Every Home a Distillery Essay

        Alcohol has played a pivotal role in the nation’s most historic moments. In Meacham’s Every Home a Distillery, readers explore how alcohol was essential to colonial life in Virginia and Maryland – an era where the water supply was not safe to drink, milk was generally unavailable, and the costs of coffee and tea were far too expensive for the everyday American.  Alcohol was an ordinary way of life from the early 17th century to the days of Prohibition. Colonial Americans drank what modern observers would regard as excessive quantities of alcohol, often in public houses called taverns. In association to alcohol, tavern-going was an important part of the social fabric in early America as to the obligation to attend church on the Sabbath. Meacham’s study reveals how the government played a key influence in the regulation of taverns in order to benefit the community, thus how her discoveries incorporated gender, class, technology, and the changing patterns of production.

        Gender played a significant role when it came to the production of alcohol. In England, alcoholic beverages had already been the responsibility of women for centuries, so this tradition was carried on by the women in the early colonial Chesapeake (Meacham, 24). First viewed as the less moral sex by men, women later became viewed as the more cultured individual, because they were regarded to be “more tender and delicate – the link between humans and angels.” In addition, the Virginia Gazette indicated that women would “ripen the seeds of virtue in men” (65). Since a woman's place was already in the kitchen, the production of alcoholic beverages was seen as a natural extension of women’s labor. Although licenses to run taverns were still permitted to men, women were still given the task to operate these establishments. The magistrates and legislators preferred to have sober, self-supporting, and productive colonists, so they carefully selected tavern-keepers that would uphold the interests of the upper class. Since tavern-keeping traditionally fell to women, magistrates commonly reassigned taverns from mother to daughter or to middle-class families with women who have had previous experience pertaining to tavern-keeping. However, after the production of alcohol shifted from an art to a science, women were relieved of this duty (95, 97).

        The marketing of alcohol also had an influence based on the social class system of the Chesapeake community. Taverns “carried social and economic responsibility” during those periods, so the government made sure to impose numerous regulations regarding the operation and qualifications of running such establishment (67). From the time when taverns were a large part of the economy, only large-planter households had the legality to run such business, whereas small-planter households would not be able to sustain themselves due to lack of resources and wealth. The passing of tavern-keeping through middle classed women was the government’s method of keeping watch over the taverns. Legislators made laws that only allowed drinks to be served to the upper class men that possessed a certain amount of servants because they feared that the lower class of society would harm the economic security by being more susceptible to less productivity. Furthermore, authorities stated that tavern-keepers were responsible for the “lower sorts’ of poverty,” due to the sale of liquor upon credit (75). However, tavern-keepers did not abide to these rules because their clientele would be reduced. Following up, the courts ruled that the government could not aid them when they were in debt due to credit sales. In addition, the courts ruled that seamen were not allowed to purchase alcohol because they should be using their wages to support themselves and their families instead. The government constantly changed legislation accordingly to preserve social order and unnecessary spending amongst the colonists.