Abstract
AS THE SUMMER HEAT DESCENDED ON NORTH ALABAMA IN 1827, THE people of Madison County turned their attention from the soil the price of cotton the upcoming political campaign. Electioneering, especially political barbecues, provided for many residents of the county a welcome diversion from the monotony of rural life. The notices in the newspapers were enticing. Voters candidates 'two by two in couples one after another,' are respectfully invited attend a barbecue at Byrd's Big Spring and partake of whatever may be found regale the soul the senses.... come eat, drink be merry.1 A genteel BARBECUE at a home in the village of New Madison promised provide good eating drinking an opportunity to take a view of the candidates.2 Madison County's citizens abandoned their labors each summer flocked barbecues, drawn by the heady pleasures of pork whiskey, the swirl of crowded revelers, the mingled strains of the fiddle, the shouts of gamblers, the impassioned political oratory from the stump. Those festivals of democratic politics had become fixtures on the social landscape of the community by 1827. But at least one of the county's citizens viewed the upcoming campaign that year with a jaundiced eye: Barbacuensis attacked the barbecues in a letter the newspaper, calling them places where sobriety is exchanged for intemperance . .. liberty chastened licentiousness. Those words opened the floodgates an outpouring of
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