Chesapeake Colonies In The 1800s

George Washington, a whiskey distiller himself, thought that distilled spirits were “the ruin of half the workmen in the country….” John Adams, whose daily breakfast included a tankard of hard cider, asked, “….is it not mortifying…. That we, Americans, should exceed all other …. People in the world in this degrading, beastly vice of intemperance?” and Thomas Jefferson, inventor of the presidential cocktail party, feared that the use of cheap, raw whisky was “spreading through the mass of our citizens (Rorabaugh 5).” Drinking was the culture of the American people. During this time “white males taught to drink as children, even as babies. “I have frequently seen fathers” wrote on traveler, “wake their Child of a year old from sleep to make it drink Rum, or Brandy (Rarabaugh 14). This is fascinating for me, because the people were crazy by allowing their teens including babies to drink alcohol. What more interesting is that fathers want their adults of 14 or more to go tavern with

While both the people of the New England region and of the Chesapeake region descended from the same English origin, by 1700 both regions had traveled in two diverse directions. Since both of these groups were beset with issues that were unique to their regions and due to their exposure to different circumstances, each was forced to rethink and reconstruct their societies. As a result, the differences in the motivation, geography, and government in the New England and Chesapeake regions caused great divergence in the development of each.

“By 1830, the average American over 15 years old consumed nearly seven gallons of pure alcohol a year – three times as much as we drink today” (PBS, nd). The result was the temperance movement. The Temperance movement was an anti-movement that swept across the country in the 1830s and 40s. The abolitionists tried to show that drinking alcohol was a sin and that the country needed to be cleansed. They called for a prohibition of alcohol. On January 17th, 1920, an amendment to the constitution was passed that banned the making, transporting, and selling of alcohol and other intoxicating beverages.

The travelers from England that headed for the Chesapeake Bay were predominantly men, which led to an unbalanced society and lack of wives to promote a family-based culture. The passenger list for one boat had a sex ratio of sixty-four men to eleven women. Not only was there a radical imbalance, only four of the men were above forty, while only eight total were above thirty (Doc. C). That left fifty-six young males headed to a new land with only their self-government of a House

Gender inequality and slavery were the two biggest evils that reformers tried eliminating in the time period. The abolition of slavery had many reformers behind it. Two very important men trying to achieve this were Frederick Douglass and William Lloyd Garrison, a white man, going to show there was support from all types of people. Two of the women’s rights advocates were Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Sarah Grimke. They both achieved great things to help out their cause. Although slavery and gender equality are arguably the most important evils in the time period there were still many other. One of these was alcohol. During the time period the Temperance

Over consumption of alcohol was becoming a large problem throughout the early 1800's. Alcohol abuse led to less efficiency as well as dangers

In 1419, Prince Henry the Navigator of Portugal began the period of time known as the “Age of Exploration”. Europe’s leading superpowers, France, Spain, Portugal, Holland, and England, all competed for colonization in unknown territories. Samuel de Champlain colonized along the St. Lawrence River in 1608, Henry Hudson of Holland established Albany in 1609, and Spain established colonies in Mexico and Mesoamerica. In 1607, England established its first colony in North America around the Chesapeake Bay, and nearly a decade later established a second colony in present-day New England. Both New England and the Chesapeake were founded by the British around the same time; however, both colonies developed a different economy, government, and many

One major movement was the temperance movement. In colonial America, informal social controls in the home and community helped maintain the expectation that the abuse of alcohol was unacceptable. There was a clear consensus that while alcohol was a gift form God its abuse was from the Devil. As the colonies grew from a rural society into a more urban one, drinking patterns began to change. As the American

In the United States, the consumption of alcohol is more or less ingrained in American culture. Whether beer at the baseball game, wine from Napa Valley, or bourbon from Kentucky, alcohol has shaped American culture. The rise in immigration during the late 1800s and early 1900s led to towns establishing saloons in order to lure in potential customers and boost the local economy. By 1900, there were nearly 300,000 saloons—Kansas City alone had over 100 saloons for every one person (Okrent 27). These quickly became associated with vice and excess, and often doubled as casinos or even brothels. Most Americans saw these as foul, repugnant and vile institutions that were at odds with their cities’ values. This rise in shady saloons and alcohol consumption led to a rise in alcohol-related offenses, which accounted for nearly half of all crimes committed. Not merely limited to criminal offenses, excessive alcohol consumption during the early 20th century led to high rates of cirrhosis (15 for every 1000000) and chronic alcoholism (10 for every 100000) (Blocker, 235). Factory managers disapproved of their employees drinking, noting that it lowered productivity, but the largest and most vocal opponents of alcohol were middle-class women, who argued that alcohol degraded the morals and virtue of men, left children fatherless, and left wives abused and neglected.

Alcohol has been around for thousands of years, since its discovery it has been associated with general rowdiness. The Victorian period of the 19th century bore witness to such obstinacy. It was generally a period of peace and prosperity in Britain. However, industrialisation and urbanisation led to the emergence of a new middle-class. Societies altered to adjust and as a consequence new leisurely activities emerged.

Many people, mostly women wanted to see a change in their community involving alcohol. The American Society for the Promotion of Temperance called for total abstinence from liquor. Many just simply started to pull and decrease away from the consumption of alcohol. After the call for total abstinence from liquor change was beginning to show. By 1835 two million had taken the “pledge” to not drink hard liquor. It helped women but also the men. Men were benefitting from this pledge as well. They were no longer beating their wives and were actually learning what it was like to not be constantly intoxicated. What was specifically accomplished was the blessing of the consumption of alcohol. The substantial decrease of men drinking was becoming extremely

The history of alcohol use in the United States is actually quite different than many people would think. Throughout most of the history of the United States, even going as far back as the Colonial period, alcohol use was mostly relegated to males. Not only did males mainly consume alcohol, but it was not often abused. In fact, "the use of colonial America was governed by legal and moral sanctions which maintained a norm of moderate drinking (Gusfield 1986)." Before the American Revolution took place, drinking was not an issue socially, as society was very orderly.

In the approach of the Revolutionary War the economy changed dramatically and this was accompanied by increasing poverty, which drove more and more people into an excessive use of alcohol. Temperance advocates of the North developed from the moderation of alcohol consumption during the

Throughout the early-19th century, England viewed itself as a global super power and a model for how other countries should be. Most people were wealthy and lived exuberant lifestyles, along with drinking tea and doing all the fancy things now associated with English culture. Even with all the properness, there was a great consumption of alcohol. In the beginning, it began with gin and other liquors. However, since at the time water was said to be unreliable and unsanitary, so people decided to make the switch to beer. During the early 1800’s to 1830’s Beer helped to improve and shape English society and culture.

The 19th century was when people would drink large amounts of alcohol, especially men, which is why the temperance reform was put in place. On average, Americans drank about seven gallons of hard alcohol, including whiskey and other distilled spirits. These people did not think that drinking was harmful, and they said that alcohol was cleaner than water. Drinking was becoming out of control. For example, Ten Nights in a Bar-Room is about how Mary’s father that goes to the bar way too often, and Mary goes to the bar to tell her father to come home almost every night because she wants him to come home. One of the times she shows up, and one the men throws a bottle at her father, but it hits her, and she dies. This shows how out of control drinking was, and men had no self-control. “There was so much of biting contempt in the tones, as