Colonial Rum Analysis

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Due to rum’s reputation for lasting long voyages, and the harsh climate in the first few American colonies, Jamestown, Virginia, and the two Puritan holding ships, the Arbella and the Mayflower made it so that rum and other spirits became a necessary drink in Early American life. Additionally, it is said that rum specifically has helped us break out of the British hold and gain independence, due to the colonists’ dependence on these drinks. One of the first occurrence that had sparked the beginnings of rebellion in these colonists, occurred in 1733 when the British decided to place a tax on the importing of foreign molasses due to the New England distillers’ loyalty to buying molasses from French sugar plantations, and the fact that the French were beating the English in the sugar market. The British didn’t correctly enforce this act, and smuggling sugar became normal to the colonists, creating a relationship where the American colonists grew resentful and had little respect for the British government, while the British didn’t see it as a personal attack on them, but as a professional decision to create more revenue. …show more content…

This relationship continued to become more and more strained with the large number of acts that followed after the French and Indian war, due to the British government believing that the colonies owed them and expected them to comply easily what they laid