Abstract
In 1838, the Massachusetts legislature banned the sale of alcohol in quantities smaller than fifteen gallons. The temperance crusaders who had lobbied for the law hoped to curb the consumption of whiskey in taverns and grog shops. This goal was hardly lost on the workingmen and immigrants who drank at these places, and they didn’t hesitate to object. And infamously on militia day in Dedham, Massachusetts in 1838—a day traditionally filled with hard drinking and revelry—an enterprising businessman painted stripes on a pig and invited the men to view his freak of nature for the cost of six cents. They came in droves to view the strange beast, in no small part because any paying viewer was treated to a complimentary glass of whiskey. With no alcohol sold, no law was broken. By all reports, the “striped pig” proved such an interesting sight that the men returned again and again to catch a glimpse. Militia day remained a wet affair in Dedham; liquor dealers throughout the Bay State resourcefully circumvented the new regulation; and the Massachusetts legislature soon repealed the Fifteen Gallon Law and returned to licensing the sale of liquor.1
Published Version
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