During the nineteenth –century America was known for it’s drinking abilities. The question some people want to know is “was early nineteenth-century America really a nation of drunkards” (Rorabaugh 5)? The United States was among the most addicted of nations, that in this respect it had out stripped all of Europe, and that “no other people ever indulged, so universally.” Alcohol was looked upon as a disease like the plague and it was spreading wider and wider throughout the country. It was being considered as a growing evil.

Statesman like George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and John Adams weren’t worried about the use of alcohol for they drank themselves, but the excessive use. In 1821 a wealthy scholar, George Ticknor, warned Jefferson, “If the consumption of spirituous liquors should increase for thirty years to come at the rate it has for thirty years back we should be hardly better than a nation of sots” (6). This feared the Founding Fathers because they were afraid that the American republic would be destroyed in a flood of alcohol.

To others, like foreign travelers they found the drinking habits of Americans deplorable. They were surprised to see how m

Along with distilled spirits, Americans drank weaker fermented beverages such as: beer (5%), hard cider (10%), and wine (18%). “Until 1850 annual per capita consumption of commercial beer at not time reached 2 gallons, and it was not until the Civil War that it raised dramatically toward today’s rate of more than 18 gallons” (9). Hard cider was a very popular drink especially in Virginia. The consumption of hard cider was an annual per capita of 15 or more gallons. Wine on the other hand was not being consumed as much as beer or hard cider. Between 1770 and 1870 less than a third of a gallon was being drank.

children to the taste of liquor and get them to accept the idea of drinking small amounts, which would protect them from being drunkards. It was not uncommon to see twelve-year-old boys walk in a tavern with their fathers and drink from the same glass. This made a father proud that his son was now reaching manhood.

The delicacy of women led them to drink alcohol-based medicines such as stomach elixirs. However, there was some social occasion when it was proper for a woman to drink freely and openly. These were society dinners, suppers, evening parties, and at pioneer dances. At such occasions the whiskey bottle was passed around from mouth to mouth exempting neither age nor gender.

Drinking started at an early age especially with white males. “As soon as a toddler was able to drink from a cup, he was coaxed to consume the sugary residue at the bottom of an adult’s nearly empty glass of spirits” (14). The parents thought the early exposure would get the

In American society alcohol was very persua

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