page_title: Cuisine of Antebellum America
section_title: Rum
hierarchical_section_title: Cuisine of Antebellum America / Similarities through antebellum cuisine / Alcohol in the antebellum United States / Rum
caption_attribution_description: WRNS serving rum to a sailor from a tub inscribed 'THE KING GOD BLESS HIM'.
context_page_description: The cuisine of the Antebellum United States was a change in American eating and cooking habits from that of Colonial America throughout 1776 to the American Civil War in 1861. During this period different regions of the United States adapted to their surroundings and cultural backgrounds to create specific regional cuisines, modernization of technology led to changes in food consumption, and evolution of taverns into hotels led to the beginnings of an American temperance movement. By the beginning of the Civil War, the United States cuisine and food culture could define itself separately from that of the rest of the world.
context_section_description: Originating as a byproduct of sugar production in Barbados, molasses was first distilled into rum in the colonies in 1700. In 1776 per capita consumption of rum had reached 3.7 gallons per head, and the notorious Molasses Act passed by Parliament had strongly damaged American rum production. John Adams declared post-Revolution that "Molasses was an essential ingredient in American independence."  Some historians argue that the Molasses Act imposing heavy taxes on sugar and molasses was more responsible for the schism between Americans and the British, rather than the Tea Act, with historian Rorabaugh noting, "A second effect of independence was that Americans perceived liberty from the Crown as somehow related to the freedom to down a few glasses of rum."
  However, after the American Revolution, British embargoes caused a collapse in American trade with the Caribbean, and molasses exports suffered greatly. Whiskey, cheaper to produce, began to rise in production.
  Rum's association with piracy began with English privateers trading on the valuable commodity.  As some of the privateers became pirates and buccaneers, their fondness for rum remained, the association between the two strengthened by literary works such as Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island.
caption: Rum from a tub inscribed "THE KING GOD BLESS HIM"
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