RPTM Podcast Episode Seventy Five: Tobacco and Rum - The 17th Century Starter Pack

Episode #075: Tobacco and Rum - The 17th Century Starter Pack
09/10/2025

In this episode of The Reasonably Priced Time Machine, Professor Lancaster and his trusty robot companions, ARCHIE and HILDY, crank the dial back to the early 1600s—a time when colonists were stumbling through swamps, clinging to life with tobacco, booze, and blind optimism. We’ll talk Squanto, the one-man crash course in “How to Save Europeans from Themselves,” and explore the curious sounds of 17th-century music—think less Spotify playlist, more lute strings snapping in a drafty tavern. Alcohol, of course, was the real colonial currency, fueling both morale and misbehavior in equal measure.

But history is never just quaint quirks and drinking songs. We’ll dig into the Headright System, which tried to solve labor shortages by turning land into lottery tickets, and the practice of sending “tobacco brides,” women essentially packaged as marital incentives to stabilize colonies. Then comes the grim cornerstone: 1619 and the institutional beginning of African slavery in English America. And, of course, we can’t forget Pocahontas, whose real story is far stranger, sadder, and darker than the animated myth. Buckle up—this ride through early America is anything but tidy.

​Main Topics:

• 0:00 - Intro
  
• 1:58 - WDPLT?
  
• 7:02 - 1614 – Squanto
  
• 11:20 - 1600 – 17th Century Music
  
• 15:49 - 1607 – Alcohol
  
• 21:41 - 1618 – Headright System
  
• 25:30 - 1620 – Tobacco Brides
  
• 30:39 - 1619 – African Slavery
  
• 34:09 - 1614 – Pocahontas
  
• 37:45 - Outro

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Hosts:
Ryan Lancaster
ARCHIE
HILDY

Producer: Ryan Lancaster
Executive Producer: Ryan Lancaster
Sound Engineer: Ryan Lancaster
Editor: Ryan Lancaster
Theme Music Composer: Craig Riley
Artwork Design: Ryan Lancaster
Recorded at: Ryan Lancaster Studios

Email:
[email protected]

Social Media:
Facebook: Ryan Lancaster
Instagram: ryan.g.lancaster
Twitter: @MayorMcSweet
YouTube: RyanGLancaster

Hey, welcome to the work cited section! Here's where you'll find all the heavy hitters that inspired the content you've just consumed. Some might think citations are as dull as unbuttered toast, but nothing gets my intellectual juices flowing like a good reference list. Don't get me wrong, just because we've cited a source; doesn't mean we're always going to see eye-to-eye. But that's the beauty of it - it's up to you to chew on the material and come to conclusions. Listen, we've gone to great lengths to ensure these citations are accurate, but let's face it, we're all human. So, give us a holler if you notice any mistakes or suggest more sources. We're always looking to up our game. Ultimately, it's all about pursuing knowledge and truth. ​
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• Blight, David W. Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory. Revised edition. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2002.
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• Bruchac, Joseph. Squanto’s Journey: The Story of the First Thanksgiving. Illustrated by Greg Shed. San Diego: Harcourt Brace & Company, 2000.
• Clinton, Catherine. Harriet Tubman: The Road to Freedom. New York: Back Bay Books, 2005.
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• Curtis, Wayne. And a Bottle of Rum: A History of the New World in Ten Cocktails. Reprint edition. New York: Broadway Books, 2007.
• Hall, David D. The Faithful Shepherd: A History of the New England Ministry in the Seventeenth Century. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1972.
• Horn, James. A Land As God Made It: Jamestown and the Birth of America. Annotated edition. New York: Basic Books, 2006.
• Kulikoff, Allan. Tobacco and Slaves: The Development of Southern Cultures in the Chesapeake, 1680–1800. Chapel Hill: Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture and University of North Carolina Press, 1986.
• Kupperman, Karen Ordahl. The Jamestown Project. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2009.
• Lepore, Jill. The Name of War: King Philip's War and the Origins of American Identity. New York: Vintage, 1999.
• Mancall, Peter C. Deadly Medicine: Indians and Alcohol in Early America. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1997.
• Morgan, Edmund S. American Slavery, American Freedom. Reissue edition. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2003.
• Parent, Anthony S., Jr. Foul Means: The Formation of a Slave Society in Virginia, 1660–1740. Williamsburg, VA: Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture, and Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2003.
• Philbrick, Nathaniel. Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War. New York: Viking, 2006.
• Potter, Jennifer. The Jamestown Brides: The Story of England's "Maids for Virginia." First edition. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2019.
• Rice, James D. Tales from a Revolution: Bacon's Rebellion and the Transformation of Early America. New Narratives in American History. 1st ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 2013.
• Rothstein, Richard. The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America. Reprint ed. New York: Norton, 2018.
• Rountree, Helen C. Pocahontas, Powhatan, Opechancanough: Three Indian Lives Changed by Jamestown. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2006.
• Townsend, Camilla. Pocahontas and the Powhatan Dilemma: The American Portraits Series. New York: Hill and Wang, 2005.
• Wood, Betty. Slavery in Colonial America, 1619–1776. Edited by Jacqueline M. Moore and Nina Mjagkij. The African American Experience Series. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2005.
• Zug, Marcia A. Buying a Bride: An Engaging History of Mail-Order Matches. New York: NYU Press, 2016.

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