Alcohol Consumption

The poor health of most nineteenth-century Americans cannot be separated from their overwhelming consumption of alcoholic beverages. From 1790 to 1840 adult males drank nearly one-half pint of hard liquor each day, more than at any other time in American history. Because of the poor quality of water and milk, and the inordinate expense of tea and coffee, settlers in the West consumed mostly whiskey and cider. They drank these beverages in small amounts with family meals or in communal binge drinking, which generally led to public drunkenness. Settlers transported their drinking habits with them when they moved west of the Appalachians. Far removed from Eastern markets, settlers often used jugs of locally distilled liquor as the standard medium of exchange. Given the scarce opportunities for entertainment on the frontier, practically any occasion where two or three men gathered provided a reason for...