As we commemorate our nation’s 250th anniversary, chances are you’ll be cracking open a beer, uncorking a bottle of wine or stirring up an exotic cocktail—perhaps grumbling about the state of our union and those who govern us. That blend of spirited libations and lively debate isn’t new. Our founders 250 years ago relied on exactly this mix in taverns—hardly the quiet, reflective gatherings by the hearth that many historians picture.
Would we even be here celebrating democracy if it weren’t for the alcohol-charged arguments in Philadelphia and Boston taverns? In “Cocked and Boozy: An Intoxicating History of the American Revolution,” Brooke Barbier shows how barroom oratory spurred revolutionaries to challenge the Crown. Rum, madeira and beer flowed freely—colonists averaged 3.7 gallons of distilled spirits per person, compared with today’s 2.5 gallons of all alcoholic beverages.
Benjamin Franklin, clever with words, had a lexicon of names for tavern drunks, including “piss’d in the brook,” “wamble crop’d,” “got corns in the head,” “drunk as a wheelbarrow.”Most people know the Stamp Act protests of 1765, but the Sugar Act a year earlier taxed molasses—the backbone of rum production—and even slapped duties on madeira, the era’s go-to wine. Tinker with the colonists’ favorite drinks and you invite trouble. That’s exactly what happened in places like Brewer’s Tavern and Boston’s Green Dragon Tavern, where the Sons of Liberty hashed out plans for rebellion over mugs of booze.
Madeira was a favorite of patriots such as John Hancock because it withstood the long sea voyage intact. Fortified port and sherry held up well too—until British agents seized one of Hancock’s ships for undeclared madeira, triggering riots in Boston.
Barbier notes that after heated tavern debates it became tradition to propose an “order of the day” comprising as many as 45 toasts— each punctuated by a hearty swig of fortified wine or spirits. Try this at home today and you’ll never get the burgers on the grill.
The First Continental Congress was famous for its tippling sessions, too. Delegates reportedly downed “30 bumpers of wine apiece” before adopting the Suffolk Resolves— a call for British-goods boycotts, civil disobedience and more. When Paul Revere rode out to spread word of the Resolves, he paused at taverns from Massachusetts through New York to Pennsylvania, where his news prompted another 45 toasts.
One can only imagine the ensuing headaches.
I spent forty years in Annapolis, Maryland, where two colonial landmarks—Middleton Tavern and Reynolds Tavern—still welcome visitors. Yet it was Mann’s Tavern where delegates from five states, including Alexander Hamilton and James Madison, met to protest inter-state trade barriers. That gathering set the stage for the Constitutional Convention of 1787 in Philadelphia and the drafting of our Constitution.
There’s no disputing that taverns—our early nation’s civic centers—played a vital role in shaping democracy. Despite Prohibition and modern efforts to curb drinking, alcohol’s influence on American history is self-evident.
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