"Blackstrap molasses and wheatgerm bread
        makes you feel so good you wish you were dead" are the
lines of an old country and western song.  This leads me to believe
that it wasn't alcoholic.  As for the rest I leave that to the real
experts.

         G.L. Seligmann
         Department of History
         Univ of North Texas and perhaps the world's leading authority
on liquor regulation in Alamogordo New Mexico.  Damn its lonely at
the top

   On 19 Nov 2001, at 16:17, Nora Kilbane wrote:

Greetings,

I recently ran across a reference (in a 19th century American
periodical) to a beverage called "blackstrap" being carried by a
farmhand in an earthenware jug. I would guess that the name refers to
the type of molasses used to make it, but I am wondering about its
other components. Was this a common drink and was it alcoholic?

I have run through a number of sources on early American beverages
with no leads. Thanks for any tips.

--
Nora C. Kilbane
Assistant Curator, Visual Resources Library
Department of the History of Art
The Ohio State University
204 Hayes Hall, 108 North Oval Mall
Columbus, Ohio 43210-1318
Phone: 614-688-8187
Fax: 614-292-4401
e-mail: [log in to unmask]