Rum and revolution : the influence of tavern culture on the American Revolution

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Authors
Sims, Jeffrey C.
Advisor
Issue Date
1997
Keyword
Degree
Thesis (M.A.)
Department
Department of History
Other Identifiers
Abstract

Taverns were a familiar but significant part of eighteenth-century American culture. They were a community's most durable, most easily identifiable, most rigorously defined and most contested body of public space. A visitor to a Boston tavern in the 1760s would have expected to find lodging, a meal, and to carouse, gamble and gossip. But they also would have visited a tavern to receive word of ship movements, collect a letter from England, identify potential employees and employers, participate in the political process, or even observe an acrobat perform `a variety of feats of activity.' In short, taverns were never thought of solely as places to drink. Taverns and their keepers were both actors in, as well as settings for, actions and interactions crucial to the public culture of a community.As the tavern was the social focal point for the community, politics were not only discussed in taverns, but the taverns themselves were an integral part of the eighteenth century political process. By the American Revolution, taverns were the setting for the promotion, suspension and resolution of distinctions, conflicts and tensions between political ideology. Throughout the colonies, but especially in the northern cities, taverns like the Green Dragon in Boston were used to formulate public opinion and to disseminate radical doctrine. Revolutionaries used taverns to establish grass roots support for American independence.This paper endeavors to examine tavern culture during the late colonial period and how it was exploited by Revolutionaries to incite the American Revolution. In order to understand the influence of taverns on the American Revolution, it is important to examine their role in the eighteenth century society and their connection to colonial politics.

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