On the 4^th of July in 1776, the Second Continental Congress declared American independence from Great Britain. Their slogan for independence was, “No taxation without representation!” Because of the Boston Tea Party, some might think it was the tax on tea which started that independence ball rolling for the American colonists. However, it was actually the tax on French Molasses which flared that taxation resentment and jump started our snowball towards independence.

Why tax Molasses? Because American distillers used cheap French Molasses to make Rum. Rum was the drink of the American masses and the most profitable item manufactured in New England. In those days, it was felt that drinking water was a hazard to one’s health, so they drank alcoholic beverages (which were free of disease carrying organisms because alcohol helps to kill germs).

Rum was cheap, less than 2 shillings a gallon. Everyone in America drank it. The poor usually drank it straight while the better off drank it mixed in a rum punch. This rum punch was a forerunner of our modern cocktail.

When running for local office in Virginia, George Washington’s campaign handed out 28 gallons of rum, 50 gallons of rum punch, 34 gallons of wine (hooray!) 46 gallons of beer, and two gallons of cider. All this in a county with only 391 voters.  That’s almost half a gallon of alcohol per voter. That’s one way to ensure folks come out to vote.  George won the election, by the way. (Perhaps alcoholic beverages were the American version of the Roman “Bread and Circuses”.[see our April2006 Vol#28])

When Paul Revere made his famous ride to warn the revolutionaries that the “Red Coats” were coming, he stopped off at a tavern in Medford to have a rum toddy before dashing off to pass the warning to John Hancock and Samuel Adams. (Nothing like a hot sweet rum drink to fuel those secessionist revolutionary fires.)

Ironically, just a short time after we won the revolutionary war which was essentially a war fought against taxation. The new American government, presided over by George Washington, decided to impose a tax on whiskey in order to pay off some of the national debt incurred during the Revolutionary War. Thus the Whiskey Rebellion was sparked. Unfortunately, this time we couldn’t use the slogan, “No taxation without representation” because George was duly elected by our very own representatives. By the time the federal troops reached the whiskey rebels, they needed more whiskey. So they bought whiskey from the rebels who by then had enough money to pay their taxes, and the rebellion was over….  And ever since then we’ve been paying taxes to our duly elected government. Man, kinda makes you want to have a drink, doesn’t it. Cheers!

Tags: 4th of July, corkey trivia, independence, rum, taxation

Posted July 8, 2010 in Liane: Corkey Trivia
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