In the folkways of Southern gastronomy, eating and drinking have played a part not only in general hospitality and sociability but also in community gatherings where the needs of work, religion and politics as well as gregariousness are satisfied. Such was the case in harvest suppers, corn shucking, butchering day dinners, and all day singing and dinner on the grounds, church picnics, barbeques and fish muddles. And when the eating was light, as at frolics and dances, the drinking was apt to be heavy.
The jug and the bottle were already firmly established in the backwoods pattern where poor roads made the jug (without benefit of government excise tax) the easiest way to get corn out of corn-patches (especially in the mountains). Where money was scarce, whisky also was used for barter.