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Origin of Bean Town (Boston)
[This page needs to be revised, as much research has
been completed by CelebrateBoston. In general, in the 1870s, the
Beaneaters were a baseball team, and the nickname contributed a lot to
Boston gaining the nickname. A "beaneater" was derogatory, as attempts
were made at that time to revise the Blue Laws and outlaw selling beans and
brown bread on Sundays. In the early 1890s, Beverly Mass. had provided
many bean pot souvenirs for a civil war reunion that made the nickname
popular for a few years, and the true origin of making the nickname
highly popular will be published shortly....]
It appears that between 1900 and 1910, a resourceful person coined the
phrase: "You don't know beans until you come to Boston." This author
believes this quotation is likely the origin of what
popularized Boston for baked beans nationally, and led to the
nickname "Bean Town." There are many postcard references during that
period, but few guide book references. An absence of references may be
due to the Temperance Movement. Boston was
known for its production
of rum, which molasses is an ingredient.
The Triangle Trade
In the 1600's and 1700's the Triangle
Trade existed. It consisted of shipping lanes from Europe to West
Africa, across the Atlantic to the West Indies, and then to North America.
The trade routes formed triangles when viewed on a map, hence the name. Slaves were sold in the West Indies, which then sold sugar
for molasses to New England, which then made rum and sold it back to Europe
or West Africa (as well as other products).
Thus, historically, the triangle trade grew the rum and molasses industries, and
a century or so later led to many local
recipes for molasses soaked beans. The National Park Service has a map
of the
trade routes online in PDF format. Boston was an incubator for the
abolitionist movement?the trade had peaked in the early 1700's.
A Bean Pot found in Boston
This view is from 1905. There are views from 1903
that look almost exactly the same, except there is no bean pot in the center,
narrowing the historical reference. Boston had so much molasses in the
early 1900's that in 1919 a huge vat exploded at a distillery on Commercial
Street and caused the Boston
Molasses Flood. 21 people were killed and many
were injured. Witnesses said the wave of molasses was 15 feet high and
traveled at 35 miles per hour!
Boston Beaneaters Baseball Team
From 1883 to 1906, the Atlanta Braves baseball team was known as the Boston Beaneaters. The above image is from
the Boston Sunday Herald dated August 11, 1878 (known as Boston Red Caps
that year). One can infer the team was named for the workers employed
in the Boston rum and molasses industry. One can also infer that
working in this industry at that time was physically very hard, and at times
dangerous. "Bean Town," if used during this period, likely had a
"rough & ready" connotation.
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