The journal reached an audience of thousands of people every day, because "the Spectators was something that every middle-class household with aspirations to looking like its members took literature seriously would want to have.

[4] The Spectator sought to provide readers with topics for well-reasoned discussion, and to equip them to carry on conversations and engage in social interactions in a polite manner.

[5] In keeping with the values of Enlightenment philosophies of their time, the authors of The Spectator promoted family, marriage, and courtesy.

These readers came from many stations in society, but the paper catered principally to the interests of England's emerging middle class—merchants and traders large and small.

Ligon's publication, A True and Exact History of the Island of Barbadoes, reports on how the cruelties of the transatlantic slave trade contribute to slave-produced goods such as tobacco and sugarcane.

They become enamored with one another's clothing and physical appearances, and Yarico for the next several months hides her lover from her people and provides him with food and fresh water.

Arietta closes the tale stating that Inkle simply uses Yarico's declaration to argue for a higher price when selling her.

Steele's text was so well known and influential that seven decades after his publication, George Colman modified the short story into a comic opera, Inkle and Yarico.