#TRIVIA  John Chapman (1774-1845), known as Johnny Appleseed is connected to the history of American brandy distilling Johnny Appleseed introduced apple trees to large parts of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Ontario, and West Virginia. He planted hundreds...

#TRIVIA American Spirit Independence marks the moment Americans decided to distill locally disregarding the laws of the British colonial powers. American Spirit Independence is an important key to understanding American Independence as colonial distilling profits...

#TRIVIA   The "Chartered Oak" A symbol of American Independence strongly connected to American distilling history. Did you know that Connecticut’s “Charter Oak”, the famous symbol for American Independence, was an unusually large white oak tree - the same type of tree...

#TRIVIA  Barbados's oldest Rum Distillery Early rum distilling as a byproduct of sugar production on Barbados was first established around 1647/1648. Barbados's first legal distillery was set up about 50 years later in 1703. Barbados markets worldwide its Mount Gay...

#TRIVIA  Rum Distilling Knowledge  Early sugar plantations learned to distill the skimmings of sugar production to Rum. In the early 17th century Rum distilling knowledge as a byproduct of sugar making was transferred to the British Colonial Island of Barbados. This...

#TRIVIA  Lucie Winthrop Downings Early North American Rum Entrepreneurs. Read more about the “mother of Harvard” and about her husband being the first known American Rum distiller, and how her sons brought the knowledge of molasses distilling from Barbados to Salem,...

#TRIVIA  Portuguese Transatlantic Slave Trade How slavery conquered the Americas The transatlantic slave trade, which started with the Portuguese in the 16th, was the largest long-distance forced movement of people in history.  Read why it is also referred to as...

#TRIVIA  Dutch West India Company (WIC/GWIC) One of the first international trade & investment companies. The Dutch West India Company (WIC/GWIC) was a Dutch trading company organized on the model of the Dutch East India Company (VOC). The WIC was granted an...

#TRIVIA  Piet Pieterszoon Heyn The first pirate of the Caribbean. Piet Pieterszoon Heyn (1577-1629) was an admiral of the northern Dutch WIC, which was founded to weaken the Spanish militarily and economically during the Eighty Years’ War. Piet Heyn is best known for...

#TRIVIA  The "Groot Desseyn" by the Dutch A 17th century economic strategy to break the sugar monopoly of the Portuguese At the time the Dutch West India Company (WIC/GWIC) was founded in 1621, the so called Twelve Years’ Truce ended between the Dutch Republic and...

#TRIVIA  Elijah Craig (1738–1808)  was a fierce Baptist preacher, educator, and capitalist entrepreneur in Virginia. Elijah Craig (1738–1808) moved to state of Kentucky in the 1780th. Two of his brothers were Baptist preachers, and Craig was jailed at least twice for...

#TRIVIA  The Baptist Preacher that invented Bourbon Whiskey In early distilling history, many Baptists used spirits; some even brewed beer and distilled whiskey.  One famous example of a deeply religious distiller is Elijah Craig, a Baptist preacher that even went to...

#TRIVIA  The First known African-American distiller in North America inventing the Tennessee Whiskey Style. Nathan “Nearest” Green, born in 1820, was the first recorded African-American head distiller. He was born a slave owned and rented out by Landis & Green to...

#TRIVIA  Jack was raised in the Primitive Baptist Church. In the 1850th  he worked for a grocer, Distiller, and Preacher named Dan Call. Dan's Slave Head distiller, Nathan "Nearest" Green, taught him everything about whiskey. Reverend Daniel Call was a Lutheran...

#TRIVIA  Georgia was the first colony to experience Prohibition when in 1734/1735 the British Parliament passed an Act Prohibiting the importation and use of Rum and Brandies into the colony. Georgia was the last of the thirteen original American colonies established...

#TRIVIA  Why Georgia, te 13th colony of British North America was different King George II felt that he needed to create a boundary, or "buffer" between the Spanish in Florida and his very colony of South Carolina. James Edward Oglethorpe (1696-1785) was a British...

#TRIVIA  North America's First Legal Distiller The business man Kiliaen van Rensselaer established early commercial distilling in North America. Jacob Albertsz Planck became the first commercial distiller in North America in 1634 as Kiliaen van Rensselaer granted him...

#TRIVIA  Scotland's Oldest Distillery Ferintosh Distillery was granted distilling rights in 1690. Duncan Forbes of Culloden was granted distilling rights with tax exemption for his estates in Ferintosh for his loyalty to the crown in 1690 due to his political ties to...