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If in 1630 someone could have asked godly John Winthrop, first governor of Puritan Massachusetts, what Bible passage best summed up his attitude toward alcoholic beverages, he might have replied, Psalm 104:14-15: "Thou dost cause the grass to grow for the cattle, and plants for man to cultivate, that he may bring forth food from the earth, and wine to gladden the heart of man. … " If three hundred years later well-known revivalist Billy Sunday had been asked the same question, he may well have replied, Proverbs 20:1: "Wine is a mocker, strong drink a brawler; and whoever is led astray by it is not wise." American Christians have held widely differing attitudes toward strong drink. Most believers before 1800 regarded the moderate use of alcoholic beverages, particularly beer and wine, as a privileged blessing from a gracious God. A significant minority still do. A few believers before 1800 saw drinking as a sinful blight with which no Christian should ever be associated. Now that is the majority opinion.

In the early days of settlement in America, Christians, no less than other colonists, provided themselves with fermented spirits. The persecuted Pilgrims carried with them an ample supply of "hot water," as it was then called, when they arrived aboard the Mayflower in 1620. The pious Reverend Francis Higginson embarked for Massachusetts Bay in 1629 with forty-five casks of beer and twenty gallons of brandy for the use of his family and the wider Puritan community. (You can read about this in the pamphlet by Gerard Carson, "Rum and Reform in Old New England," Old Sturbridge Village, 1966.) By 1670 the cultivation of apples had advanced to the point in New England where hard cider, or applejack, became standard fare at most public gatherings, including the ordination of ministers. When Jonathan Edwards's father was ordained in 1698, for example, provision for the festivities included fourteen pounds of mutton, eighty-eight pounds of beef, four quarts of rum, and eight quarts of wine.

New England did, however, take strong measures against those who overindulged in drink. The punishment was not a night in the city jail to dry out, as now, but time in the stocks or a whipping. The venerable Cotton Mather spoke from the pulpit against the immoderate use of alcohol, particularly the excessive tippling that went on when local militia companies gathered for Training Days. He was also concerned that drunkenness among the Indians made them incapable of receiving the Gospel. Yet Mather, too, looked upon the milder forms of liquor as good gifts of the Creator to the creature. Some historians think it was Mather who coined the old New England proverb: "Wine is from God, but drunkenness from the devil." In short, no one felt any tension between Christianity and the moderate use of alcohol. Of the Scotch-Irish who came to America from Londonderry, Ireland, for example, it was said: "The Derry Presbyterians never gave up a pint [i.e., point] of doctrine, nor a pint of rum."

The ready use of liquor by colonial Christians was due as much to living conditions as to theological convictions. The colonial diet was monotonous; settlers ate great quantities of meat that had been preserved by salting; lives were filled with hardship and disease; liquor was widely thought to be of general medicinal value; and there was no central heating. All of these factors encouraged the use of alcoholic beverages. In addition, the trade in sugar, molasses, and rum had come to be an important part of colonial economic life by the mid-eighteenth century. Venerated patriot leaders such as Sam Adams, John Hancock, and Paul Revere were among the many people who engaged in the illegal, but highly profitable, rum traffic with the West Indies and Africa.

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April (Web-only) 2000, Vol. 44