Massachusetts

The Massachusetts Panel pays homage to patriotic practice of chocolate making in the colony.

During the American Revolution, chocolate production became both a practical necessity and a sign of allegiance to the Revolution. As tea became politically charged following the Boston Tea Party and subsequent British taxes, colonists increasingly turned to chocolate as a substitute beverage, which was considered the American alternative to British tea. The shift was embraced by all levels of society, from everyday colonists to prominent merchants.

Chocolate was not only a popular drink but played a strategic role in the war effort. It was included in soldiers' rations to provide energy, nutrition, and comfort, serving as an edible morale booster for the Continental Army. George Washington ensured chocolate was part of his troops' supplies, and at times, chocolate even functioned as a form of payment or currency among soldiers and colonists when goods and money were scarce.

American chocolate production grew rapidly, with more chocolate houses established in the colonies than in England at the start of the war. Unlike Europe, chocolate was often a luxury for the elite, in America it became more widely accesible due to lower transportation costs and the absence of monopolies, making it a staple alongside coffee or tea.

In the Massachusetts Panel, Boston merchant and chocolate maker Caleb Davis tends to his storefront while an enslaved man grinds chocolate on a matate, a stone used for grinding grain and seeds. Davis was a member of the Sons of Liberty & the Boston Committee of Correspondence, and eventually nominated as an elector for Suffolk County in the first presidential election. Davis was integral in exposing Benjamin Church as a spy for the British Army. Enslaved labor played a critical role in the success of chocolate making, as many young men were trained to grind chocolate and as a result, ran away in attempts to work as paid skilled chocolate makers.

The upper vignette depicts the loading of cacao beans on a vessel along the coast of Venezuela, a known hub of colonial smuggling. Beans were typically smuggled into the colonies as British West Indies plantations suffered greatly from a blight that destroyed many of their trees in the 17th century. As a result, plantation owners centered production around more assured income streams from sugar, indigo, and tobacco production.

The lower motif illustrates chocolate being delivered to Fort Ticonderoga, documented to have received chocolate throughout the war in order to give to smallpox victims and to incorporate into soldiers' rations.