During the American colonial era, lobsters were considered "garbage meat" and were eaten by indentured servants, prisoners



During the American colonial era, lobsters were considered "garbage meat" and were eaten by indentured servants, prisoners, and poor families that couldn't afford anything else. Even the indigenous tribes that lived near the coast would use lobsters as fertilizer or fish bait rather than consume them.

19th-century Kentucky politician, John Rowan, once said, "Lobster shells about a house are looked upon as signs of poverty and degradation." It was common for people to bury lobster shells in their backyard to prevent their neighbors from seeing them.

In one Massachusetts town, indentured servants even sued their owners because they were feeding them too much lobster. They won the lawsuit and got it in ink that they could only be fed lobster—at most—three times a week.

Lobsters had such a bad reputation because they were extremely plentiful. Early colonists could just walk up to the shoreline and collect them because they would wash up onto the shore in droves. 
The lobster also had a reputation for being a bottom feeder that would literally eat anything. It also didn't help that during this time, people ate lobster by grinding it up entirely and eating it as a paste or stew.

In the early 19th century, people paid 53 cents a pound for Boston baked beans and paid just 11 cents for a pound of lobster. It was quite common for lobster to be served to cats.


Towards the end of the 19th century, the opinion of the lobster began to change. As railroads began to expand across America, the railway companies decided to serve lobster because it was cheap, plentiful, and largely unknown to inland passengers who found it delicious and demanded more! It was during this time that lobster meat was also being canned and sold all across the country, which pushed demand even higher.

By the 1920s, there were fewer lobsters yet demand continued to increase. By the 1950s, the lobster had cemented its status as a delicacy and became something that was eaten by movie stars and the wealthy.

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