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<\/p>\nMontreal bartender Jackson Long, a proud rum connoisseur with Jamaican ancestry, is deeply concerned about Canada\u2019s unknown darker past with the sugarcane spirit.<\/p>\n
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\u201cThere are just big aspects of this history that are always kind of buried,\u201d he said, minutes before opening time at El Peque\u00f1o bar in Old Montreal.<\/p>\n
\u201cThen, eventually, some historian decides, \u2018Hey, this keeps coming up. I\u2019m going to look into this a little bit more.\u2019 There\u2019s such a huge, untold story there.\u201d<\/p>\n
One such historian is Allan Greer, who\u2019s now hoping to address some of those historical gaps with a new book called Canada, in the Age of Rum.<\/p>\n
His findings show how cheap rum, largely from the Caribbean or made from molasses from those islands, was key in fuelling Canada\u2019s economy, particularly in the 17oos.<\/p>\n
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\u201cI found statistics suggesting people in 18th century Canada drank about 15 times as much alcohol as today, and it was pretty much all in the form of rum,\u201d he told Global News.<\/p>\n
In some regions, he pointed out, the amount consumed was more than 30 litres per person annually, in rum alone.<\/p>\n
According to Greer, companies profited by coercing impoverished seasonal workers into buying the addictive spirit at four to five times the retail rate, putting the workers in debt to the companies.<\/p>\n
\u201cTypically, fishermen, fur trade voyageurs, lumberjacks, find themselves at the end of the season penniless, indebted and often have to sign on for another season of work to pay off their debts,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
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He refers to this period as a time of \u201calcoholic capitalism.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause I think it plays a vital role in allowing these industries to be profitable,\u201d he reasoned. \u201cIf employers paid the wages that they contracted for, they probably would\u2019ve gone out of business. So, it\u2019s a device mainly to claw back wages to make these enterprises viable.\u201d<\/p>\n
The historian revealed how Indigenous communities were also targeted, and how traders from urban centres like Montreal foisted rum upon Indigenous communities for fur, in return for other products.<\/p>\n
\u201c(The traders) create a desire because, as we all know, liquor is addictive, and it created a lot of turmoil among people who had never had any experience of alcoholic intoxication,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n
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Greer noted, however, that it appears European settlers drank more, and that when Indigenous communities saw the social problems drinking was creating, they pushed back against the rum traders.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn places like Kahnawake, near Montreal, you see it as early as the 1670s \u2014 very early on,\u201d the historian noted. \u201cDifferent people at different times, when they recognized that there\u2019s a real community, social problem here, mobilized against it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Interestingly for him, though, settler communities only started serious rallying against the impact of booze a century later \u2014 around the 1820s.<\/p>\n
Still, as other historians observe, the stereotype connecting Indigenous communities and alcoholism persists to this day.<\/p>\n
Dr. Omeasoo Wahpasiw, associate professor in Indigenous studies at Carlton University, said it\u2019s vital to address prejudices and stereotypes about Indigenous Peoples and alcohol.<\/p>\n
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\u201cIndigenous Peoples, I think on and off reserve, are more likely to not drink alcohol than the rest of the Canadian population,\u201d she pointed out. \u201cSo I think it\u2019s an important fact to know that the stereotype doesn\u2019t ring true.\u201d<\/p>\n