Tavern sign, Raymond, ca. 1850
Maine Historical Society
The Coming of Drink to New England (1620–1820)
For Maine's early European settlers, alcohol was a social institution, a medicine, and an actively traded commodity. Yet it also presented problems for individuals and communities. New England's complicated relationship with spirituous beverages traces at least back to 1620 when the Pilgrims quarreled with the crew of the Mayflower over who had the right to drink the final allotment of beer. Considered medicine in Europe, where much of the water was polluted, alcohol was consumed at all meals, though generally in moderation.
In 1630, the Puritan first ship Arabella carried 10,000 gallons of wine and three times as much beer as water. Puritans set strict limits on behavior and recreation but allowed drinking. In Maine's Richmond's Island in 1639, settler John Josselyn wrote admiringly of Captain Thomas Wannerton, "who drank to me a pint of kill-devil Rhum at a draught." Aside from that historic toast, Josselyn recorded some of the common medical uses of alcohol he observed. It also appears, however, that local Native American tribes did not use or produce alcoholic beverages prior to contact with the Europeans. As their population decreased in the face of disease and war, the bottle became a growing problem for many Native Americans.
Alcohol production and importation became a business to those settling in the Province of Maine. In the region, which was annexed by Massachusetts in the 1650s, women made beer at home and the wealthy imported wine from the Portuguese and Spanish islands. Coastal people discovered a taste for West Indies rum, trading lumber for it. By 1700 more Yankees drank rum than beer, with cheap "New England Rum" being distilled in Boston, and later Falmouth. Apple orchards, that matured ten years after settlement, provided towns with cider, a popular country drink and cash crop.
From the beginning, imbibing was part of New England's social and religious institutions. Religious leader Increase Mather rebuked drunkards, while praising strong drink as "a good creature of God." Parents and children drank together. Ministers were known to fortify themselves before sermons. Men were given daily grog breaks at work, and the drink was considered part of their pay. For women, tavern keeping was one of the few professions open to them at all. Polite society considered non-drinkers "crank-brained."
Drunkenness
Although drink was common, drunkenness was a punishable offense in the region. Legal attempts at control included regulation of taverns and punishments for disruptive or destructive tipplers. In 1685, Maine taverns were prohibited from selling alcohol to Native Americans and were held accountable if they drank too much. More subtle forms of alcohol abuse in the community, however, were left largely unaddressed. For this reason, at least one 19th-century critic accused New England of keeping a great secret-intemperance.
Per capita consumption increased throughout the 18th Century, as did a growing awareness of the problems of abuse. By the time of the Revolutionary War, Dr. Benjamin Rush of Philadelphia, a leading physician, helped introduce the notion that alcohol was not always a medicine. His writings influenced a new generation of medical professionals who began to view drinking as a social ill. In February 1785, The Falmouth Gazette became the first major Maine forum to advocate temperate use of spirits.