(He is said to have given them 144 gallons of alcohol, enough to win him 307 votes and a seat in Virginia’s House of Burgesses.) During the Revolutionary War, he used the same tactic to keep troops happy, and he later became one of the country’s leading whiskey distillers. George Washington first won elected office, in 1758, by getting voters soused. Still, within a couple of generations, Puritans like Cotton Mather were warning that a “flood of RUM” could “overwhelm all good Order among us.” (Barely half would survive until spring.) Before long, they were not only making their own beer but also importing wine and liquor. William Bradford complained bitterly about the latter in his diary that winter, which is really saying something when you consider what trouble the group was in. And so the Pilgrims were kicked ashore, short of their intended destination and beerless. The ship had been headed for the mouth of the Hudson River, until its sailors (who, like most Europeans of that time, preferred beer to water) panicked at the possibility of running out before they got home, and threatened mutiny. The Mayflower landed at Plymouth Rock because, the crew feared, the Pilgrims were going through the beer too quickly. But worrying about how heavily other Americans are drinking is one of them.
Sign up for it here.į ew things are more American than drinking heavily. This article was featured in One Story to Read Today, a newsletter in which our editors recommend a single must-read from The Atlantic, Monday through Friday. This article was published online on June 1, 2021. Photograph by Chelsea Kyle Prop Stylist: Amy Elise Wilson Food Stylist: Sue Li
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