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Why Is Boston called BeanTown?
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Why is Boston called Beantown?
Why is Boston called Beantown? Because of Boston Baked Beans, of course! Why did Bostonians love baked beans? Well, Boston had tons of beans, because they´re cheap and easy to grow, store and cook. Boston had tons of molasses because of trade. Sugar and Molasses were brough in by the shipload from the West Indies, to be sold in Boston in exchange for rum and other local goods.Put together beans and molasses, and voila!Boston Baked Beans are in essence made by taking normal navy beans, soaking them in molasses, and then baking them for several hours.
Boston is a bustling city with many activities and attractions.
Shopping locations include Copley Place Mall, Newbury Street, Faneuil Hall Marketplace, and Downtown Crossing.
The city boasts world class museums including the Museum of Fine Arts and Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum.
Boston is of course the most historic city in America, with the Granary Burying Ground, King's Chapel, Old South Meeting House, and Old North Church located along the Freedom Trail.
For children, Boston also hosts the famous Museum of Science, Children's Museum, and the New England Aquarium attractions.
Higher learning abounds in Massachusetts. Boston is the home of Boston College, Boston University, Northeastern University, and Suffolk University.
Nearby Cambridge hosts Harvard and MIT. Many other colleges reside in Boston with specialized fields including art, music, law, engineering, and business.
And Boston is a global leader in the field of medicine, with Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston Medical Center, Beth Israel Hospital, Children's Hospital, and Tufts New England Medical Center located in the city.
It appears that between 1900 and 1910, a resourceful person coined the phrase:
"You don't know beans until you come to Boston."
This author believes this quotation is likely the origin of what popularized Boston for baked beans nationally, and led to the nickname "Bean Town."
There are many postcard references during that period, but few guide book references.
An absence of references may be due to the Temperance Movement Boston was known for its production of rum, which molasses is an ingredient.
The Triangle Trade
In the 1600's and 1700's the Triangle Trade existed.
It consisted of shipping lanes from Europe to West Africa, across the Atlantic to the West Indies, and then to North America.
The trade routes formed triangles when viewed on a map, hence the name.
Slaves were sold in the West Indies, which then sold sugar for molasses to New England, which then made rum and sold it back to Europe or West Africa (as well as other products).
Thus, historically, the triangle trade grew the rum and molasses industries, and a century or so later led to many local recipes for molasses soaked beans.
A Bean Pot found in Boston
This view is from 1905. There are views from 1903 that look almost exactly the same, except there is no bean pot in the center, narrowing the historical reference.
Boston had so much molasses in the early 1900's that in 1919 a huge vat exploded at a distillery on Commercial Street and caused the Boston Molasses Flood <../disasters/molassesflood.htm>. 21 people were killed and many were injured. Witnesses said the wave of molasses was 15 feet high and traveled at 35 miles per hour!
Boston Beaneaters Baseball Team
From 1883 to 1906, the Atlanta Braves baseball team was known as the Boston Beaneaters.
The above image is from the Boston Sunday Herald dated August 11, 1878 (known as Boston Red Caps that year).
One can infer the team was named for the workers employed in the Boston rum and molasses industry.
One can also infer that working in this industry at that time was physically very hard, and at times dangerous "Bean Town," if used during this period, likely had a "rough & ready" connotation.
