spanish administrators encouraged printing, but others suppressed it in attempt to ensure that no publication undermined authority of the Crown or of Catholic Church.
