The Colonial Spirit: Rum, its Rise and Decline

This paper aims to explore the rise of rum in colonial North America: its commodification and use in trade as currency, its prevalence in everyday life, and its eventual decline and supplementation by whiskey. Although rum, for a time, was the spirit of colonial North America, cultural shifts in North America, and the improved feasibility of whiskey production through technological advancements led to a decline in the consumption of rum.