The history of alcohol consumption and manufacturing in Massachusetts began with the first English settlers in Plymouth. Packed into the hull of the Mayflower was enough food and beer to last the crew and passengers the entire journey. Like many Europeans, Englishmen drank beer, ale, cider, mead, and wine because the water supply in England was polluted with human and animal waste. Fermented and distilled drinks were safer to drink and provided much needed calories and nutrition. 

Even though the English settlers found pristine springs and waterways in Massachusetts, they began brewing beer from the grain, hops, and malt they brought with them. Apple cuttings and seeds were planted throughout Essex County, and within ten years farming families like the Towne and Perkins families were pressing cider. Unlike beer, hard cider did not require special equipment or ingredients. It was cheap and easy to make; therefore, it quickly replaced beer as the preferred drink in Massachusetts. Mead, brandy, wine, Madeira, sack (sherry), rum, and whiskey were also popular with Essex County residents throughout the 16th through 19th centuries.

Alcohol not only filled the tankards, punch bowls, and glasses of Cape Ann for over 200 years, it was a staple in kitchens. Records in the Cape Ann Museum's archival collection contain several recipes that required alcohol, including puddings with brandy, soaked cakes in "good white wine" or rum, and syrups and tinctures made from fruits and brandy or rum. Home based alcohol production included beer, mead and a variety of fruit and herbal wines.

Throughout the 19th century, alcohol’s predominance in Cape Ann and Massachusetts life was challenged by the Temperance Movement. As a result, many recipes that traditionally required alcohol made it optional or omitted it altogether. ■

Continue reading here.  

In 1856, a raid occurred in the town of Rockport that became legendary in the annals of Prohibition on Cape Ann and forever emblazoned Hannah Jumper’s name into our local lexicon. Ebenezer Pool, chronicler of Rockport history, noted the event this way:

Tuesday the 8th of July, 1856 was a great day in Rockport. A few days previously many of the women of Rockport had private interviews when they set the time to meet in a body at Market Square at nine o’clock a.m. of the 8th day of July for the purpose of visiting all the places where spiritous liquors were sold.

Pool’s recounting is considerably less colorful than the version of events that have been passed down to us today which is based on recollections made long after the fact. So, what exactly did happen that day? And who was this Hannah Jumper who led her “Hatchet Gang” on a daring raid of Rockport’s speakeasies? ■  

Continue reading here. 

And for more on the Temperance era, visit our online exhibition, Unfolding Histories.

“Among nautical men Blackburn’s was one of the best-known saloons on the North Atlantic seaboard, a favorite hangout for fishermen from Newfoundland to New York whenever they touched at Gloucester. The proprietor was generally behind the bar from the hour it opened in the morning until closing time late at night. Business would increase as the day wore on, and by the late afternoon and evening the saloon presented a picture that has remained one of the nostalgic symbols of the era—the long mahogany bar crowded elbow to elbow with roughly dressed fishermen, shifting their feet in the fresh sawdust on the floor; the glistening brass spittoons; the famous paintings on the wall, darkly ominous beyond the smoke-dimmed glow of the gas lights—all of it presided by the commanding figure of the owner with his neatly parted hair and handlebar mustache. He stood behind the bar, cigar clenched in the thumb stub of one hand, the other crooked on his hip.”

Joseph E. Garland, Lone Voyager: The Extraordinary Adventures of Howard Blackburn, Hero Fisherman of Gloucester, p. 72-73. New York: Touchstone, 2000. ■  

Click here to read on about the famed fisherman’s fight to maintain a saloon in a town that flip flopped on the issue of temperance nearly every year. 

Long before the Prohibition era, the rum industry flourished on Cape Ann during the 19^th century when trade with the slave colonies in Surinam and the West Indies was at its height. Local sea captains exchanged dried fish for molasses that was produced on sugar plantations with an enslaved workforce and brought the molasses back to Gloucester to be distilled into rum. Find more information about the ties between Cape Ann’s rum industry and slavery here and here.

During Prohibition, Cape Ann’s involvement in rum running was similar to that of other coastal communities. The area’s ready supply of sea-worthy vessels, experienced mariners who knew the coastline and surrounding waters in great detail even in the dark of night, and dire economic conditions coupled with the irresistible lure of high adventure created an atmosphere perfectly suited for capitalizing upon this clandestine activity.

The term “rum running” refers to smuggling by sea whereas “bootlegging” is used to define such illicit pursuits on land. Despite the name, this type of trafficking was not limited to rum but included all varieties of alcohol. A perusal through CAM’s Library and Archives from this period reveals countless articles and personal accounts that chronicle just how commonplace this pastime was in our region.

To learn more about rum running, continue reading here and visit CAM’s Library and Archives in person where you’ll find such intriguing resources as “Cigar Joe” Frontiero’s reminiscences on his own rum running escapades. ■  

And so… in honor of Fitz Henry Lane's birthday on December 19th, and in celebration of the end of Prohibition, join us and raise a sparkling beverage of your choice to toast the season – cheers! 

Reservations required. CAM members sign up online at Pop! Fitz! Clink! - Events at the Cape Ann Museum, email, or call (978) 283-0455 x120.