Artifact: Molasses
Materials: Molasses
Dimensions:
Date:
Origin:
Collection: Badagnani via WikiMedia Commons
License: CC BY 3.0
Ledger Entry: Molasses
Department: Grocery
Customer: Jemima Minor
Ledger Page: 17
Imported From: Molasses was imported to the colonies primarily from the West Indies.
Product Description
Molasses is a by-product from refining sugarcane into sugar. Though not as sweet as sugar, it was frequently used in desserts such as gingerbread. Molasses is used to make rum and was also used by poor people to make a kind of beer.
Citation: Sidney W. Mintz, Sweetness and Power: The Place of Sugar in Modern History (New York: Penguin, 1986); Katharine E. Harbury, Colonial Virginia's Cooking Dynasty (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 2004)
Historical Price: 2 shillings, 4 pence per gallon; Modern USD: $26.2
Product Variations
The databases record eleven purchases of molasses. These range in quantity from half of a gallon to sixteen gallons. In price these range from two shillings four pence for one gallon to four shillings six pence for half a gallon.
