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40 Historical Markers on the Road to Prohibition

Khalid Elhassan December 2, 2019 31 min

Black and white - Monochrome — 19th century Brewery. Pintrest

36. The Rates of Alcohol Consumption Were Through the Roof

19th century couple drinking. Wellcome Collection

There were at least fourteen thousand distilleries in America by 1810, and they were hardly able to keep up with the demand. By 1830, the average consumption rate for American adults was seven gallons of pure alcohol per year.

Seven gallons of pure alcohol is a lot of booze. It is the equivalent of 1.7 bottles of 80 proof liquor per American adult – male or female – per week, or about 90 bottles per year. And considering that millions of American adults did not drink, the alcohol consumption of those Americans who actually drank was significantly higher than the national average for all adults.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.