Thursday, September 11, 2014

Now...About Those Taxes !

Here's a little bit of history about the revolution times that you may not know.

While most of what we know about early taxation was correct, there were certain things left out of most history books. I reckon it was because of the reference to that ol' "Demon Rum!"

American Rum And The Revolution

Schools teach us that the colonists living in America rebelled because of unfair taxation, which is a pretty accurate statement. They also teach that a tax on tea fired the colonists up, culminating in 1773′s Boston Tea Party. In reality, it didn’t all start there. First came a tax on molasses—molasses used for making rum.

Rum was a hugely popular drink in the American colonies, with hundreds of distilleries all manufacturing their syrupy version of the Caribbean drink. As North America’s climate was ill-suited for growing sugar, most of it was imported, to the tune of about six million gallons of molasses in 1770.

Molasses and sugar came from British- and French-ruled areas. To secure trade for themselves, the British used the Molasses Act of 1733 to slap a heavy tax on molasses that didn’t come from their own colonies. A revised act in 1764 imposed the tax on both sugar and molasses, allowing for the seizure of any cargo imported in violation of the law.

Suddenly, tax was having a very real impact on the success of a major colonial business, leading to the beginning of the rebellion against the idea of taxation without representation.

No matter how you look at it, the colonies were tired of being charged all those high taxes, especially when it came to sugar, tea, and molasses. Seems like the makings for some wild and fun parties were being taxed, and businesses started to hurt. Sounds like a good reason to revolt to me, ya know?

Coffee out on the patio this morning. Another hot and dry day here.

7 comments:

Mamahen said...

Might have known that spirts were involved .....Got storms on the way here this morning.....I'm thinking home made french toast sticks with maple syrup for dipping ....i'll share :))

Chickenmom said...

Taxes - another word for control.
Haven't had french toast sticks in a long time Mamahen. Make a lot of em!

Dizzy-Dick said...

I guess the Boston "Tea Party" wasn't just for teetotalers.

johnnyb said...


damn good reason to revolt.

JO said...

Their still taxing us to death but hide it better these days.

Going to be pretty warm here again to but also dry. Patio sounds good.

HermitJim said...

Hey Mamahen...
Gotta be some spirits involved somewhere in the mix, right?

Thanks for the goodies this morning and for coming over!



Hey Phyllis...
Right you are, and that kind of control can come back and bite you in the butt!

Thanks for the visit this morning!




Hey Dizzy...
I wonder just how many of those involved in the actual party were completely sober?

Thanks for dropping by today!



Hey John...
Seems to me it was...and still is!

Thanks for the visit this morning!



Hey Jo...
Guess that taxes will always be with us in some fashion.

Thanks, sweetie, for coming by today!

Sixbears said...

Taxation with representation isn't much fun either. :)

Coffee in the kitchen this morning. Summer rain coming down.