Domestic Space in Britain, 1750-1840: Materiality, Sociability and Emotion

Abstract

though, as Woodruff Smith’s analysis of tea drinking demonstrates (Journal of Interdisciplinary History, 1992) Nevertheless, the sale of slaves at coffeehouses is documented and so the general point about celebration of free association co-existing with acceptance of chattel slavery certainly stands. The book is unashamedly urban-centric, notwithstanding that only about 1 in 10 of the North American colonists lived outside of rural settings. The notion of a transatlantic community centred on city coffeehouses should not, therefore, be over-stretched. New York, it transpires, lacked a permanent venue prior to the 1750s and remained deficient as late as the eve of the Revolution. What are described as Southern cities (p. 50) were home to populations of a few thousand and the largest urban centre in the south, Charlestown, is not mentioned at all. It is still meaningful to claim that much of the white population had more in common with London than with one another due to the nature and limitations of colonial communications and the book seems to agree with this. Finally, the rise of the coffeehouse is predicated on coffee’s availability. Wesley Reynolds himself, however, draws attention to uncertainties of supply (leading proprietors to lobby for improvements) and its poor taste, prior to the development of better roasting techniques. Consistent with these findings, Phil Withington has shown that proprietors were never single commodity sellers and that the early development of the coffeehouse in fact outpaced coffee’s supply (Journal of Modern History, 2020). Small caveats aside, the kernel of the book is rich and sound, making a valuable contribution to the social and political history of the British Atlantic world.