Lyddie: Voices from the Field - Chapter 03 Taverns in the 1840s

Today we think of taverns mainly as adult spaces, where people go in the evening to socialize. But in the early nineteenth century, rural taverns like the Clarksons’ were centers of community life. They were places where travelers could find a meal or a bed for the night. They were also hubs in the flow of information—places where people picked up the mail, read the newspaper, and learned about public events as they talked with one another and with travelers. They were sites of entertainment as well, hosting itinerant musicians or theater companies, traveling circuses, art exhibitions, and other amusements. In some New England communities, a tavern might even be part of systems of manufacturing, where an employee could, for example, drop off the materials for men’s shirts, which local women would pick up and assemble, returning finished goods for pay. Business was regularly conducted at taverns, and before the building of court houses and town halls, a tavern’s largest room might be the place where residents attended court proceedings, town meetings, or public auctions. The local militia might train on tavern grounds. For all of these reasons, people who worked at rural taverns were often the first to hear about events unfolding far afield from their towns or villages.

As more taverns appeared in the nineteenth century, it became possible to specialize. Some taverns served working men – laborers moving logs downriver, or driving animals to market. Others catered to a more affluent class of travelers and neighbors. Some served as stagecoach stops. Many buildings designed to be taverns (as opposed to the kinds of taverns residents might open in their own homes) contained ballrooms, or at least large rooms with moveable walls to allow the space to be rearranged for multiple uses. These taverns hosted balls, dancing schools, and other events where relatively affluent residents could enjoy demonstrating their cultural polish and refinement.

Women’s work in taverns was hard, and varied. There was a host of daily and seasonal chores. To be prepared to serve meals, women gathered a wide range of provisions -- eggs, meat, cheese, cider, bread, potatoes and carrots, and so on -- some grown or produced by the tavern-keeping household and others (like New England and West Indian rum) purchased from nearby families or businesses. Food for meals was constantly being prepared. Sheets and blankets also needed to be produced or acquired, and there was a steady stream of laundry. In addition, floors needed to be constantly swept, cooking utensils and serving dishes washed and put away, candlesticks scrubbed, and mattresses freshened. To accomplish all of this work, taverns relied on wives and daughters as well as hired servants, and sometimes the children they brought with them.

I learned much of what I know about taverns from other historians, especially people who have researched the history of tavern entertainments, and who have written about the law that governed the sale of alcohol. Scholars have also studied the history of buildings that housed taverns, sometimes because they are working to preserve this historic architecture. Primary sources that help us understand taverns include financial records that document what tavern owners purchased and who they hired to help with the work. These records can also tell us about a tavern's customers—where they were from, what they purchased, and so on. Newspapers and paintings are also good sources that reveal much about life in early taverns.

About the Author

Dr. Marla Miller, Associate Dean for Strategic Initiatives of the College of Humanities and Fine Arts and Distinguished Professor of History at UMass Amherst and author of Entangled Lives: Labor, Livelihood, and Landscapes of Change in Rural Massachusetts.