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Our Tippled Heritage
| Article
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19893 |
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Section : |
CULTURE
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| Issue
Date : |
4 / 1992 |
3,672 Words |
| Author
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Peggy Robbins
Peggy Robbins, a Tennessee native, is a free-lance writer
living in Gulfport, Mississippi. Over the past three decades,
she has written extensively about American heritage and
military history. |
From the earliest days of New World settlement, colonists considered "spirituous liquors" essential for survival, a belief in keeping with medical opinion of the day. An early colonial doctor wrote of alcohol: "It sloweth age; it strengthenth youth; it helpeth digestion; it cutteth flegme; it abanddoneth melancolie; it relisheth the heart; it lighteneth the mind; it quickeneth the spirits; it keepeth and preserveth the head from whirling, the eyes from dazzling, the tong from lisping, the mouth from snaffling, the teeth from chattering, and the throat from rattling."
Barrels and casks of various "Strong Waters to warm Man's insides and make him Strong" were jammed into the holds of early ships, but, generally, so much of the supply was consumed en route that those brave souls landing on wild and wooded shores soon had to give thought to the production of "proper Drinke" -a need compounded by the first colonists' fear of the "poisonous water of the New World." So, brewing and distilling commanded an early, important role in colonial America. One of the Mayflower passengers wrote of the decision to land on the "bleak and lonely shore" at Plymouth: "We could not take time for further search or consideration, or vituals being much spent, especially our beere."
The settlers tackled the shortage of drink with the same determination that they displayed when facing other New World hardships. They planted orchards and cleared fields for raising grain, and while waiting for trees to grow and crops to mature, they concocted all sorts of "strong waters" from wild berries and fruits, vines, roots, nuts, and barks. Persimmons and whortleberries made an "especially potent and festive Drinke."
It would seem that America's love of alcohol is nothing new. It predates the twentieth-century problems related to the consumption of spiritous beverages--alcoholism and drunken driving among others--and certainly the temperance movement of the nineteenth century. As April 3-5 has been designated an alcohol-free weekend by the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence and the entire month of April a time of awareness about alcohol-related problems, it seems only appropriate to take a look at the rather significant role that alcoholic beverages played in the founding and development of this country.
Rumming The Colonies
One of the first colonial beers was produced from molasses, sassafras, wild hops, and spruce or pine twigs. Gov.
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