Taverns and Drinking
in Early America

Food and drink sustain human societies but are subjects oftentimes overlooked in the study of culture, and social and political life. This oversight becomes glaring when one considers that in colonial America, unlike England or Europe at the time, most towns had only two types of public buildings--churches and taverns--and the latter were far more common than the former. It was in such places as taverns that public culture, the articulation of classes, and budding political actions were observed and commented on by contemporary diarists and letter-writers. Using such records, among others, author Sharon Salinger has written an informative, highly readable monograph on taverns and drinking in seventeenth and eighteenth century America. She focuses on taverns as a place where traditional culture was preserved and as a space that was exclusive rather than inclusive.

Taverns--also called ordinarys, inns, and public houses--ran the gamut from elegant establishments catering to every need of society's elite to vile rattraps where locals and travelers entered with no more expectation than to survive the experience. Regardless of respectability, here could be found not only food, drink, and companionship but perhaps also political discussions, intellectual expositions, weather predictions, and news from afar if a traveler had stopped for the night.

Alcohol was a part of everyday life in early America. Water was believed to endanger one's health so people turned to a variety of alcoholic concoctions for liquid refreshment. The beverages of choice were distilled liquors such as whiskey, rum, gin, and brandy; these were collectively labeled spirits and often averaged 90 proof. Colonists also drank fermented brews such as beer, hard cider, and wine. Beer was most favored as "small beer," a drink of low alcohol content that was produced at home. Hard cider was especially popular while wine was only occasionally imbibed. Americans, as well as the English and the Europeans, saw spirituous liquors as nutritious, healthful, and a cure for illnesses such as violent headaches brought on by drinking too much water.

Salinger explores taverns and drinking throughout the mainland British colonies from New England to the South, in urban and rural settings, and in Anglican, Puritan, and Quaker communities. Regardless of size or quality, taverns played a central role in colonists' lives. Gentlemen might mix with laborers and prostitutes within a tavern's walls but social rank remained intact. Men, women, and children all drank alcoholic beverages but inside a tavern was a distinctly male preserve in colonial America; women of repute did not enter such an establishment. After the Revolution, elites endeavored to separate public drinking by economic status with the creation of the hotel. These buildings were large and offered not just food and drink but also private sleeping rooms. The rise of the hotel in the 1790s did not wipe the tavern from the landscape, however. Even today, taverns continue to exist, although they may be more commonly called "bars," and they offer places to meet friends, eat, drink, and talk of politics, the weather, and events from around the world, brought to our attention not by travelers but by television.

Experience the taste of tavern fare by making recipes at home or in the classroom! Nothing beats the hands-on fun of preparing your own food and imagining yourself eating in a colonial tavern. Or, attend a reenactment event in which you can share a meal prepared in the colonial way and served in a period building. Get started with The Colonial Williamsburg Tavern Cookbook by John R. Gonzales.