Revenoors - MyTrip Down A Rabbit Hole
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| Mob tars and feathers revenue agent during Whiskey Rebellion 1794 |
Down the Rabbit Hole
I don’t know what gave me the initial thought, whether it was the word "revenuers" or the Whisky Rebellion, let’s just say that one or the other led me down a very interesting rabbit hole.
The Whiskey Rebellion was one of the first challenges for our young nation to face. It occurred in western Pennsylvania in 1794 when the farmers there had difficulties transporting their crops across the Allegheny mountains. It was much easier to distill their grains, producing whiskey that could be transported over the mountains. Eastern distillers, who produced much more whiskey did not like competition that the western distillers presented. At the same time our young United States government needed money. So Alexander Hamilton As the first Secretary of the Treasury, attached a tax to whiskey. The tax on the western farmers was higher than that charged to the eastern distillers. Needless to say, people were unhappy and acted out against it.
I wondered from what heritage the western farmers derived their rebellious spirit. It seems as if the majority were Ulster-Irish, people who had a history of fighting for their rights. I’ve had an interest in the Ulster-Irish people for quite some time, especially those in the southern Appalachian mountains. But I knew I had much more to learn.
It was time to do a little "light" reading. One of my favorite sources for New England immigrants, especially the Puritans, is Albion’s Seed, Four British Folkways in America; by David Hackett Fischer. My paperback has 946 pages and weighs about 3 pounds. Besides the section about the Exodus of the English Puritans, the book also covers the South of England to Virginia and the North Midlands to the Delaware. The fourth folkway is entitled "Borderlands to the Backcountry; the Flight from North Britain 1717 to 1775." This was the section I needed to read to learn more about the Ulster-Irish settlement in the colonies.
While it is common to refer to these people as Scots-Irish, not all of the people were from Scotland. While many Scots had lived in North Ireland for several generations, many north England people from the border lands had also lived in North Ireland. The people who began arriving in the colonies from North Ireland were a mixture.
Albion's Seed describes the surprise of the Quaker merchants of Philadelphia when they observed the numerous immigrant ships and the swarm of people who were "strangers to our laws and customs and even to our language.” This was the beginning of yet another great folk migration from Britain to America. While there had been some immigration earlier, the peak periods occurred between 1718 and 1774. Not all of the migrations came through Philadelphia; some went directly to the Carolinas. From Philadelphia groups moved west of the Allegheny Mountains or south through the Appalachians. The majority chose to live in the back country where they could be much more independent.
These were the people involved in the Whiskey Rebellion in 1794. Thinking about the nature of these people, I could understand their disdain with "revenoors " and the culture of the shotgun-toting, moonshine-brewing family who lived "up in that holler yonder." Think of the movies and television stories about hiding their stills or outrunning the government men when taking their moonshine to market. The culture was even prominent in comics; remember Snuffy Smith? Read the Wikipedia article about the Barney Google and Snuffy Smith comic strip. You'll recognize many common phrases still in use today, "great balls of fire."
The section on Borderlands to Backcountry in Albion's Seed is 180 pages. It covers every aspect of the southern mountain culture - religion, education, literacy, politics. Listed as typical of the backcountry elite was Andrew Jackson, who was said to have read only two books in his lifetime - the Bible and Goldsmith’s Vicar of Wakefield. It also said that the future president Andrew Jackson once declared that he could never respect a man who knew only one way to spell a word. This attitude was widely shared in the backcountry, as it had been in the British borderlands where it was observed that the spelling even of well educated people was highly variable.
I enjoyed the trip down the rabbit hole, learning more about the migration to the backcountry and the life that people led there. It does make me wonder if that country people had the same disdain for census takers as they did for other government people. Is that why some of our families are missing?
I really encourage you to read Albion's Seed. You’re not going to read it cover to cover, but you may find yourself reading long sections. You will gain a greater understanding of the folks from Britain who settled and developed our country.
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| MaryLynn Strickland |
Making excess grains and fruits into whisky, beer,and cider and fermenting and drying vegetables and fruits, etc., were also efficient ways to store extra calories, prevent spoilage, and deter rodents. Colonial Americans drank about 3.5 gallons of alcohol/year and, by 1830, Americans were drinking 7 gallons or more. https://daily.jstor.org/a-brief-history-of-drinking-alcohol/
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