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Their experience showed them that it was safer to drink alcohol than the typically polluted water in Europe . Alcohol was also an effective Analgesic , provided energy necessary for hard work, and generally enhanced the quality of life. Alcohol was also thought to serve as a social lubricant, provide entertainment, facilitate relaxation, contribute to the enjoyment of food, and provide Pharmacological pleasure. For hundreds of years their English ancestors had consumed beer and Ale . Both in England and in the New World, people of both sexes and all ages typically drank beer with their meals. Because importing a continuing supply of beer was expensive, the early settlers brewed their own. However, it was difficult to make the beer they were accustomed to because wild Yeasts caused problems in Fermentation and resulted in a bitter, unappetizing brew. But these early adventurers did not give up. Although wild Hops grew in New England , hop seeds were ordered from England in order to cultivate an adequate supply for traditional beer. In the meantime, the colonists improvised a beer made from red and black Spruce twigs boiled in water, as well as a Ginger beer. As intricacies of brewing in the New World were mastered, beers became widely available and "many farmers made their own with the help of a malster who malted their barley, or more often, corn." A brewery was one of Harvard College 's first construction projects so that a steady supply of beer could be served in the student dining halls, and Connecticut required each town to ensure that a place could be made available for the purchase of beer and ale. Beer was designated X, XX, or XXX according to its Alcohol content. The weakest and most commonly available beer was made by soaking grain in water. But this "small beer" spoiled quickly because of its low alcohol content and had to be consumed quickly. Brewing beer was the homemaker's responsibility and was done once or twice a week. "Ships beers" were stronger and also readily available. But the strongest beer, brewed with malt and extra sugar, was expensive and uncommon. The colonists also learned to make a wide variety of Wine from fruits, including strawberries, Cranberries , Blackberries , Elderberries , Gooseberries , and Currants . They made wines from numerous vegetables, including carrots, tomatoes, onions, beets, celery, squash, corn silk, Dandelions , and Goldenrod . They additionally made wine from such products as flowers, herbs, and even oak leaves. Early on, French vine-growers were brought to the New World to teach settlers how to cultivate grapes. Cider (called hard cider in the United States) had been popular in England but apples were not native to New England. The first Orchard , grown from English seed, was planted promptly, and over time apples became abundant in the colonies. Apple juice (called cider in the United States) was typically fermented in barrels over the winter. Sometimes honey or cane sugar was added, increasing the alcohol content and creating natural Carbonation - "apple Champagne " was a special treat. "Cider was served to every member of the family at breakfast, dinner, and supper. Cider was consumed in the fields between meals, and was a regular staple at all the communal social functions." Colonists adhered to the traditional belief that Distilled spirits were '' Aqua Vitae '', or water of life. However, Rum was not commonly available until after 1650, when it was imported from the Caribbean . The cost of rum dropped after the colonists began importing Molasses and cane sugar directly and distilled their own. By 1657, a rum distillery was operating in Boston. It was highly successful and within a generation the production of rum became colonial New England's largest and most prosperous industry. In the Triangular Trade , rum was traded for West African Slaves , who were then traded to the West Indians for more molasses to be made into more rum. This three point trading arrangement became a very important part of colonial commercial life and prosperity. Almost every important town from Massachusetts to the Carolinas had a rum distillery to meet the local demand, which had increased dramatically. Rum was often enjoyed in mixed drinks, including flip. This was a popular winter beverage made of rum and beer sweetened with sugar and warmed by plunging a red-hot fireplace poker into the serving mug. Alcohol was viewed positively while its abuse was condemned. "In 1673, Increase Mather praised alcohol, saying that 'Drink is in itself a creature of God, and to be received with thankfulness.'" Consistent with that belief, Toddlers drank beer, wine, and cider with their parents and regular use was seen as healthful for everyone. For more than 30 years, because of this belief, abstainers had to pay one life insurance company rates 10 percent higher than that for drinkers. This was because the abstainer or Teetotaler was considered "thin and watery, and as mentally cranked, in that he repudiated the good creatures of God as found in alcoholic drinks." A historian has pointed out that “Alcohol was pervasive in American society; it crossed regional, sexual, racial, and class lines. Americans drank at home and abroad, alone and together, at work and at play, in fun and in earnest. They drank from the crack of Dawn to the crack of dawn.” In colonial America, informal social controls helped maintain the expectation that the abuse of alcohol was unacceptable. There was a clear consensus that while alcohol was a gift from God its abuse was from the Devil. "Drunkenness was condemned and punished, but only as an abuse of a God-given gift. Drink itself was not looked upon as culpable, any more than food deserved blame for the sin of gluttony. Excess was a personal indiscretion." Informal social controls operated both in the home and in the larger community. Taverns were social center and their owners were expected not only to disperse food, drink, and hospitality, but also to monitor behavior and keep their customers in check . When informal controls failed, there were always legal ones. Alcohol abuse was treated with rapid and sometimes severe punishment. Habitual Drunkards "were whipped or forced to wear a mark of shame. Once so labeled, they could be refused the right to purchase Liquor . During the Seventeenth Century , all of the colonies specified a fine or prescribed the Stocks for the first drunkenness offense. Repeated offenders often received sentences to hard labor or corporal punishment." While infractions did occur, the general Sobriety of the colonists suggests the effectiveness of their system of informal and formal controls in a population that averaged about three and a half Gallons of absolute or "pure"alcohol per year per person. That rate was dramatically higher than the present rate of consumption. As the colonies grew from a Rural society into a more Urban one, drinking patterns began to change. As the American Revolution approached, economic change and urbanization were accompanied by increasing poverty, unemployment, and crime. These emerging social problems were often blamed on drunkenness. "This simplistic Scapegoating of an intoxicant . . . now seems a predictable accompaniment of social unrest and economic problems. The basic scenario has been repeated often - Opium , Cocaine , Marijuana , alcohol, each takes its turn as Demon for a day." Following the Revolutionary War, the new nation experienced cataclysmic social, political, and economic changes that affected every segment of the new society. Social control over alcohol abuse declined, anti-drunkenness Ordinances were relaxed and alcohol problems increased dramatically. Drinking, which had been controlled by the tightly knit family and social fabric in the colonial period, increasingly became an individualistic activity associated with masculine aggression and antisocial behavior by the early Nineteenth Century . Alcohol use became segregated by gender and age, which encouraged excessive consumption, and concern was frequently expressed over immoderate drinking. "As community life in the colonies became less cohesive and structured, the social sanctions that had kept drunkenness to a minimum began to lose their power. These changes paved the way for the Temperance Movement that would soon develop in reaction to them. RELATED Alcohol In The Early Modern Period SOURCE Based on materials in National Prohibition of Alcohol in the U.S. ,which contains extensive references on alcohol and drinking in colonial America.. |
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