In this season's first two-part episode, we digging into the fascinating and disturbing history of the Gin Craze. Spanning roughly half a century, gin drinking seemed to hold London's poorer residents in an unrelenting grip. This decades long drinking binge did not happen by accident, however; this occurred as the result of legislation passed by members of Parliament who directly benefitted from the increase in domestic distillation.

For part one, we cover the origins and initial responses to the Gin Craze, including a series of laws passed by Parliament in an effort to correct the mess that they had made. Attempts to take gin away from the laboring poor only succeed in increasing open mockery of the government, subtle means of subverting the law, and even acts of violence directed toward government-funded informants. We cover all of this, as well as what the heck a "puss and mew" is and what it has to do with gin this week - check it out!

Primary Sources:

John Clayton, Friendly Advice to the Poor (Manchester: 1755).

Isaac Maddox, Sermon (London: 1750).

Thomas Wilson, Distilled Spirituous Liquors the Bane of the Nation (London: 1736).

Secondary Sources:

Richard Barnett, The Book of Gin (New York: Grove Press, 2011).

Simon Difford, “History of gin (1728-1794) - London’s gin craze,” Difford’s Guide.

Elizabeth Gilboy, Wages in Eighteenth Century England (Harvard University Press, 1934).

Andrew A. Hanham, “The Gin Acts, 1729-51,” The History of Parliament.

Alice Loxton, “What was the Gin Craze?” History Hit (January 18, 2021).

James Nicholls, The Politics of Alcohol: A History of the Drink Question in England (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2011).

Katelyn Stieva, “‘Drunk for a Penny, Dead Drunk for Two Pence’: Drink and Culture in London’s Eighteenth Century Gin Craze,” The Mirror 36, 1 (March 1, 2016).

Jessica Warner, Craze: Gin and Debauchery in an Age of Reason (New York: Random House, 2003).

Jessica Warner and Frank Ivis, “‘Damn You, You Informing Bitch.’ Vox Populi and the Unmaking of the Gin Act of 1736,” Journal of Social History 33, 2 (Winter, 1999): 299-330.

UK National Archives Currency Converter (1270-2017).

Written and recorded by: Kenyon Payne

Theme music: "Southern Gothic" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Outro music: “D´vil,” anrocomposer

Additional featured music:

“The Silence,” Tunetank

“Victorian London,” Table Top Audio

“Baroque Classical Meets Underground Hip Hop Fusion,” nickpanek620

“Legacy of Passacaglia,” White_Records

“Dark Fear,” AUDIOREZOUT

“Clockwork Adventure (Steampunk),” Luis_Humanoide

“One Thousand Years Ago,” JoelFazhari

“Chance Meeting,” White_Records

“Cinematic Dramatic Tense,” Lexin_Music

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Where did rum come from? What what is originally called? When do we talk about pirates?!

In this episode, we are traveling to the Caribbean to discuss the origins of a new, potent liquor that forever changed the way people lived with and consumed alcohol.

Primary Sources:

Sir Henry Colt, “The Voyage of Sr Henrye Colt...” in Harlow, ed. Colonising expeditions to the West Indies and Guiana (London: Hakluyt Society, 1925).

Cotton Mather, Sober Considerations (Boston: 1708).

Increase Mather, A sermon occasioned by the execution of a man, second edition (Boston: 1687).

Increase Mather, Wo to Drunkards: Two Sermons Testifying against the Sin of Drunkenness, second edition (Boston: 1712).

Richard Ligon, A True & Exact History of the Island of Barbados (London: 1657).

Benjamin Wadsworth, An Essay to do Good (Boston: 1710).

Secondary Sources:

David W. Conroy, In Public Houses: Drink & the Revolution of Authority in Colonial Massachusetts (Williamsburg, VA: The University of North Carolina Press, 1995).

Wayne Curtis, And a Bottle of Rum: A History of the New World in Ten Cocktails (New York: Three Rivers Press, 2007).

Richard Foss, Rum: A Global History (London: Reaktion Books, 2012).

James E. McWilliams, A Revolution in Eating: How the Quest for Food Shaped America (New York: Columbia University Press, 2005).

Frederick H. Smith, Caribbean Rum: A Social and Economic History (Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida, 2005).

Frederick H. Smith, “European Impressions of the Island Carib’s Use of Alcohol in the Early Colonial Period” Ethnohistory, 53, 3 (Summer 2006).

W.J. Rorabaugh The Alcoholic Republic: An American Tradition (New York: Oxford University Press, 1979.

Sharon V. Salinger, Taverns and Drinking in Early America (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2004).

Ian Williams, Rum: A Social and Sociable History (New York: Nation Books, 2005).

David Wondrich, Punch: The Delights and Dangers of the Flowing Bowl (New York: Penguin Books, 2010).

Written and recorded by: Kenyon Payne

Theme music: "Southern Gothic" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Outro music: “D´vil,” anrocomposer

Additional featured music:

“Drunken Sailor,” performed by the Midshipmen Glee Club (1977)

“Educational Presentation,” lkoliks

“Deal,” AudioCoffee

“Into the Darkness” (cello version), Onetent

“Bay Rum Riddim,” u_98673jp944

“Lid,” anrocomposer

“Quirky Whimsical Play,” Sonican

“Trireme,” Table Top Audio

“Distilled Tropical,” Table Top Audio

“Down By the Sea,” Table Top Audio

“Pirates,” Table Top Audio

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today, depictions of the proverbial drunkard are shaped by well-known images of a stumbling, bumbling, red-faced drinker. Appearing as a popular trope in cartoons, films, or in other mediums, we can often spot the 'drunkard' with ease. But how did such an image come into being? In this episode, we discuss some of the stories that left an enduring mark on the way people came to perceive who the drunkard actually was. This episode also digs into the history of alewives, or brewsters - the women responsible for brewing un-hopped ales, but instead came to face increasing vilification in literary tales. Through a study of literature and religious tracts, we can see the increasing association between the drunkard and the devil, and the ways the drunkard steadily turned into an unwanted outcast.

Sources:

An Act for repressinge the odious and loathsome synne of Drunckennes,” 1606. HL/PO/PU 1. The Statues of the Realm, 1586 to 1624, 1142. The Parliamentary Archives, London, United Kingdom.

Edward Buckler, The sin and folly of drunkenness considered (London: 1682).

Edward Bury, England’s Bane, or The Deadly Danger of Drunkenness (London: 1677).

Samuel Clarke and Samuel Ward, A Warning-piece to All Drunkards and Health-Drinkers (London: 1682).

Thomas Heywood, Philocothomista, or the Drunkard, Opened, Dissected and Atomized (London: 1635

William Langland, The Book Concerning Piers the Plowman, edited and translated by Donaled and Rachel Attwater (New York: E.P. Dutton & Co. Inc., 1957).

R.M Lumiansky and David Mills, eds, The Chester Mystery Cycle, Vol. I. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1974).

Samuel Sewall, Diary of Samuel Sewall: 1674-1729, Volume 6 (Massachusetts Historical Society, 1879).

John Skelton, John Skelton Selected Poems, edited by Gerald Hammond (Manchester: Fyfield Books, 1980).

Voltaire, The Works of Voltaire: A philosophical dictionary, edited by Tobias George Smollett, John Morley, William F. Fleming, Oliver Herbrand, George Leigh (E.R. Du Mont, 1901).

Judith Bennett, Ale, Beer, and Brewsters in England (New York: Oxford University Press, 1995).

John Bickerdyke, The Curiosities of Ale and Beer: an Entertaining History (London: Spring Books, 1965).

Peter Clark, The English Alehouse: a Social History, 1200-1830 (New York: Longman, 1983).

James Nicholls, The Politics of Alcohol: A History of the Drink Question in England (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2011).

Richard W. Unger, Beer in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2004).

Written and recorded by: Kenyon Payne

Theme music: "Southern Gothic" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Outro music: “D´vil,” anrocomposer

Additional featured music:

“Church Choir,” NNChannel

“Baroque Pop,” alanajordan

“Legacy Begins,” DayFox

“Medieval Dance,” Ebunny

“The Tavern,” Ehved

“Into the Darkness, Cello Version,” Onetent

“Steampunk Victorian Orchestra,” Luis_Humanoide

“Danse Macabre,” Saint Saens (version by Abydos_Music)

“Tavern Celebration,” Table Top Audio

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.