Coffee’s role in the American Revolution, 250 years later
8 reported
According to NPR, coffee and coffeehouses played a significant role in America's fight for independence, though historians caution against overstating a dramatic shift from tea to coffee after the Boston Tea Party. The first documented coffee-grinding tool on the Mayflower in 1620, and the first colonial coffeehouse opened in Boston in 1676, a century before independence. Historian Michelle Craig McDonald notes that advertisements from the 1760s and '70s show coffee was more broadly available than tea, partly because it was cheaper. While some patriots called for renouncing tea after the 1773 Boston Tea Party, McDonald says colonists had been drinking coffee all along, and official consumption records are unreliable due to rampant smuggling. Coffeehouses like the Green Dragon in Boston and the Old London Coffeehouse in Philadelphia served as hubs for planning revolutionary acts and discussing politics and business. The article also notes that coffee production relied on enslaved labor, with half the world's coffee grown in Saint-Domingue by 1790, highlighting a contradiction with the ideals of the Declaration of Independence.
What’s reported
The first documented mortar and pestle for grinding coffee beans was on the Mayflower in 1620.
The first coffeehouse in the colonies opened in 1676 in Boston.
Historian Michelle Craig McDonald studied 1760s and '70s advertisements and found coffee was more broadly available than tea before the Boston Tea Party.
Coffee was cheaper per pound than tea.
Smuggling of both tea and coffee was rampant, making official records unreliable.
The Green Dragon coffeehouse in Boston was used for planning the Boston Tea Party.
The Old London Coffeehouse in Philadelphia was a meeting place for strategizing responses to the Stamp Act of 1765.
By 1790, half of the world's coffee was grown in the French colony of Saint-Domingue (present-day Haiti) using enslaved labor.
Misconceptions
The article addresses the misconception that the Boston Tea Party caused a dramatic switch from tea to coffee. Historian McDonald says colonists had been drinking coffee all along, and official records are unreliable due to smuggling.
Key figures
Michelle Craig McDonald, historian and author of "Coffee Nation: How One Commodity Transformed the Early United States"
John Adams, later second U.S. president, wrote a letter in July 1774 about renouncing tea
Joyce Chaplin, professor of early American history at Harvard University
Mark Pendergrast, author of "Uncommon Grounds: The History of Coffee and How It Transformed Our World"
Sources: NPR
