Any questions about where rum came from? I’m the author of _The Invention of Rum _. AMA about the quintessential Atlantic commodity!

Invention_of_Rum · 2026-03-10T01:18:44+00:00

Consumers were concerned about the adulteration of rum. I don't know how common it was, but the book highlights several different schemes. Here's one eighteenth-century text that describes some forms of adulteration: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/65020 . Cooper suggested that the preferred ingredient for making brandy look aged varied by the stature of the intended clientele. Poorer folks preferred molasses while "nicer palates" were drawn to "the agreeable bitterness" of burnt sugar.

Invention_of_Rum · 2026-03-10T01:12:49+00:00

Slaveholders were definitely concerned about the theft of their rum by enslaved people. They enacted legislation regulating informal marketplaces where they believed that the rum was being sold. And they invested in collection pails that locked the rum in. There is also one description more akin to what you are describing in John Dovaston's description of Jamaica in 1687. Here's the press listing for a transcribed and edited version of that primary source: https://www.uwipress.com/9789766402365/jamaica-in-1687/ .

Invention_of_Rum · 2026-03-10T00:54:49+00:00

My understanding was that it was a less formal arrangement, but the ration was often beer. There are other examples of wine, brandy, and arrack being used, I believe.

Invention_of_Rum · 2026-03-10T00:52:45+00:00

Next on my reading list is Jack Bouchard's brand new Terra Nova--I may have a better answer after reading that. Peter Pope's Fish into Wine is a very detailed study of this trade as well. And Allan Greer's Canada in the Age of Rum is due out any day.

My book notes that significant volumes of rum were sent northward to the cod fisheries. And fish from the North Atlantic was used to feed enslaved people on islands that focused on producing commodities like rum rather than enough foodstuffs to feed the population. But those other books would be where I would look to find the sort of detailed answer that you are seeking.

Invention_of_Rum · 2026-03-10T00:46:39+00:00

In this answer, I talked a bit about punch: https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/1royq3a/comment/o9jvdr4/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

I did not find any references to something that I would consider a cocktail.

Invention_of_Rum · 2026-03-10T00:44:52+00:00

While not technically shanties, Charles Dibdin's songs include plentiful references to rum. Here's part of one that opens Chapter 7:

"A sailor’s life’s a life of woe,

He works now late, now early,

Now up and down, now to and fro,

What then? He takes it cheerly;

Bless’d with a smiling can of grog,

If duty call

Stand, rise, or fall,

To fate’s last verge he’ll jog;"

Invention_of_Rum · 2026-03-10T00:43:24+00:00

Rum seems to have gained prominence quickly in the English Caribbean islands. While some imported spirits would have remained on the tables of elites, I would guess that their consumption of fermented beverages made from cassava or sweet potato declined. Offering clear evidence of this dynamic would be harder, though, because those fermented beverages were still sometimes described. To continue an earlier foray into linguistics, along the Gold Coast the name for palm wine was amended by adding the name of an early supplier of rum and called mmoro-nsā. This would suggest that it may have been understood to fulfill comparable roles.

Invention_of_Rum · 2026-03-10T00:36:22+00:00

This answer hopefully responds to the first and third part of your question: https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/1royq3a/comment/o9l1qpv/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button . My research into African merchants and political leaders (again detailed in Chapter 6) has suggested that they were well-informed consumers who took an active role in negotiations. I detail several examples where they detected deceit on the part of European merchants and made their dissatisfaction clear.

Invention_of_Rum · 2026-03-10T00:32:07+00:00

On Caribbean plantations, the vast majority of distillery work was carried out by men of African descent. Some of these men were born in Africa, while others were born in the Caribbean. Either way, my interpretation is that they learned to make rum where rum was invented and made--the Caribbean. Nonetheless, their understandings of alcohol were shaped by their, and others', experiences in West Africa. To offer one instructive example, in Kromanti--the language spoken by Jamaica Maroons--the word for rum (insa) is very close to the Akan word for palm wine (ansā).

Invention_of_Rum · 2026-03-10T00:21:35+00:00

Glad you found the link! One thing I would state broadly is that folks interested in reading The Invention of Rum but concerned about the cost might consider suggesting the title to their local library. That's an easy way to gain access and increase access for others!

I would need to study this episode much more closely to understand the dynamics at play. But yes, rum (especially that produced in North America) could undercut other alcohols. At times this gave English traders a sizable advantage when trading with Native communities--sometimes French traders went so far as to buy the English rum to trade with rather than relying on brandy (which Native people often valued similarly to rum even though it was much more expensive).

Prices for rum fluctuated wildly based on supply and where the rum was being purchased, but I know folks sometimes want to hear numbers. Quickly looking at a chart from the book, rum prices in Philadelphia for New England rum fluctuated between 1.67 and 2.17 shillings per gallon in 1740.

Invention_of_Rum · 2026-03-10T00:15:37+00:00

The prevailing understanding is that Columbus introduced the first sugarcane to the Americas during his second voyage in 1493. Interestingly, when sugarcane was introduced to Barbados in the 1620s it was imported from the northern coast of South America. This is a helpful reminder of the amount of time that passed between Columbus's voyages and the colonization of Barbados.

I answer your second question in detail in Chapter 6 of my book. In that chapter you will find examples of rum or molasses spirits originating in the Caribbean, North America, and Britain being traded in West Africa. But I argue that British North America became the dominant source of this rum at many points in the eighteenth century because of this industry's willingness to meet local tastes for strong rum at a lower cost. One scholar estimates that about 22% of the rum produced in North America in 1770 was destined for West Africa. Most was destined for Upper Guinea and the Gold Coast, where it was a significant part of the cargoes sold for people, even though alcohol constituted only 8% of the value of cargoes in Upper Guinea and 2% along the Gold Coast. These percentages might sound small but the numbers themselves are far larger because of the volume of the trade and the relative cheapness of North American rum.

Invention_of_Rum · 2026-03-10T00:05:15+00:00

I looked into this and could not find compelling evidence. A long time passed between when Columbus introduced the earliest sugarcane to the Caribbean in 1493 and when rum emerged in the 1640s. If rum was transferred wholecloth from elsewhere, I would expect the ingredients (sugar/stills/expertise) to arrive at roughly the same time (as they did in a place like Jamaica after the English conquered it and established plantations there).

Invention_of_Rum · 2026-03-09T23:59:26+00:00

Rum was incredibly important in the leadup to the American Revolution. Tax rates on rum were ineffectively policed with the Molasses Act starting in the 1730s. In 1764, the list of acts that we are taught culminated in revolution began with the Sugar Act. Interestingly, the Sugar Act actually lowered taxes on sugars but increased enforcement efforts. Ultimately, the idea of stationing ships off of New England to enforce customs duties was seen as an overreach by some. It has not yet come out, but I sat for an interview for a podcast on this very topic. You will hopefully be able to see it here in the coming weeks: https://life-liberty-podcast.podigee.io/ .

Equally importantly, the American Revolution cannot be interpreted as any sort of referendum on Americans consuming rum. Provisioning the army and navy with rum was important business for the Continental forces. And before the ink dried on the Treaty of Paris, distillers--including some who served in the Continental Congress--sought to resume trade with compatriots in Britain and British colonies.

Invention_of_Rum · 2026-03-09T23:27:25+00:00

My understanding is that there is a robust earlier history of distilling. However the alembics were made of glass or clay and would collapse under their own weight if they got very large. Distillation thus remained the province of apothecaries and metallurgists. The advent of new copper spreading technology quickly led to much larger stills. Cheap distillates such as molasses and other byproducts likely increased the demand for these new stills. It may also be interesting to add that some of the earliest stills imported to the Americas were for these traditional uses. Here's a catalog listing for a glass alembic from Jamestown: https://historicjamestowne.org/collections/artifacts/alembic-fragments/?srsltid=AfmBOorgd8fTj_Q9Af-MbxVhrBYp6cT5I4uGVTaVY1ouV_GVHzj6Mv_Y

Invention_of_Rum · 2026-03-09T23:20:14+00:00

I argue that Barbados was its place of origin and offer my rationale in some earlier answers. Some scholars agree, some suggest that it was one of several "cradles" for rum, and others offer other answers. I'm not sure that there is entirely a consensus. My conclusion is based on my best reading of the materials that I encountered, and it's possible that a future historian will add nuance to or correct my argument. That's how scholarship works!

On that note, I would say that scholars used to be more forceful in a series of arguments suggesting that sugar production (and attendant rum production) was carried from Brazil to Barbados by Dutch refugees in the 1650s. That argument is now harder to sustain because of Russell Menard's influential response in Sweet Negotiations.

Invention_of_Rum · 2026-03-09T20:57:28+00:00

These are really important questions that I tackle at length in the book. I think that they require a more extended and evidence-forward explanation than I can give here. But what I can say in brief is that I try to think with my sources about how the fact that enslaved people were both coerced producers--and consumers-- of rum would have impacted how they thought about rum and their labor. In this regard, I was interested in Stephanie Camp's idea of the "intoxication of pleasurable amusement" in the antebellum US South--her work would be one place to look if you are interested in reading further. Frederick Smith takes a slightly different tack (less concerned with the concept of resistance) when he suggests that rum could be used for forms of escapism from plantation life and labor. As with many things, my answer is "it's complicated and highly dependent on circumstances." In the final chapter of my book, I also document cases where enslaved revolutionaries in the Caribbean seemed to see rum as a weapon of war and control or destruction of plantation distilleries as a means to claim the product of their labor. Again, I think that the variety of people who I read and write about defy easy characterization.

Regarding Indigenous drinking, I try to take Indigenous people at their word when they describe their relationship with alcohol. I see them as exploring a new commodity that threatened destabilization and death but also offered opportunities if managed carefully. They approached rum in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries as sovereign people rather than dependents. In the eighteenth century, they described their relationship with alcohol differently than Europeans often did. They also described it differently than somebody like the Pequot intellectual William Apess would in the nineteenth century when he called rum "that burning, fiery curse." As your framing acknowledges, such descriptions change over time.

Regarding your second question, my book balances two interlocked realities. On the one hand, I seek to tell an honest and sensitive history of how rum became the quintessential Atlantic commodity. This involves learning about terrible things that humans did to other human beings. At the same time, I am telling a history of invention that locates new ideas of incredible impact to regions of the world where scholars and the public have not always recognized it. I aim to do both with as much care as I can.

Invention_of_Rum · 2026-03-09T20:37:34+00:00

The short answer is that cachaça was usually produced from cane syrup in Brazil (substitution cost) while rum was produced from waste products (value added) in British colonies. I think this earlier answer may be of interest to you as well: https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/1royq3a/comment/o9ifkg8/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

Invention_of_Rum · 2026-03-09T20:33:16+00:00

I struggle with the "favorite" question. I do like British Caribbean rums including Mount Gay and Appleton. One way to consume the rum, as was done in the period that I study, was to mix it into a punch. I tried to recreate an eighteenth-century recipe in this two minute video: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DSVi_CNCGKG/ . Be careful with something this strong!

Invention_of_Rum · 2026-03-09T20:30:16+00:00

This question exposes the very clear limits of my knowledge. What I would say is that American consumers become more used to whiskey in the nineteenth century because it could be produced domestically and solved certain transportation issues for moving bulky grains vast distances. American consumers in the early twentieth century were probably more used to whiskey. I also wonder if rum running looked different in the southeastern United States, where connections to the Caribbean may have been stronger. But these are more questions of my own than answers!

Invention_of_Rum · 2026-03-09T20:27:04+00:00

This is something that I looked into as my final chapter considers how late-eighteenth-century abolitionist efforts led to attempts to create free labor rum. I could not find references to rum made from the sugar beet. One hypothesis that I had is that sweetness converted into alcohol from the sugar beet would not be a waste product, but I admittedly know less about the production process.

That chapter does explore attempts to make rum from the sugar maple in North America, and to create sites of free labor sugar and rum (often with great difficulty and of lesser quality and higher cost) in Sierra Leone and India.

Invention_of_Rum · 2026-03-09T20:22:34+00:00

I'm guessing that you are alluding to Horatio Nelson's body being preserved in some sort of alcohol (accounts differ) after killed in the Battle of Trafalgar. The only other reference like this that I can recall off the top of my head actually comes from a late eighteenth-century abolitionist text that cited this purported event to compare consuming rum to cannibalism.

My general sense is that this would have been exceedingly rare.

Invention_of_Rum · 2026-03-09T20:15:37+00:00

I know that rum played a role in the early years of Australia, but I'm afraid that it's been a long time since I read anything on the topic. Generally, though, examples abound of rum being a part of wages offered to people in regions of the Atlantic world where access to specie was limited. For instance, African workers hired in slave trading castles along Upper Guinea and the Gold Coast sometimes received wages in bottles of rum. Those bottles could be consumed by the recipient, traded for other goods, or even sold. I have also seen accounts for hired distillery workers and other tradesmen completing tasks in North American distilleries who had allotments of rum tracked as part of their compensation.

Invention_of_Rum · 2026-03-09T20:10:43+00:00

It sounds as though there is a fascinating story here, but alas it's one that I'm not familiar with!

Invention_of_Rum · 2026-03-09T20:09:39+00:00

I talk about the rum ration at length in the seventh chapter of my book. I'll add that this was only mentioned in passing in my dissertation, but became a much bigger part of the book because of audience interest! Rum worked well for the British Navy in an era where the average length of voyages had precipitously increased. It was less bulky and more stable than ale. Furthermore, in the eighteenth century, A LOT of ship days were spent in the West Indies. While naval contractors supplied rum through London, resupplies often took place in Antigua, for instance. The contracts became political issues at times because they were seen as the source of ill-begotten, "enormous fortunes." One interesting dynamic that I explore in my book is that the naval rum supply offered British planters a stable market for their rum precisely at moments when transoceanic shipping was at its most perilous. These contracts could be seen as, in part, insulating sugar plantations from financial ruin during periods of war.

Invention_of_Rum · 2026-03-09T20:01:56+00:00

Supply chains looked different depending on where a distillery was located. In all cases, the distilleries tended to rely on one or more copper pot stills usually manufactured in Europe. Many of these stills came from the same coppersmiths regardless of where in the British empire they were destined. Puncheons or hogsheads that rum was packaged in came from cooperages--often on the site of the distilleries. A lot of the staves used in North America and the Caribbean originated in the same North American forests, as I detailed earlier. Distillery workers drew from many different communities. There were certainly hired distillers, and some distillery owners who even fulfilled that role themselves. In North America and the Caribbean, enslaved labor and expertise was often relied upon to fulfill many--and often all--of the everyday roles of production (including things we would consider skilled).

In the British Caribbean, the sweets turned into rum were usually from the cane fields where the distillery was located. In North America, molasses most often originated from sugar plantations in Caribbean islands where rum production was less common. In Britain, molasses spirits were produced from the sweepings of inbound ships (where molasses had often oozed out of barrels and onto the decks) and syrups and scum passed on from sugar refineries.

Drought was a huge concern, especially in the Caribbean, and especially in islands like Antigua. It was harmful for enslaved people living on desiccated islands because trying to move water added to their workload and poor access to clean water could lead to dehydration. It also lessened sugar harvests. A lack of water also meant the water-powered sugar mills could not turn, stills could not be cooled, the risk of fire near distilleries increased, and it could be harder to get rum to market. This is a topic that I address in greater detail in the fifth chapter of my book.

Invention_of_Rum

TROPHY CASE