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16 h salud ! be able to determine the correct combination of American soil and climate needed by V. vinifera.15 Developing the First American Wine Culture Failures in early American viticulture led wine drinking settlers to substitute new libations while they continued the search for a means to produce their own wine. Yeoman farmers followed their European traditions and developed a subsistence plus mentalitie that left grape growing and wine production to gentleman farmers and helped create a mystique in America of wine as a drink for a gentler class. Jefferson, while representing this American gentile class, hoped to cultivate the French, Italian, Spanish, and English tradition of a wine culture for all Americans. These hopes diminished as viticultural failures grew and post-revolutionary Americans turned to cheaper rum that quickly accounted for one-fifth of the value of all imports from England. Jefferson worried that distilled spirits would diminish the vitality of the nation’s health. Thus, the quest for an American wine industry intensified as Americans turned to stronger drink. Wine became a means to encourage moderation, and wine entrepreneurs sought new ways to provide adequate supplies of regular wines while increasing profits. European Americans of the early eighteenth century continued their beverage traditions: They consumed alcohol with every meal and celebrated wet holidays, and many received God with a communion of bread and wine. Even the Puritans had viewed alcohol as the “Good Creature of God,” a holy substance, when used cautiously. According to the Reverend James Alexander of Princeton, “The Bible speaks well of wine, even as an exhilarant.” As early as 1708 religious leaders such as Cotton Mather had preached moderation and affirmed the preaching of his father, the Reverend Increase Mather, on the value of moderation of this “Creature of God.” Most feared that drunkenness, from cheap distilled strong drinks, emanated from Satan. Just before the American Revolution, all ages and social groups consumed alcohol, and foreign travelers reported that America was a nation addicted to drinking. The national consumption rate reached an average of three and a half gallons of alcohol per person per year (more than the present rate of consumption). Nine million wom- european roots and american wine g 17 en and children drank 12 million gallons of distilled spirits, and three million men drank 60 million gallons.16 Alcoholic beverages played a central role in the American lifestyle. Southern masters provided watered alcohol as a work incentive for slaves, parents taught moderate drinking habits by giving their children spirits, and women drank at home or in mixed company at society dinners. Indians received whiskey for payments, young men proved their manhood by overindulging, the military issued distilled spirits to soldiers, and college students relaxed in pubs. Americans often turned to whiskey to complement their meals, which relied heavily on fried greasy foods, butter, and eggs. By 1830 Americans over the age of fifteen consumed an average of more than seven gallons of alcohol a year, or almost three times the modern rate of consumption.17 Industrialization, modernization, rural isolation, and impersonal factory systems became ways of life and America teetered on becoming an Alcoholic Republic. Despite these trends, alcohol was not considered a social problem, and informal social groups strictly enforced the regulation of antisocial drinking behavior in the tavern and embraced alcohol as a benign and healthful beverage.18 Like their European ancestors, most Americans viewed alcohol as a food, as medication for colds, fevers, frostbite , depression, as a way to reduce tension, and as a way for all social classes to enjoy frivolous camaraderie. Local governments monitored drinking through the issuance of tavern licenses and enacted laws aimed at controlling public drunkenness and its related crimes of thievery, lechery , and brutality. As early as 1772 physician Benjamin Rush had concluded that distilled liquor destroyed the body’s natural balance. To prove his point Rush quoted reports from the American Continental Army’s surgeon general that tied soldiers’ ill health to the issuance of rum. Rush reaf firmed wine as a natural and healthy food by comparing sickly American soldiers to Roman soldiers known for their vigor and vitality, and thus recommended moderate amounts of light wine as a substitute for rum. If officials had any thoughts of attempting to control alcohol consumption through taxation, they probably faltered when the federal government faced an uprising in 1794 among western Pennsylvania farmers (theWhiskey Rebellion) over the imposition of an excise tax on whiskey. For these [3...

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