RUM -- THE FRONTIER'S
ELIXIR OF CHOICE

1744 was the year that Nicholas Dupui sold prodigious quantities of rum out of his general store.  This beverage of choice, rum, was sold by a strict and straight-forward formula:
                          -- a pint of rum:  1 shilling
                       -- a quart of rum:  2 shillings
                           -- a half gallon:  4 shillings
                      -- a gallon of rum:  8 shillings

No one had trouble with the math, no matter how much was imbibed.

Rum was the veritable elixir of the gods, offering a sense of warmth on those cold Pocono days.  Or so one would have thought...  but if we take a look at the average seasonal sales of rum (excluding James Hyndshaw's one-time purchase of a 107-gallon hogshead of rum), we see a slightly different story.  For ease of calculation, we are looking only at sales of rum by the gallon unit:

                                                         -- Gallons of rum sold in Spring:  16
                                                                                          -- in Summer:  46
                                                                                           -- in Autumn:  33
                                                                                             -- in Winter:  20

Surprisingly, more rum was purchased and consumed in the hot summer months than at any other time.  Who would have guessed?

To get a better sense how rum was perceived in the colonial age, consider the following poetry from the period:           I ask thy Aid, O Potent Rum!           To Charm these wrangling Topers Dum,           Thou hast their Giddy Brains possest --           The man confounded with the Beast --           And I, poor I, can get no rest.           Intoxicate them with thy fumes:           O still their Tongues till morning comes!

As the poem well indicates, rum was a social lubricant, offering pleasure to some and anguish to others.  It's alcohol content was higher than beer and cider, and most importantly, rum was cheap!