American Rum 9: More About Taverns And Rum

American Rum 9 More About Taverns And Rum

In taverns you could get a meal, rest and enjoy the pleasure of drink and company, but they were also the main place to share news about what was happening in the world. Today we often tend to forget that modern mass media are a recent thing. Back then, ordinary citizens heard the news from traders, travelers, visitors, people who came back from a journey, people who had spoken to someone and knew something. So in taverns, in-between glasses, people talked, discussed, shared information, expressed their views. What is now called public opinion was created that way. And it was created through free, informal dialogue among peers. Rum was the perfect lubricant of this new way of being together for (white male) citizens. It was plentiful and it was cheap, really cheap. Everybody could afford it and it allowed everybody to take part in the collective rounds of booze, and even to get drunk.

Puritan clergymen and British Officials were worried about this kind of political and alcoholic freedom, and there was no lack of at tempts to limit the consumption of rum, but they were all unsuccessful, rum was stronger than their worries. In 1712 the General Court of Massachusetts passed the “Act against Intemperance ...”, which, besides many other prohibitions, forbade the sale of rum and of other distilled beverages in taverns. But the ban was largely ignored by tavern-keepers and in actual fact very few Officials attempted to enforce the law which, over time, became a dead letter. On the contrary, from 1719 there was a significant change of course: many new licenses were granted, the number of taverns increased again without interruption and with it the consumption of rum. Towards 1740 rum was at the core of popular drinking culture.

“Fifty- three years ago – recalls John Adams shortly after the Revolution - I was fired with a zeal, amounting to enthusiasm, against ardent spirits, the multiplication of taverns, retailers and dram-shop and tippling-houses. … I applied to the Courtod Sessions, procured a committee of inspection and inquiry, reduced the number of licensed houses, etc. But I only acquired the reputation of a hypocrite and an ambitious demagogue by it. … You may as well preach to the Indians against rum as to our people.”

As time went on, Taverns became the centre of political life and of the opposition to British authority. Those who aspired to be a leader had to face up to this new reality: the winning over of the citizens’ minds, and votes, had to go through taverns and rum – taverns like constituencies. Therefore, candidates went to the taverns, spoke to the customers, made themselves popular and bought people drinks, a lot of drinks.

In 1758 George Washington stood (as candidate) in Virginia House of Burgesses. Taking his usual pragmatic approach, in the electoral campaign he paid a long liquor bill where the largest items of expenditure were 40 gallons of Rum Punch, 18.5 gallons of wine and 26 gallons of “best Barbados rum”. He was elected with 301 votes, “ the largest number cast for any candidate”.

The importance of rum in the drinking culture of the time can be gauged from the large

circulation that a short, anonymous satirical text enjoyed from the middle of the century: Indictment and Tryal of Sr. Richard Rum, where the parody of trial against Sir Richard rum is enacted. Sir Richard Rum is accused by some witnesses of leading them to ruin. Let us see what two of the witnesses for the prosecution said:

“Vulcan. May it please the Honorable Bench, and you, Gentlemen of the jury: I am very well acquainted with the prisoner at the bar. I am a blacksmith by trade, and being liable to much heat, I have, for many years, had an unquenchable spark in my throat, which I might quench with a pot of middling beer or cider; but happening to be acquainted with the prisoner, I became a lover of his company, and when I am once got into his company, he scarce ever parts with me, till he hath catcht me fast by the noddle, tript up my heels, and laid me fast on my back, so that I have not been able to get up to go to work for two or three days…And I am sure Sir Richard ought to be punished for seducing honest men at this rate. This, Gentlemen, is my grievance, and I hope you’ll take it into consideration.” 

“Shuttle. ...I am but a poor man, and have a wife and a great charge of children; I am a weaver by trade, and I can never sit at my loom, but this wicked companion is enticing me from my work, and is never quiet till he gets me to the tavern, and when I am there, I have no mind to come home again; and then he picks a quarrel with me, and abuseth me; sometimes he sets upon me like a robber, and ties me neck and heels, and throws me into a ditch, and there leaves me till next morning, and not a penny in my pocket, so that if you hang him or quarter him, you have my free consent.”

And here is Sir Richard’s defense:

“ I am afraid there is malice and briber y against me. Now, as I am accused of these persons, I shall answer them together, and speak nothing but the truth. I confess my name is Rum, and have been esteemed and valued by many persons of great worth, in many parts of the world; …I am esteemed by all sober, moderate people, for the good I do when seasonably consulted, and put to a right use. I am one that never forceth anybody, but leave them to do as they please, either to keep me company, or let it alone. And whereas, some say they are ruined by Sir Richard Rum, and that he deprives them of the use of their limbs, and brings poverty, and a thousand other miseries upon them; it will plainly appear to the Honorable Court, that it is their own fault and not mine, because I force none to keep company with me. …For my own part, I never went to any of their houses, nor into company with any of them, till I was sent for; nor did I ever offer any abuse to any person, till they first laid violent hands on me, and shamefully abused me, as well as themselves.”

The trial ended with Sir Richard’s acquittal.

Marco Pierini

-Article written by Marco Pierini-

My name is Marco Pierini, I was born in 1954 in a little town in Tuscany (Italy) where a still live. I got a degree in Philosophy in Florence and I studied Political Science in Madrid, but my real passion has always been History. And through History I have always tried to know the world, and men. Life brought me to work in tour ism, event organization and vocational training. Then I discovered rum. With Francesco Rufini, I founded La Casa del Rum (The House of Rum),that runs a beach bar and selects and distributes Premium Rums in Italy, www.lacasadelrum.it. And finally I have returned back to my initial passion: History. But now it is the History of Rum. Because Rum is not only a great distillate, it’s a world. Produced in scores of countries, by thousands of companies, with an extraordinary variety of aromas and flavors; it has a terrible and fascinating history, made of slaves and pirates, imperial fleets and revolutions. All this I try to cover in this column, in my FB profile, www.facebook/marco.pierini.3 and in my articles on the Italian webpage www.bartender.it .