Two types of buildings were present in most colonial towns and villages—churches and taverns—and public drinking houses were far more common than public houses of worship. Although tavern was the term most commonly employed, ordinary, inn, and public house were used interchangeably.
Taverns assumed many forms. The City Tavern in Philadelphia, for instance, was an elaborate affair, a two-story brick building measuring 50 feet by 46 feet. The building’s appearance was especially fashionable because it was set back a considerable distance from the street. The bar and public meeting rooms filled the first floor, each extending for the entire length of the building. In these spaces patrons could find various colonial and British newspapers. Moveable screens provided flexibility for smaller, more private meetings. On the second floor were two clubrooms that could be altered to be one large space measuring nearly 50 feet in length. The second floor also contained a long room appropriate for gaming or, for the more genteel folks opposed to this sort of entertainment, the rooms could be used for meetings. Similarly, the Indian King, a converted Philadelphia mansion, consisted of 18 rooms, 14 with fireplaces, and stables for up to 100 horses.
These upper-end establishments attracted their clientele from society’s elite and required experienced, worthy proprietors. One applicant to manage the City Tavern claimed to be qualified because he had kept a tavern in Dublin that “entertained noblemen and gentlemen.” Proprietors of such large public houses had a wide range of functions. They cared for the rooms and stables, managed the kitchen, acted as host, greeted new arrivals, assisted with special events, and handled the funds. They also played supervisory roles over a staff that might include cooks and waiters, drivers, and wood carters. They were also responsible for the quality of the entertainments that ranged from food and drink to conversation and diversions.
Taverns open for lower - and middling-status patrons varied enormously. Proprietors often converted houses into ordinaries by posting a sign, serving liquor, and setting up additional beds for guests. Interior spaces were undifferentiated; travelers might encounter sleeping accommodations in any room of the house. Benjamin Bullivant, who journeyed from Massachusetts, spent a sleepless night in a New Jersey tavern because a group of privateers partied in the public room with “theyr girles.” When the tavern was a single room, all activities took place in the same space. Waightstill Avery arrived at Powel’s Tavern somewhere in North Carolina, where he encountered a drunk assembly—the landlord, a neighbor, and two travelers—eating supper. “There being but one room in the house. . . I watched carefully all night, to keep them from falling over and spewing upon me.”
Early Americans entered taverns for a variety of activities, all of which they lubricated generously with drink. Men gathered on a regular basis to transact business, argue about politics, or share a convivial pint with friends. Visitors staying at these establishments might witness a heated argument about the price of wheat in Pennsylvania or the inspirational quality of a minister’s sermon in Boston. The laboring classes exchanged news of the day, plotted political action, or drank among coworkers and friends. Customers who depended on rural taverns joined mixed company. If these inns were well situated on a main road, the patrons included local residents as well as travelers who needed a night’s lodging, a warm fire in winter, and a cool drink in summer. Colonial militias practiced on the village green and then retired to the local tavern to quench their thirst and relive their feats.
Every colony established a legal code to control the behavior inside taverns. The North Carolina statute was typical: Taverns were required to have “good Wholesome, and cleanly Lodging and Dyet for Travellers and Stable, Fodder, and Corn, or Pasturage and Corn. . . for their horses.” Massachusetts lawmakers concurred. Public houses were to be established primarily for the “receiving and refreshment of travaillers and strangers, and to serve the public occasions of such town or precinct.” Laws also defined who could have access to taverns. Servants and slaves were prohibited from partaking of tavern services unless given explicit permission by their masters. All colonies passed laws making it illegal to sell alcoholic beverages to Indians, and the statutes placed mariners in a special category. Their time inside taverns was limited, and tavern keepers could not extend credit to them.
Local leaders determined what forms of alcoholic beverages were to be sold by which establishments. Pennsylvania, for example, designated some public houses for the sale of wine and beer, while others could offer the whole range of spirituous liquors. In addition, a “take out” trade developed that allowed retail establishments to sell larger quantities to be consumed off the tavern premises. In the 17th century all licenses specified what beverages could be sold. Most sold beer and cider. Some had permission to sell wine. The Bay Colony drew the finest distinctions among drink sellers. Richard Knot, for example, was granted a license to sell “strongwater at retail only to his own fishermen [belonging to his boat or concerned in the voyage].” In the first decades of the 18th century, as demands for particular drinks altered, some Boston tavern keepers stocked rum exclusively. Massachusetts magistrates also stipulated how distilled liquors were to be produced in an effort to protect their citizens from potentially lethal drink. In 1723-24 it was unlawful to distill rum or other strong liquors in lead pipes because it was “judged on good grounds to be unwholesome and hurtful.”
All colonies set prices on provisions for horses and for food, drink, and lodging for humans, making it a crime to charge above the rates. Certain localities created very detailed price lists. Overnight rates in Hampshire County, Massachusetts, varied depending on whether the traveler insisted on clean sheets and whether a lodger was willing to share a bed and if so, with how many people. In Edgecomb County, North Carolina, sharing a bed with one other person was half the rate of having one’s own bed. In Rowan County, North Carolina, additional savings were possible if travelers were willing to share the bed “with 2 or more” persons. It appears as if Hampshire County, Massachusetts’s, lawmakers merely toyed with this idea; they crossed out the line “with 2 or more in the same bed each person.” Gradually, in an attempt to protect the patrons, all colonies required that tavern keepers display the rates “in the common entertaining room.”
As in England, operating a tavern in any of the North American colonies required a license. The process to obtain a license varied somewhat from colony to colony, but in the 17th century it was usually initiated by petitioning the office of the governor. The hopeful petitioner stated why he or she was a suitable candidate for selling alcoholic beverages and assured the governor that his or her house was well equipped to tend to the needs of travelers. By the 18th century the licensing procedures had moved from the provincial level exclusively to town or county. For example, a Boston petitioner continued to request a license from the selectmen who made their recommendations to the Court of General Sessions of the Peace. They then gave final approval. Committees annually visited “the taverns and houses of retailers” in Suffolk County towns to assess the quality of accommodations, furnishings, and provisions. They also determined whether the current tavern keepers were suitable for their employment and whether any of the towns might be in need of more taverns. Based on this annual tour, the selectmen presented their recommendations. They identified towns that required taverns and listed tavern licenses to be renewed or canceled. Similarly, Philadelphia residents petitioned the justices of the Court of Quarter Sessions, who passed on their recommendations to the governor. In some cases the petitioner was required to post a bond guaranteeing that the public would display good behavior inside the public house.
Regardless of their size or the quality of their food and drink, colonists conceded that their lives would be incomplete without access to taverns. Contemporaries who wrote about the tavern identified a far greater role than simply a place where colonists gathered to socialize. The public house was, according to a theorist of social relations, a space in which “the informal logic of actual life” could be discovered and reconstructed.
Further Reading: Sharon V. Salinger, Taverns and Drinking in Early America (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2004).
—Sharon V. Salinger
Teach, Edward ("Blackbeard") (d. 1718) pirate
“Come,” spoke Captain Edward Teach, “let us make a Hell of [our] own, and try how long we can bear it.” These words are attributed to the most well-known pirate of the “Golden Age of Piracy,” known as Blackbeard. Originally from Bristol, England, Teach made his way to the West Indies by working aboard privateers during Queen Anne’s War (1702-13). When hostilities ended many privateer crews found themselves suddenly unemployed. Providence Island in the Bahamas became a colony for these ex-privateers, and under the leadership of Captain Benjamin Hornigold, many turned to piracy in 1715 and 1716. Edward Teach, because of his cruelty and fearlessness, became a pirate captain by the spring of 1717. Hornigold accepted an amnesty from the Crown on returning to Providence Island, but Teach refused and began his piracy career in earnest, sailing his ship, the Queen Anne’s Revenge, through the CARIBBEAN and then off the Carolina and Virginia coasts.
Blackbeard sailed in consort at various times with other pirate captains Stede Bonnet and Charles Vane. Blackbeard and his crew met with Governor Charles Eden of North Carolina to accept an amnesty in January 1718, but Blackbeard clearly had little intention of ceasing his piratical activities. There is evidence that Governor Eden and his secretary, Tobias Knight, were in league with the notorious pirate. In May 1718 Blackbeard, by now commanding a small flotilla of ships, blockaded Charleston Harbor. South Carolina’s governor and council had no choice but to pay off the pirates with medical supplies because of the colony’s desperate position after several years of fighting the Tuscarora Indians. Blackbeard and his crew then established a base among the islands and inlets of North Carolina. Governor Alexander Spotswood of Virginia issued a proclamation against pirates, offering rewards for their capture or deaths. Lieutenant Robert Maynard of the Royal Navy soon trapped Blackbeard in Ocracoke Inlet, North Carolina. Maynard and Blackbeard and their crews engaged each other in fierce fighting, much of which was hand-to-hand. Blackbeard was eventually killed during the fighting. Lieutenant Maynard ordered the pirate’s severed head to be hung from the bowsprit of the Royal Navy vessel. Blackbeard’s surviving crew were arrested; many of them were tried and executed.
Although his career was relatively short, Blackbeard looms large in pirate lore, especially according to the descriptions of him in Captain Charles Johnson’s General History of the Pyrates, originally published in 1724. His appearance was designed to strike fear in both his friends and his enemies. Blackbeard had a large, thick black beard and long hair, which he tied in small queues and to which he affixed lighted rope matches. The effect was to create a halo of smoke around his head and the smell of burning rope. Blackbeard was a fearsome sight, wearing a sling with three pistols, usually emboldened by rum, and often charging headlong into battle. Blackbeard consciously cultivated an image of himself as Satan, a representation that might scare his enemies into not pursuing a fight.
Blackbeard, apart from his appearance as “Fury from Hell,” also played politics in his dealings with the local governors and merchants, recklessly double-dealing with officials as he saw fit.
Further reading: Daniel Defoe, A General History of the Pyrates (Mineola, N. Y.: Dover, 1999); Marcus Rediker, Villains of All Nations: Atlantic Pirates in the Golden Age (Boston: Beacon Press, 2004); Robert C. Ritchie, Captain
Kidd and the War against the Pirates (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1989).
—Stephen C. O’Neill and Billy G. Smith
World History
