Food defined social hierarchy in 1776. Here’s what was on the table
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ANNAPOLIS, Md. — Arthur Gross has been the chef at Middleton Tavern in Annapolis, Md., for 50 years. That’s a long time, even for a tavern that started serving food before the country’s inception.
Sometimes, in between preparing food in the kitchen, “I wonder to myself what would it have been like?” Miller said of the early days at the 276-year-old tavern.
In 1776, seafood such as rockfish and crab dominated the diets of many early colonists in Maryland.
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And now, when Gross orders food for the restaurant, it features some of the same staples: 100 pounds of rockfish, 6 pounds of crab claw meat, 10 pounds of calamari rings and tentacles, crackers and lemon juice.
In Annapolis, where it’s common for historical reenactors decked out in short gowns, petticoats, caps and leather-buckle shoes to lead tourists around the historic streets, it almost feels like 1776. (If you squint a little and ignore the cars.)
As America celebrates its 250th anniversary, it’s hard not to imagine, along with Gross, how people’s diets shaped everyday life then.
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When we think about signs of wealth today, “we think about cars and handbags or real estate,” said Dana Connett, the community programs coordinator at the nonprofit Historic Annapolis.
But in 1776, it was food. Two hundred and fifty years ago, social class defined the food that colonists and the enslaved ate.
Despite the revolution, a desperation to remain like England
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