The founding generation of the United States, both its leaders and ordinary folks, drank far more alcohol than we do today, tippling diverse offerings including wine, cider, beer, rum, and mixed drinks. This consumption had a profound influence on the American Revolution.[1] These ten quotations highlight the many ways that alcohol impacted the revolutionaries’ society, politics, and economy.
“I know not why We Should blush to confess that molasses was an essential Ingredient in American independence.”[2]—John Adams to William Tudor Sr., August 11, 1818
In the eighteenth century, molasses was the primary ingredient in rum, the most popular spirit in colonial America. Thus, when Parliament in England passed the Sugar Act in 1764—putting a tax on foreign sugar and molasses—it would financially impact several colonies, particularly those in the north. This was especially true for Massachusetts because its capitol, Boston, was the leading rum distiller in British North America, and its inhabitants were the first to protest the tax.[3] The Sugar Act marked the beginning of a decade-long resistance to taxation without representation that ultimately, according to John Adams, led to independence.
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