Radio Script #1307

Little Talks on Common Things
March 28, 1982

Even in Colonial times, more than 200 years ago, there were problems caused by alchclic beverages. In fact, their use was even more prevalent than it is today. Drinking such beverages was then so common that it was taken for granted. even in the most Puritanical of households including those of the clergy. In fact, when a minister visited a home, it was an act of courtesy to offer him a glass of liquor, and few ministers ever refused the offer.

Free distribution of liquor was expected, not only at the communal barn raisings and house raisings, but even when meetinghouses were erected. Though there is no record of such practice at the erection of Waterville’s first denominational church building, that of the Baptists that still stands on Elm Street, it may well have taken place. We do have definite record that, when the Baptists erected the first building of their college in Waterville in 1819 – the institution that is now Colby College – the Trustees paid a bill issued them by the local firm of Y.Lathews and Gilman for ’40 gallons of rum furnished for the public raising of that first college building.

In those days there were two well known kinds of rum. New England rum was made within the Massachusetts and Connecticut colonies from molasses brought from the West Indies. More costly and considered better was West Indies rum manufactured in the islands and brought to the colonies in huge hogsheads, all ready for consumption. New England rum usually sold for a dollar a gallon. while the West Indies product, also sometimes called Jamaica rum, was often twice as costly. The distribution is made clear in old account books. including those of early merchants where the initials “NE” or “WI”. as well as differences in price, show which kind a purchaser was taking. In the country store, rum was often consumed on the premises. especially when a customer arrived after a cold winter drive. On nearly every page of those old account books one reads the entry: “One gill NE rum, three pence.” Purchases to take home were seldom less than a gallon.

The more affluent and influential men of each community filled their cellar’s with imported wines, for wine was their favorite drink. Ordinary folk contented themselves with beer and cider until late in the 18th century, when numerous American distilleries made whisky popular. The colonists seem to have been little affected by the curse of the 18th century, London gin. But it was not beer, whisky nor wine that headed colonial liquor consumption. By all odds the leader was rum. So prevalent
was it that for some time the word rum was synonymous for all liquor.

In New England, however, rum was given sharp competition by a native product, cider. The area was good apple country, and cider was a common household beverage. Sweet cider was scorned as an insipid drink, but well fomented hard cider was consumed in huge quantities the year around, The cider so freely drunk during the thirsty haying season was indeed well seasoned from the previous autumn’s apple crop.

In other parts of the country, and even in the larger New England towns like Boston, a lot of liquor other than cider was consumed. One Virginian recorded: “When I get up I have an eye opener; then after breakfast I have a settler; I have a cooler at 9, a bracer at 10, a whetter at 11, and two or three stiffenings during the afternoon.” A British visitor in 1790 wrote this about plantation life in the South. “The planter rises at eight, drinks which he calls a julep, which is a large glass of rum sweetened with sugar. Then, after riding over
his plantation, he has breakfast at 10, which he washes down with beer. To get up an appetite for dinner at two, he consumes a whole bottle of claret. Then he partakes of toddy frequently until supper, has a brandy and more toddy after supper, then takes a big swig of whisky before going to bed. By that time he is usually in a stupor.”

The first taxes on liquor were stoutly resisted. When the new state of Massachusetts imposed such a tax in 1792, the town of Worcester rose in rebellion, declaring it infamous for the state to tax a commodity that was the farmers’ chief refreshment. It was easy to get intoxicated on rum which was popularly called the kill-devil. It was drunk both straight and in various combinations. It was sometimes sugared, sometimes diluted with water, and sometimes mixed with beer. New England rum, sweetened and with other additives made a drink called flip. Its contents were usually rum, molasses, dried pumpkins, and a little beer. Into a big bowl of it a hot poker was thrust, giving the drink a scorched, bitter taste. It was then poured into giant pewter mugs for consumption.

Beer was by no means confined to sources from grain. Folks made it from the bark of spruce, birch and sassafras and from certain herbs. Many people regarded beer as healthful and preventative of disease. It was frequently given to infants before bedtime, because it assured parents of a restful night. The devout Puritan John Adams always began the day with a big tankard of hard cider, and some of his neighbors added to their tankards a shot of rum.

Early military protection was afforded by local companies of militia. Those companies indeed formed the nucleus of the Continental Army in the Revolution. Often a militia company refused to drill unless they were promised frequent drafts of rum. By the year 1800 the new state of Massachusetts has 60 distillers, and a similar increase had occurred in the other colonies.

During the Revolution both Massachusetts and Rhode Island passed laws against the sale of grain for distillation of liquor, but law-abiding people turned to other sources, such as barks and herbs, while the lawless simply ignored the law. Some persons, scrupulous not to sell grain for distillation, set up their own stills to use the grain they raised on their own farms.

After the Revloution came a movement for consumption of native liquors. Importation of whisky from England and Scotland, or wine from France, was frowned upon. That not only caused an increase in the use of beer and cider, but stimulated the rapid increase in distilleries to which we have already referred.

The well to do colonists drank Madeira, claret and port. James Madison who later became fourth President of the U.S., said in 1790 that he always kept 500 bottles of champagne in his Virginia cellar to be sure of a year’s supply for his guests. For more common folk recipes appeared telling how to make home brew resemble French burgundy, and how to use such ingredients as raspberries, cherries, horseradish and even turnips. A Connecticut man ordered placed on his tombstone: “My glass was rum.”

Excessive drinking and violence have long gone hand in hand. In many a country village, as well as in the larger towns, riots commonly accompanied drunken sprees, and in the colonial cities they became notorious. The Boston massacre in 1770 may have been caused quite as much by a drunken mob of Bostonians as by British troops firing the shots. But of course that does not excuse the London government for stationing soldiers in Boston in the first place.

One authority on moral conditions in colonial times gave a reason for increased use of alcohol that was new to me. I wonder how many of you ever heard of it. He said that in a clustered village houses were built quite near together. Each house had to have its own well. But every house also had an outdoor privy. For convenience, both well and privy were placed near the house. Often seepage from the privy got into the well, making the water unfit to drink. The inhabitants then turned increasingly to beer and rum.

I hadn’t thought of it before, but that situation may be partial explanation for Maine becoming the first state to enact a prohibition law. Maine is unusually blessed with an abundance of pure water. So much of it comes from springs that, even in settled villages, many homes did not need a dug well. Such was the case in my own boyhood home in Bridgton. Our water came by gravity from a spring half a mile up the hill, and pipe from that spring supplied water to four other homes before it reached ours. Even in the worst periods of drought that spring never failed us.

The big barrel in our kitchen into which that pipe flowed was always full, and constantly overflowed into the drain. The only trouble with that spring water was that it was too pure. Its abundant mineral content made it so hard that washing clothes with it was very difficult. My mother had to use vast quantities of soft soap to get her washing done.

That may have been one of the reasons why, in my high school days, Mother was sending out the weekly wash to a village washwoman, who did that big washing and ironing every week for the sum of one dollar. But that water was marvously healthful for drinking, and certainly we had no need for any alcoholic beverage. But, anyhow, in my schooldays, Maine’s prohibition law had long been in effect, and my father was a scrupulous, law abiding man.

In 1851 Maine passed its first prohibition law. It was strengthened in 1855 and remained in force until after the abandonment of national prohibition in 1933. It is rather interesting that Maine prohibition was never all-inclusive. It did not ban all alcoholic drinks. From the beginning it exempted cider, the most common locally made intoxicating beverage. The original Maine law said: “Nothing in this act shall be so construed as to prevent the sale of cider in quantities less than ten gallons, but cider so sold shall not be drunk on the premises of the seller.”

The promoter of the Maine law was Neal Dow, mayor of Portland, and he was subject to much abuse from those who wanted their liquor. But the law proved so successful that, in 1858, Dow was able to state: “No political party dares to oppose this law. It is so popular with the people that any party would lose votes if he opposed it.” Dow lamented the fact that he had not received better support from civic leaders or even from the clergy. He said: “The Legislature enacted this law because the people demanded it, not men of high influence. Too many of the clergy failed to give the bill their support when it was before the legislature.”

Modern times have added a tremendous new factor to the liquor situation. In the 1850’s there were no automobiles. The only drunken drivers were the few who got behind horses. Today it is not mixtures of beer, wine, sugar and other ingredients that trouble us; it is the mixture of alcohol and gasoline.

With that we say goodbye until next week.

Year: 1982