The early history of rum in New England is set forth in a work by Alice Morse Earle, entitled "Customs and Fashions in Old New England," published by Charles Scribner's Sons in 1893. On Page 174 the author says:

Aqua-vitae, a general name for strong waters, was brought over in large quantities during the seventeenth century, and sold for about three shillings per gallon. Cider was distilled into cider brandy, or apple-jack; and when, by 1670, molasses had come into port in considerable quantities through the West India trade, the forests of New England supplied plentiful and cheap fuel to convert it into "rhum, a strong water drawn from the sugar cane." In a manuscript description of Barbadoes, written in 1651, we read: "The chief fudling they make in this island is Rumbullion alias Kill-Divil - a hot hellish and terrible liquor." It was called in some localities Barbadoes liquor, and by the Indians "ahcoobee" or "ockuby," a word of the Norridge-wock tongue. John Elliot spelled it "rumb," and Josselyn called it plainly "that cussed liquor, Rhum, rumbullion, or kill-devil." It went by the latter name and rumbooze everywhere, and was soon cheap enough. Increase Mather said, in 1686, "It is an unhappy thing that in later years a kind of drink called Rum has been common among us. They that are poor, and wicked too, can for a penny or two-pence make themselves drunk." Burke said, at a later date, "The quantity of spirits which they distill in Boston from the molasses they import is as surprising as the cheapness at which they sell it, which is under two shillings a gallon; but they are more famous for the quantity and cheapness than for the excellency of their rum." In 1719, and fifty years later, New England rum was worth but three shillings a gallon, while West India rum was worth but two-pence more. New England distilleries quickly found a more lucrative way of disposing of their kill-devil than by selling it at such cheap rates. Ships laden with barrels of rum were sent to the African coast, and from thence they returned with a most valuable lading - negro slaves. Along the coast of Africa New England rum quite drove out French brandy.

The Irish and Scotch settlers knew how to make whiskey from rye and wheat, and they soon learned to manufacture it from barley and potatoes, and even from the despised Indian corn.

The drinking of compounded liquors was also practised in old New England, as shown by the following extract from page 178 of this work, beginning:

Flip was a vastly popular drink, and continued to be so for a century and a half. I find it spoken of as early as 1690. It was made of home-brewed beer, sweetened with sugar, molasses, or dried pumpkin, and flavored with a liberal dash of rum, then stirred in a great mug or pitcher with a red-hot loggerhead or bottle or flip-dog, whch made the liquor foam and gave it a burnt bitter flavor.

Landlord May, of Canton, Mass., made a famous brew thus: he mixed four pounds of sugar, four eggs, and one pint of cream and let it stand for two days. When a mug of flip was called for, he filled a quart mug two-thirds full of beer, placed in it four great spoonfuls of the compound, then thrust in the seething loggerhead, and added a gill of rum to the creamy mixture. If a fresh egg were beaten into the flip the drink was called "bellowstop," and the froth rose over the top of the mug. "Stonewall" was a most intoxicating mixture of cider and rum. "Calibogus," or "bogus" was cold rum and beer unsweetened. "Black-strap" was a mixture of rum and molasses. Casks of it stood in every country store, a salted and dried codfish slyly hung alongside - a free lunch to be stripped off and eaten, and thus tempt, through thirst, the purchase of another draught of black-strap.

A terrible drink is said to have been made popular in Salem - a drink with a terrible name - whistle-belly-vengeance. It consisted of sour household beer simmered in a kettle, sweetened with molasses, filled with brown-bread crumbs and drunk piping hot. 24

In a work published in 1890 entitled "Economic and Social History of New England," by William B. Weeden, it appears that distillation began in Salem as early as 1648. On page 186 we find the following:

Emanual Downing writes that Leader has cast the iron pans to be used in the process. Downing began distilling in Salem this year. Frequent commerce with the West Indies carried out unmerchantable fish to be exchanged for molasses.

On page 188 it is stated:

Rum was much used by the common people, and malt liquors were the favorite drink of the English colonists. The native New England beverage was cider and the presses began to work about 1650. Much barley had been raised in Plymouth. The many malthouses were not so common after this.

In 1686 the Southern part of the Colonies had commenced to buy rum from New England, as stated on page 376. In 1690 it is stated (page 416), "Cider and vinegar corrected the West Indian sugar and molasses always coming in; that is, when the molasses did not evolve itself into the fiery rum. Rum was beginning to be the important commercial factor which it came to be later in the century."

By 1670, it is stated on page 459:

The West Indies afforded the great demand for negroes; they also furnished the raw material supplying the manufacture of the main merchandise which the thirsty Gold Coast drank up in barter for its poor, banished children. Governor Hopkins stated that for more than thirty years prior to 1764, Rhode Island sent to the Coast annually eighteen vessels carrying

1,800 hhds. rum.....Newport had 22 still houses; Boston had the best example, owned by a Mr. Childs.....The quantity of rum distilled was enormous, and in 1750 it was estimated that Massachusetts alone consumed more than 15,000 hhds. molasses for this purpose.....The consumption of rum in the fisheries and lumbering and ship-building industries was large; the export demand to Africa was immense.

The adulteration of rum was an early practice. Captain Potter, in 1768, gave directions for the trade on the African Coast, as follows:

Make yr Cheaf Trade with The Blacks and Little or none with the white people if possible to be avoided. Worter yr Rum as much as possible and sell as much by the short mesuer as you can.

Order them in the Bots to worter thear Rum, as the proof will Rise by the Rum Standing in ye Son.

Evidently the Captain was provided with a rectifier's license.

In 1740, it is stated, page 501:

The most important change in the manufacture of this period was in the introduction of distilleries for rum. Massachusetts and Connecticut undertook the business, but Rhode Island surpassed both in proportion . . . . . The trade in Negroes from Africa absorbed quantities of rum.

The 18th century brought in the manufacture of New England rum with far-reaching consequences, social as well as economical. It was found that the molasses could be transferred here and converted into alcohol more cheaply than in the lazy atmosphere of the West Indian seas.