1 00:00:02,320 --> 00:00:06,120 Speaker 1: Happy Saturday. Today is the birthday of Frederick Tutor, who 2 00:00:06,160 --> 00:00:08,719 Speaker 1: was born on this day in seventeen eighty three, so 3 00:00:08,840 --> 00:00:11,360 Speaker 1: we thought we would bring our episode on him back 4 00:00:11,400 --> 00:00:15,920 Speaker 1: as Today's Saturday Classic. Tutor managed to convince the world 5 00:00:15,960 --> 00:00:20,000 Speaker 1: that ice was a basic necessity and that transformed frozen 6 00:00:20,120 --> 00:00:23,479 Speaker 1: New England pond water into something that he could sell 7 00:00:24,360 --> 00:00:27,440 Speaker 1: all over the world. Back when this episode came out, 8 00:00:27,480 --> 00:00:30,400 Speaker 1: weird from several listeners that they wished they'd known ahead 9 00:00:30,400 --> 00:00:33,360 Speaker 1: of time that this ice was not exactly clean, which 10 00:00:33,400 --> 00:00:35,360 Speaker 1: is going to come up towards the end of the episode, 11 00:00:35,960 --> 00:00:38,279 Speaker 1: so now you know. Also, at some point in this 12 00:00:38,320 --> 00:00:42,200 Speaker 1: episode we say ninety six when we mean eighteen twenty six. 13 00:00:42,680 --> 00:00:45,120 Speaker 1: We're hoping the meaning is clear from context. Numbers of 14 00:00:45,159 --> 00:00:48,519 Speaker 1: the things we most often flub. Yeah, somehow just turning 15 00:00:48,560 --> 00:00:54,920 Speaker 1: any numbers into a nineteen happens astonishingly often in the studio. Uh. 16 00:00:54,960 --> 00:00:59,560 Speaker 1: This episode came out August sixteen, not nineteen seventeen, but 17 00:00:59,680 --> 00:01:06,000 Speaker 1: twenty seventeen, So enjoy. Welcome to Stuff You Missed in 18 00:01:06,040 --> 00:01:16,280 Speaker 1: History Class, a production of I Heart Radio Hello and 19 00:01:16,360 --> 00:01:20,440 Speaker 1: welcomed the podcast. I'm Tracy V. Wilson and I'm Holly Frying. 20 00:01:21,720 --> 00:01:25,479 Speaker 1: Most of the profiles of Frederick Tudor that are floating 21 00:01:25,560 --> 00:01:29,080 Speaker 1: around the web some of his story like this. In 22 00:01:29,120 --> 00:01:33,240 Speaker 1: the early nineteenth century, he noticed that one thing Massachusetts 23 00:01:33,319 --> 00:01:36,040 Speaker 1: had a lot of in the wintertime was ice, and 24 00:01:36,080 --> 00:01:39,279 Speaker 1: so he hatched a clever plan that in cold weather 25 00:01:39,480 --> 00:01:42,320 Speaker 1: he would harvest that ice for really cheap, and then 26 00:01:42,360 --> 00:01:44,080 Speaker 1: he would sell it all around the world when it 27 00:01:44,160 --> 00:01:48,120 Speaker 1: was hot, single handedly turning ice into a commodity and 28 00:01:48,360 --> 00:01:53,880 Speaker 1: becoming vastly wealthy in the process. Uh, as so often 29 00:01:53,960 --> 00:01:57,360 Speaker 1: happens with our show, it is way more complicated than that, 30 00:01:57,640 --> 00:01:59,600 Speaker 1: beginning with the fact that it was not even his 31 00:01:59,680 --> 00:02:04,000 Speaker 1: idea in the first place. Like I I saw articles 32 00:02:04,000 --> 00:02:07,960 Speaker 1: and a lot of I mean generalist publications, mainstream stuff, 33 00:02:08,120 --> 00:02:12,200 Speaker 1: but all repeating the idea that this was his idea. 34 00:02:12,440 --> 00:02:15,799 Speaker 1: But it wasn't. Uh. He also didn't do it alone. 35 00:02:15,880 --> 00:02:18,520 Speaker 1: He had a lot of help from things like tax 36 00:02:18,600 --> 00:02:23,480 Speaker 1: incentives and economic systems that ultimately skewed things in his 37 00:02:23,919 --> 00:02:26,000 Speaker 1: financial favor. So we are going to look at that 38 00:02:26,520 --> 00:02:30,200 Speaker 1: more complicated story than is often in the one page 39 00:02:30,280 --> 00:02:32,400 Speaker 1: right up today. Yeah, he really doesn't. I mean I 40 00:02:32,440 --> 00:02:34,400 Speaker 1: haven't had not read a lot about him, but he 41 00:02:34,440 --> 00:02:37,440 Speaker 1: really does usually get lauded as like this really insightful 42 00:02:37,480 --> 00:02:40,840 Speaker 1: idea man who took this one concept and ran with it, 43 00:02:40,840 --> 00:02:45,280 Speaker 1: and wasn't he an entrepreneur And it's like, oh, yeah, 44 00:02:45,400 --> 00:02:48,800 Speaker 1: apart from that, we're going to talk about some other issues. Yeah, 45 00:02:49,919 --> 00:02:53,600 Speaker 1: uh so. Frederick Tudor was from a prominent Boston family. 46 00:02:54,240 --> 00:02:57,079 Speaker 1: His father, William, had gone to Harvard, had studied law 47 00:02:57,160 --> 00:03:00,640 Speaker 1: under John Adams, and had been in George Washington Continental 48 00:03:00,720 --> 00:03:05,120 Speaker 1: Army during the Revolutionary War, including serving as its judge advocate, 49 00:03:05,720 --> 00:03:09,640 Speaker 1: and after marrying Frederick's mother, Delia Jarvis, in seventeen seventy eight, 50 00:03:09,800 --> 00:03:12,040 Speaker 1: he left the army to set up a law office, 51 00:03:12,240 --> 00:03:14,240 Speaker 1: and he would also go on to serve in the 52 00:03:14,240 --> 00:03:19,520 Speaker 1: Massachusetts legislature and as Secretary of the Commonwealth. William and 53 00:03:19,600 --> 00:03:23,840 Speaker 1: Delia had six surviving children between seventeen seventy nine and 54 00:03:23,919 --> 00:03:28,919 Speaker 1: seventeen ninety one, and Frederick was born on September fourth, sevree. 55 00:03:29,480 --> 00:03:33,480 Speaker 1: Their family was comfortable, but it wasn't really until seventeen 56 00:03:33,560 --> 00:03:38,200 Speaker 1: ninety six, when William's father died, that they became truly wealthy. 57 00:03:38,400 --> 00:03:41,160 Speaker 1: William inherited in a state that was worth about forty 58 00:03:41,200 --> 00:03:44,560 Speaker 1: thou dollars, which was a lot of money at the time. 59 00:03:45,360 --> 00:03:48,400 Speaker 1: Uh I didn't try to translate them and to did 60 00:03:48,440 --> 00:03:52,400 Speaker 1: it today's dollars, because that is always it's tricky, and 61 00:03:52,440 --> 00:03:54,360 Speaker 1: it's there's never really a one to one way to 62 00:03:54,440 --> 00:03:58,280 Speaker 1: do it. There's really not. It's really like throwing just 63 00:03:58,360 --> 00:04:01,560 Speaker 1: the dartboard at some dollars lines and landing on something. 64 00:04:01,600 --> 00:04:05,720 Speaker 1: It's it was a lot of money though, um And 65 00:04:06,040 --> 00:04:08,640 Speaker 1: at that point he retired from law and became a 66 00:04:08,680 --> 00:04:12,440 Speaker 1: gentleman of leisure. That's the dream. I mean, gentleman of 67 00:04:12,520 --> 00:04:14,840 Speaker 1: leisure while also being in the state legislature and stuff. 68 00:04:14,840 --> 00:04:17,920 Speaker 1: But he didn't work as a full time job anymore. 69 00:04:19,000 --> 00:04:22,760 Speaker 1: And the Tutors were also an active part of Boston society, 70 00:04:23,000 --> 00:04:26,120 Speaker 1: and Delia was so charming and charismatic that she was 71 00:04:26,160 --> 00:04:29,960 Speaker 1: something of a local celebrity. Although the word would not 72 00:04:30,000 --> 00:04:33,120 Speaker 1: be coined until eighteen sixty, the Tutor family was part 73 00:04:33,160 --> 00:04:36,160 Speaker 1: of the Boston upper class known as the Boston Brahmins. 74 00:04:36,680 --> 00:04:38,839 Speaker 1: Just co opting the word from the highest rank of 75 00:04:38,880 --> 00:04:42,520 Speaker 1: the cast system in India. Yeah, to be clear, that 76 00:04:42,520 --> 00:04:45,800 Speaker 1: word existed in India far longer than eighteen sixty, but 77 00:04:45,839 --> 00:04:48,320 Speaker 1: it was in eighteen sixty that people started applying it 78 00:04:48,400 --> 00:04:54,599 Speaker 1: to uh influential rich people in Boston. For the most part, 79 00:04:54,720 --> 00:04:58,080 Speaker 1: Frederick's siblings started off following the paths that would have 80 00:04:58,120 --> 00:05:01,080 Speaker 1: been expected of the children of such a family. His 81 00:05:01,240 --> 00:05:05,120 Speaker 1: brother's William Jr. John, and Henry all went to Harvard, 82 00:05:05,480 --> 00:05:09,479 Speaker 1: and his sisters Emma and Delia married a wealthy landowner 83 00:05:09,560 --> 00:05:14,680 Speaker 1: and a prominent navy officer, respectively, although Delia didn't marry 84 00:05:14,720 --> 00:05:16,680 Speaker 1: until the age of twenty six, and that marriage was 85 00:05:16,800 --> 00:05:20,760 Speaker 1: rocky and ultimately ended at a messy divorce which could 86 00:05:20,839 --> 00:05:24,640 Speaker 1: have been its own podcast, a lot of drama and 87 00:05:25,160 --> 00:05:30,240 Speaker 1: possibly espionage. Nice uh. Frederick, though, was having none of 88 00:05:30,279 --> 00:05:34,479 Speaker 1: his family's expectations. At thirteen, while his parents were on 89 00:05:34,520 --> 00:05:37,239 Speaker 1: a European tour that they could finally afford to take, 90 00:05:37,839 --> 00:05:40,880 Speaker 1: he left school and he apprenticed himself at a store. 91 00:05:41,880 --> 00:05:44,760 Speaker 1: His brother William, who graduated from Harvard that same year, 92 00:05:44,839 --> 00:05:48,800 Speaker 1: thought this was an absolute disgrace. Frederick, on the other hand, 93 00:05:48,839 --> 00:05:52,039 Speaker 1: thought Harvard was for layabouts, something he would confirm for 94 00:05:52,120 --> 00:05:55,240 Speaker 1: himself a few years later when he visited another brother 95 00:05:55,320 --> 00:05:59,000 Speaker 1: there and found his roommate Washington Allston's art stuff all 96 00:05:59,040 --> 00:06:02,280 Speaker 1: over the room. This is a side note. Washington Alston 97 00:06:02,360 --> 00:06:06,720 Speaker 1: was an influential Romantic landscape painter. He's studied at the 98 00:06:06,800 --> 00:06:10,240 Speaker 1: Royal Academy of Art, and Alston, Massachusetts, which is a 99 00:06:10,360 --> 00:06:14,080 Speaker 1: neighborhood uh is named after him. I would not really 100 00:06:14,080 --> 00:06:20,679 Speaker 1: call him a lay about from Frederick Tutor's perspective. Lazy. Yeah. So, 101 00:06:22,760 --> 00:06:26,599 Speaker 1: Frederick's whole argument in leaving school was that this apprenticeship 102 00:06:26,800 --> 00:06:29,960 Speaker 1: was going to afford him a much better education, but 103 00:06:30,000 --> 00:06:32,080 Speaker 1: he didn't stick with it for very long, and with 104 00:06:32,200 --> 00:06:34,719 Speaker 1: his parents still out of the country, he went to 105 00:06:34,760 --> 00:06:38,520 Speaker 1: the family's country estate of Rockwood, which is northeast of Boston. 106 00:06:39,360 --> 00:06:42,960 Speaker 1: In spite of this whole argument about Harvard being for idlers, 107 00:06:43,360 --> 00:06:47,039 Speaker 1: he spent the next few years somewhat lazily. He did 108 00:06:47,080 --> 00:06:49,240 Speaker 1: do some work on the farm at Rockwood, but not 109 00:06:49,360 --> 00:06:53,320 Speaker 1: particularly strenuously, and more of it was about experimenting with 110 00:06:53,400 --> 00:06:57,320 Speaker 1: agricultural techniques than about putting a serious effort into making 111 00:06:57,320 --> 00:07:01,120 Speaker 1: it productive. He also hunted, an read and dabbled in 112 00:07:01,200 --> 00:07:05,680 Speaker 1: various investments. In eighteen o one, when he was seventeen, 113 00:07:05,880 --> 00:07:09,520 Speaker 1: Frederick accompanied his brother John on a trip to Cuba. 114 00:07:09,800 --> 00:07:13,880 Speaker 1: John had been advised to go recover someplace warm following 115 00:07:13,880 --> 00:07:17,880 Speaker 1: a serious knee injury, and since Frederick's business deals had 116 00:07:17,880 --> 00:07:22,520 Speaker 1: included trading molasses and cigars out of Havana, the tutors 117 00:07:22,560 --> 00:07:26,640 Speaker 1: already had some contacts there. But John's condition didn't improve, 118 00:07:26,760 --> 00:07:29,400 Speaker 1: and soon they were back in the United States. They 119 00:07:29,440 --> 00:07:33,600 Speaker 1: crossed paths with their mother and brother William near Philadelphia, 120 00:07:33,720 --> 00:07:37,240 Speaker 1: which is where John died on January eighteen o two, 121 00:07:37,720 --> 00:07:40,240 Speaker 1: and by that point Frederick and William had already gone 122 00:07:40,240 --> 00:07:44,240 Speaker 1: back home. Back in Boston, Frederick started working in the 123 00:07:44,280 --> 00:07:48,720 Speaker 1: offices of Major William B. Sullivan. He wasn't exactly working 124 00:07:48,840 --> 00:07:51,880 Speaker 1: for the major. It was more like Sullivan's office was 125 00:07:51,960 --> 00:07:55,680 Speaker 1: his home base, where he took no salary and invested 126 00:07:55,720 --> 00:07:58,800 Speaker 1: in whatever seemed like it might turn a profit. Still 127 00:07:59,200 --> 00:08:03,040 Speaker 1: not with any pecular dedication, and once he turned twenty one, 128 00:08:03,280 --> 00:08:05,960 Speaker 1: Frederick's father set him up with a business of his own, 129 00:08:06,080 --> 00:08:08,840 Speaker 1: where at first he kept doing the same basic thing, 130 00:08:09,280 --> 00:08:14,160 Speaker 1: investing and trading in various odds and ends. Frederick finally 131 00:08:14,240 --> 00:08:17,440 Speaker 1: found something to take seriously in the summer of eighteen 132 00:08:17,480 --> 00:08:21,560 Speaker 1: oh five, noting after his sister Emma's wedding to Robert 133 00:08:21,560 --> 00:08:25,120 Speaker 1: Hallowell Gardner. The family was at a party at Rockwood, 134 00:08:25,240 --> 00:08:28,000 Speaker 1: enjoying drinks that were chilled with ice that had been 135 00:08:28,040 --> 00:08:30,920 Speaker 1: cut from their pond the previous winter and then stored 136 00:08:30,960 --> 00:08:34,960 Speaker 1: in the ice house for the summer. Frederick's brother William 137 00:08:35,000 --> 00:08:38,560 Speaker 1: casually remarked that people in the West Indies would probably 138 00:08:38,720 --> 00:08:42,840 Speaker 1: love such a luxury. This was not a serious statement 139 00:08:42,880 --> 00:08:46,880 Speaker 1: at all. The very idea was absurd. Cutting ice in 140 00:08:46,920 --> 00:08:49,160 Speaker 1: the winter and storing it in an ice house for 141 00:08:49,200 --> 00:08:52,600 Speaker 1: the summer was common for New England. Families of means 142 00:08:52,640 --> 00:08:55,600 Speaker 1: and societies with access to ice have been storing it 143 00:08:55,679 --> 00:08:59,280 Speaker 1: for later use since antiquity. But loading ice onto a 144 00:08:59,320 --> 00:09:01,840 Speaker 1: ship and said ending it thousands of miles away and 145 00:09:02,000 --> 00:09:05,880 Speaker 1: to the tropics was a ludicrous idea. Not only did 146 00:09:05,880 --> 00:09:08,199 Speaker 1: it seem like the ice would just melt on the way, 147 00:09:08,240 --> 00:09:11,840 Speaker 1: but pirates, privateers, and the navies of multiple nations that 148 00:09:11,920 --> 00:09:14,920 Speaker 1: were variously at war with each other all had chips 149 00:09:14,920 --> 00:09:18,320 Speaker 1: in the waters in the Caribbean. The islands themselves were 150 00:09:18,360 --> 00:09:22,319 Speaker 1: also seeing their share of unrest. Slave uprisings were an 151 00:09:22,320 --> 00:09:25,840 Speaker 1: ongoing occurrence, and recent years had seen the Second Maroon 152 00:09:25,880 --> 00:09:30,120 Speaker 1: War in Jamaica, as well as the Haitian Revolution, but 153 00:09:30,520 --> 00:09:36,440 Speaker 1: Frederick Tutor latched onto his brother's offhand, not serious comment 154 00:09:36,600 --> 00:09:40,560 Speaker 1: as his next big venture, along with claiming that it 155 00:09:40,600 --> 00:09:45,360 Speaker 1: was his own idea. Later on, his insistence that he 156 00:09:45,559 --> 00:09:48,720 Speaker 1: and not William, had thought up the whole thing would 157 00:09:48,800 --> 00:09:52,319 Speaker 1: lead to a severe falling out with Robert Gardner, who 158 00:09:52,320 --> 00:09:55,400 Speaker 1: basically told the truth when somebody asked him about it. 159 00:09:55,840 --> 00:09:59,960 Speaker 1: Frederick never forgave him, even though Robert and William June 160 00:10:00,040 --> 00:10:03,240 Speaker 1: Year both insisted that it just didn't matter who had 161 00:10:03,280 --> 00:10:05,920 Speaker 1: thought of it first, since Frederick was the person who 162 00:10:06,000 --> 00:10:09,760 Speaker 1: actually made it happen. And we're going to get into 163 00:10:09,800 --> 00:10:13,120 Speaker 1: the details of how Frederick started to build an ice business, 164 00:10:13,160 --> 00:10:15,200 Speaker 1: but first we're gonna pause for a moment and have 165 00:10:15,240 --> 00:10:26,600 Speaker 1: a little sponsor break. On August one, eighteen oh five, 166 00:10:26,760 --> 00:10:31,160 Speaker 1: Frederick Tudor began documenting his ideas for exporting ice in 167 00:10:31,240 --> 00:10:34,240 Speaker 1: a newly purchased journal that he would later dubbed the 168 00:10:34,280 --> 00:10:38,240 Speaker 1: Ice House Diary. Even though he refused to acknowledge that 169 00:10:38,320 --> 00:10:41,680 Speaker 1: the idea had first been his brother williams He pulled 170 00:10:41,720 --> 00:10:45,439 Speaker 1: William into the scheme along with their cousin James Savage. 171 00:10:46,080 --> 00:10:48,760 Speaker 1: Frederick and James Or each twenty one at the time, 172 00:10:48,800 --> 00:10:53,120 Speaker 1: and William was twenty six. Frederick sent William and James 173 00:10:53,200 --> 00:10:56,840 Speaker 1: to the Caribbean to set up business relationships, oversee the 174 00:10:56,840 --> 00:11:00,040 Speaker 1: building of ice houses, and generally just handled the to 175 00:11:00,160 --> 00:11:03,160 Speaker 1: be an end of the business. This included talking to 176 00:11:03,160 --> 00:11:05,520 Speaker 1: the government on each island and trying to get an 177 00:11:05,520 --> 00:11:09,720 Speaker 1: exclusive license to distribute. It was deeply important to Frederick 178 00:11:09,800 --> 00:11:11,920 Speaker 1: that he not only have the right to sell the ice, 179 00:11:12,360 --> 00:11:15,559 Speaker 1: but that he also have a monopoly on it. They 180 00:11:15,640 --> 00:11:19,120 Speaker 1: began in the French territory of Martinique. Once William and 181 00:11:19,240 --> 00:11:23,080 Speaker 1: James arrived there, they did secure an exclusive license to 182 00:11:23,120 --> 00:11:26,440 Speaker 1: sell ice as planned. They also noted a couple of 183 00:11:26,440 --> 00:11:30,040 Speaker 1: good locations for ice houses and compiled a list of 184 00:11:30,120 --> 00:11:32,760 Speaker 1: prominent people who should get a free sample once the 185 00:11:32,800 --> 00:11:36,520 Speaker 1: ice actually got there. But not long at all after 186 00:11:36,559 --> 00:11:41,120 Speaker 1: they arrived, James got yellow fever. He spent weeks recovering, 187 00:11:41,240 --> 00:11:44,440 Speaker 1: during which time William went on ahead to other islands 188 00:11:44,480 --> 00:11:49,280 Speaker 1: to try to make similar arrangements there. Frederick followed behind them, 189 00:11:49,320 --> 00:11:53,920 Speaker 1: departing for Martinique on February eighteen o six. He couldn't 190 00:11:53,920 --> 00:11:56,680 Speaker 1: find anyone willing to ship the ice, so he'd bought 191 00:11:56,760 --> 00:12:00,280 Speaker 1: a brig called the Favorite for four thousands, seven dred 192 00:12:00,320 --> 00:12:03,200 Speaker 1: fifty dollars, and he modified it with a wooden ceiling 193 00:12:03,600 --> 00:12:06,080 Speaker 1: to separate the ice in the hold from the hot 194 00:12:06,200 --> 00:12:11,200 Speaker 1: upper deck. When Frederick arrived on March five, his cargo 195 00:12:11,320 --> 00:12:14,200 Speaker 1: of ice, which had been insulated with wood shavings, was 196 00:12:14,320 --> 00:12:18,920 Speaker 1: surprisingly intact, but he was not pleased at all with 197 00:12:19,000 --> 00:12:22,240 Speaker 1: the arrangements that William and James had made. Since they 198 00:12:22,280 --> 00:12:24,960 Speaker 1: had marked some sites for an ice house, but they 199 00:12:25,000 --> 00:12:28,080 Speaker 1: had not actually built one, there was nowhere to unload 200 00:12:28,120 --> 00:12:31,000 Speaker 1: the product, so Frederick had to get permission to sell 201 00:12:31,040 --> 00:12:34,400 Speaker 1: it directly off of the ship, and even though he 202 00:12:34,440 --> 00:12:37,360 Speaker 1: did sell some ice, the people who bought it, some 203 00:12:37,520 --> 00:12:41,080 Speaker 1: of whom had never seen anything frozen, didn't really know 204 00:12:41,120 --> 00:12:44,079 Speaker 1: what to do with it. In a letter to Robert Gardner, 205 00:12:44,160 --> 00:12:47,440 Speaker 1: Frederick wrote, quote, their methods of keeping it are laughable. 206 00:12:47,520 --> 00:12:50,440 Speaker 1: To be sure, one carries it through the street to 207 00:12:50,600 --> 00:12:53,600 Speaker 1: his house in the sun noonday, puts it in a 208 00:12:53,640 --> 00:12:56,679 Speaker 1: plate before his door, and then complains that il font. 209 00:12:57,440 --> 00:13:00,240 Speaker 1: Another puts it in a tub of water. A third, 210 00:13:00,240 --> 00:13:04,360 Speaker 1: by way of climax, puts his insult. He did eventually 211 00:13:04,360 --> 00:13:08,240 Speaker 1: print up some handbills to give people instructions about what 212 00:13:08,320 --> 00:13:11,360 Speaker 1: to do. But his instructions on the handbills wouldn't have 213 00:13:11,400 --> 00:13:15,040 Speaker 1: been all that helpful. They were basically like rapid in 214 00:13:15,080 --> 00:13:19,880 Speaker 1: a blanket. Well, and I like how he's there's like 215 00:13:19,920 --> 00:13:23,280 Speaker 1: a conceit to the whole thing, right, the idiot. Don't 216 00:13:23,280 --> 00:13:25,080 Speaker 1: you know what to do with ice? No, we've never 217 00:13:25,120 --> 00:13:30,800 Speaker 1: seen it before. Frederick lost between three thousand and four 218 00:13:30,840 --> 00:13:33,560 Speaker 1: thousand dollars on this first attempt, and he placed all 219 00:13:33,600 --> 00:13:36,679 Speaker 1: of the blame on William and James. Did not matter 220 00:13:36,720 --> 00:13:39,439 Speaker 1: to him that James had been critically ill for weeks, 221 00:13:39,480 --> 00:13:42,520 Speaker 1: he hadn't been able to even leave his lodgings for 222 00:13:42,559 --> 00:13:46,439 Speaker 1: a long time, or that William had secured an exclusive 223 00:13:46,520 --> 00:13:52,480 Speaker 1: import license in multiple other Caribbean nations. Even as Frederick 224 00:13:52,640 --> 00:13:56,160 Speaker 1: was sailing home, William was on the way to Europe 225 00:13:56,200 --> 00:13:58,840 Speaker 1: to try to get a general license from the nations 226 00:13:58,840 --> 00:14:02,280 Speaker 1: of Britain and France to selling their Caribbean colonies so 227 00:14:02,360 --> 00:14:06,120 Speaker 1: he would not have to negotiate with every single island individually. 228 00:14:06,720 --> 00:14:10,080 Speaker 1: None of that compared to the fact that they didn't 229 00:14:10,120 --> 00:14:14,040 Speaker 1: build an ice house, so Frederick had nowhere to put 230 00:14:14,040 --> 00:14:16,280 Speaker 1: the ice. He he put all the blame on his 231 00:14:16,320 --> 00:14:20,440 Speaker 1: brother and cousin. Frederick tried again in eighteen o seven, 232 00:14:20,720 --> 00:14:24,320 Speaker 1: this time having ice houses ready before the ice arrived 233 00:14:24,720 --> 00:14:28,400 Speaker 1: and tinkering with his methods of insulating and securing the cargo. 234 00:14:29,200 --> 00:14:31,800 Speaker 1: He was more successful this time than in eighteen o six, 235 00:14:31,840 --> 00:14:34,640 Speaker 1: but he couldn't try again in eighteen o eight because 236 00:14:34,680 --> 00:14:38,840 Speaker 1: of the Napoleonic Wars. The Embargo Act of eighteen o seven, 237 00:14:39,080 --> 00:14:42,440 Speaker 1: drafted in response to the wars, closed all US ports 238 00:14:42,480 --> 00:14:47,440 Speaker 1: to export shipping. The United States is basically trying to 239 00:14:47,640 --> 00:14:52,440 Speaker 1: stay out of the wars themselves, while also retaliating against 240 00:14:52,480 --> 00:14:54,800 Speaker 1: the fact that their ships were being harassed in transit. 241 00:14:55,920 --> 00:14:59,200 Speaker 1: So with exports completely closed off, Frederick had to spend 242 00:14:59,200 --> 00:15:01,920 Speaker 1: a couple of years biding his time at Rockwood, trying 243 00:15:01,920 --> 00:15:04,960 Speaker 1: to make ends meet, and experimenting with different ice house 244 00:15:05,000 --> 00:15:08,200 Speaker 1: designs and different methods of insulating them in the cargo, 245 00:15:08,680 --> 00:15:12,640 Speaker 1: taking really meticulous measurements of how these different designs and 246 00:15:12,720 --> 00:15:17,240 Speaker 1: insulators affected how quickly the ice melted. Times were hard 247 00:15:17,400 --> 00:15:20,800 Speaker 1: for most of the tutors around this time. Because Frederick's 248 00:15:20,880 --> 00:15:24,040 Speaker 1: father also lost most of his money on a failed 249 00:15:24,200 --> 00:15:28,240 Speaker 1: land speculation, he wasn't able to repair his finances before 250 00:15:28,280 --> 00:15:32,240 Speaker 1: his death in eighteen nineteen. The Embargo Act of eighteen 251 00:15:32,240 --> 00:15:35,640 Speaker 1: o seven was repealed in eighteen o nine, and by 252 00:15:35,680 --> 00:15:39,480 Speaker 1: eighteen ten Frederick was ready to try again, though he 253 00:15:39,560 --> 00:15:42,760 Speaker 1: had to borrow money to finance the trip. The eighteen 254 00:15:42,760 --> 00:15:45,800 Speaker 1: ten voyage was his most profitable to that point, and 255 00:15:45,840 --> 00:15:49,040 Speaker 1: he secured a six year agreement giving him exclusive control 256 00:15:49,120 --> 00:15:53,040 Speaker 1: of the Cuban ice market. But when he tried to 257 00:15:53,080 --> 00:15:56,680 Speaker 1: build on this success in eighteen eleven, things once again 258 00:15:56,760 --> 00:16:00,320 Speaker 1: became shaky. Frederick's first shipment of ice to to make 259 00:16:00,400 --> 00:16:03,680 Speaker 1: us sank Off Port Royal, and an agent managing his 260 00:16:03,720 --> 00:16:07,440 Speaker 1: operation in Havana swindled him, turning over only a thousand 261 00:16:07,520 --> 00:16:10,160 Speaker 1: dollars of what was supposed to be a nine thousand 262 00:16:10,240 --> 00:16:14,680 Speaker 1: dollar profit. With these things combined, he lost almost all 263 00:16:14,720 --> 00:16:18,760 Speaker 1: of his eighteen eleven profits and consequently was arrested and 264 00:16:18,800 --> 00:16:21,880 Speaker 1: sent to Debtors prison on March nine of eighteen twelve. 265 00:16:22,760 --> 00:16:25,320 Speaker 1: Once he got out of prison, the United States and 266 00:16:25,400 --> 00:16:28,560 Speaker 1: Britain went to war in the War of eighteen twelve, 267 00:16:28,920 --> 00:16:32,640 Speaker 1: once again disrupting exports from the United States and putting 268 00:16:32,720 --> 00:16:36,960 Speaker 1: yet another stop to Frederick's ice business. At this point, 269 00:16:37,000 --> 00:16:40,600 Speaker 1: the threat of going back to prison loomed. Frederick's first 270 00:16:40,600 --> 00:16:43,640 Speaker 1: shipment of ice after the war left Boston on November one, 271 00:16:43,920 --> 00:16:47,560 Speaker 1: eighteen fifteen, and Frederick himself was on the boat, having 272 00:16:47,600 --> 00:16:52,880 Speaker 1: been quote pursued by sheriffs to the very wharf. Slowly 273 00:16:53,000 --> 00:16:56,080 Speaker 1: but surely, his ice business started to grow over the 274 00:16:56,120 --> 00:16:59,480 Speaker 1: next few years, and Boston had a number of advantages 275 00:16:59,760 --> 00:17:04,440 Speaker 1: as the location of his headquarters. These advantages became more 276 00:17:04,520 --> 00:17:09,320 Speaker 1: important as business got bigger. Numerous ponds in the area 277 00:17:09,400 --> 00:17:14,000 Speaker 1: provided the product for pretty cheap, including Fresh Pond, Spy Pond, 278 00:17:14,200 --> 00:17:17,280 Speaker 1: Jamaica Pond, and even Walden Pond, where he would go 279 00:17:17,320 --> 00:17:20,360 Speaker 1: on to bother Henry David Thorreau by harvesting ice there 280 00:17:20,359 --> 00:17:25,680 Speaker 1: in the nature of the shipping trade through Boston also 281 00:17:25,720 --> 00:17:28,359 Speaker 1: meant that once he had proved it could be done, 282 00:17:28,800 --> 00:17:32,199 Speaker 1: he could move his product at a lower cost. Ships 283 00:17:32,240 --> 00:17:35,200 Speaker 1: sailing to the Tropics from Boston to retrieve goods such 284 00:17:35,240 --> 00:17:38,520 Speaker 1: as sugar, we're often empty, with holds full of rocks 285 00:17:38,640 --> 00:17:42,560 Speaker 1: his ballast. Frederick filled these otherwise empty ships with ice, 286 00:17:42,720 --> 00:17:46,720 Speaker 1: replacing rocks with sellable cargo, and the ship's owners glad 287 00:17:46,760 --> 00:17:49,800 Speaker 1: it was no longer a wasted trip gave him a discount. 288 00:17:50,680 --> 00:17:52,600 Speaker 1: The fact that he was mostly using things like wood 289 00:17:52,640 --> 00:17:57,240 Speaker 1: shavings and sawdust, which were waste by products of the 290 00:17:57,320 --> 00:18:01,080 Speaker 1: lumber industry, also meant like even the things that he 291 00:18:01,200 --> 00:18:04,679 Speaker 1: was using to keep keep things frozen in transit that 292 00:18:04,800 --> 00:18:09,159 Speaker 1: was free or cheap. Also in eighteen six team he 293 00:18:09,200 --> 00:18:12,040 Speaker 1: built an ice house in Charleston, South Carolina. When he 294 00:18:12,080 --> 00:18:15,600 Speaker 1: started selling his ice from there, an ice house in Savannah, 295 00:18:15,640 --> 00:18:19,160 Speaker 1: Georgia soon followed, and as the business grew. In addition 296 00:18:19,160 --> 00:18:23,240 Speaker 1: to securing licenses and building ice houses, Frederick was selling 297 00:18:23,280 --> 00:18:26,800 Speaker 1: people the idea that they needed ice. One of his 298 00:18:26,880 --> 00:18:30,840 Speaker 1: eighteen nineteen diary entries describes how he would start with 299 00:18:30,920 --> 00:18:35,399 Speaker 1: the bars. Here's a quote. It became necessary to establish 300 00:18:35,480 --> 00:18:38,440 Speaker 1: with one of the most conspicuous bar keepers a jar 301 00:18:38,600 --> 00:18:42,120 Speaker 1: and give him his ice for a year. The object 302 00:18:42,200 --> 00:18:45,960 Speaker 1: is to make the whole population use cold drinks instead 303 00:18:45,960 --> 00:18:48,959 Speaker 1: of warm or tepid, and it will be affected in 304 00:18:49,000 --> 00:18:53,000 Speaker 1: the course of three years. A single conspicuous bar keeper 305 00:18:53,080 --> 00:18:56,480 Speaker 1: having one of the jars and selling steadily his liquors 306 00:18:56,520 --> 00:19:00,720 Speaker 1: all cold without an increase in price, render it absolutely 307 00:19:00,800 --> 00:19:04,320 Speaker 1: necessary that the others come to it or lose their customers. 308 00:19:04,560 --> 00:19:07,119 Speaker 1: They are compelled to do what they could in no 309 00:19:07,359 --> 00:19:12,040 Speaker 1: other way be induced to undertake. Ice really had been 310 00:19:12,080 --> 00:19:16,000 Speaker 1: considered a luxury until this point, but Frederick's whole model 311 00:19:16,080 --> 00:19:19,280 Speaker 1: relied on it being thought of as a basic necessity 312 00:19:19,320 --> 00:19:23,720 Speaker 1: and on tepid or warm beverages being considered undrinkable. He 313 00:19:23,840 --> 00:19:26,919 Speaker 1: remarked that he knew his business in Charleston was successful 314 00:19:27,359 --> 00:19:31,800 Speaker 1: once he saw enslaved people with cold drinks. We should 315 00:19:31,840 --> 00:19:36,560 Speaker 1: note here that although slavery was effectively abolished in Massachusetts 316 00:19:36,640 --> 00:19:40,359 Speaker 1: the year that Frederick was born, his business, which he 317 00:19:40,440 --> 00:19:44,080 Speaker 1: created from scratch, was built on selling ice to slave 318 00:19:44,160 --> 00:19:47,960 Speaker 1: states and to Caribbean and eventually South American colonies and 319 00:19:48,080 --> 00:19:53,800 Speaker 1: nations whose economies relied heavily on enslaved labor. For example, 320 00:19:53,840 --> 00:19:57,720 Speaker 1: the Emancipation Proclamation was issued the year before he died, 321 00:19:58,160 --> 00:20:01,560 Speaker 1: and Britain and France both abolished slavery in their colonies 322 00:20:01,640 --> 00:20:04,560 Speaker 1: during his lifetime, but this was long after he started 323 00:20:04,600 --> 00:20:09,119 Speaker 1: trading with some of those colonies. Slavery wasn't abolished in 324 00:20:09,160 --> 00:20:13,880 Speaker 1: Cuba or Brazil until long after his death. And Tracy 325 00:20:13,920 --> 00:20:15,760 Speaker 1: did the research on this one, and she didn't find 326 00:20:15,760 --> 00:20:19,840 Speaker 1: evidence that he had directly enslaved anyone, although there is 327 00:20:19,880 --> 00:20:23,600 Speaker 1: a troubling account of an agent from India bringing him 328 00:20:23,640 --> 00:20:27,959 Speaker 1: a quote servant as a gift. But it's incredibly likely 329 00:20:28,160 --> 00:20:30,720 Speaker 1: that at least some of the people unloading ice at 330 00:20:30,760 --> 00:20:34,040 Speaker 1: Southern and Caribbean ports and working for the year round 331 00:20:34,080 --> 00:20:38,479 Speaker 1: agents and ice housekeepers living there were enslaved, and a 332 00:20:38,640 --> 00:20:41,680 Speaker 1: lot of Frederick's customers would have been buying his ice 333 00:20:41,800 --> 00:20:45,400 Speaker 1: with profits that came from slave labor. It's a good 334 00:20:45,400 --> 00:20:48,440 Speaker 1: example of how industries in the United States were complicit 335 00:20:48,480 --> 00:20:51,640 Speaker 1: in slavery, even when founded and run from states where 336 00:20:51,640 --> 00:20:55,000 Speaker 1: slavery had long been abolished. Some of the things he 337 00:20:55,040 --> 00:20:59,040 Speaker 1: was investing in before he started this ice business similarly 338 00:21:00,040 --> 00:21:06,920 Speaker 1: were being produced using enslaved labor. Like his his molasses trades. 339 00:21:07,800 --> 00:21:10,920 Speaker 1: Molasses was made from sugar that was farmed on plantations 340 00:21:10,960 --> 00:21:17,560 Speaker 1: that used enslave labor. I found it frustrating that zero 341 00:21:18,280 --> 00:21:22,640 Speaker 1: of the accounts that I looked at about both Frederick 342 00:21:22,680 --> 00:21:26,520 Speaker 1: Tudor and the ice trade in general really got into 343 00:21:26,560 --> 00:21:29,840 Speaker 1: the fact that he created an industry selling stuff to 344 00:21:30,119 --> 00:21:36,600 Speaker 1: enslavers like that is where the money was coming from. 345 00:21:36,640 --> 00:21:41,159 Speaker 1: So to get back to his basic story. Although he 346 00:21:41,400 --> 00:21:44,320 Speaker 1: was selling lots of ice in the eighteen teens, he 347 00:21:44,480 --> 00:21:46,880 Speaker 1: was not breaking even because he still had so many 348 00:21:46,960 --> 00:21:48,879 Speaker 1: debts to pay, and we will talk about how he 349 00:21:48,960 --> 00:21:57,520 Speaker 1: finally started to break even briefly after another quick sponsor break. 350 00:22:01,600 --> 00:22:05,439 Speaker 1: Even though Frederick's brother, William was really a lot more 351 00:22:05,480 --> 00:22:08,600 Speaker 1: interested in being a writer, he published several books in 352 00:22:08,680 --> 00:22:11,239 Speaker 1: his lifetime. He was one of the co founders of 353 00:22:11,359 --> 00:22:14,480 Speaker 1: the Boston Atheneum, which is a membership library that still 354 00:22:14,520 --> 00:22:18,960 Speaker 1: exists to Boston. William borrowed money to join Frederick's ice 355 00:22:18,960 --> 00:22:22,200 Speaker 1: house business in eighteen twenty. He was the person who 356 00:22:22,200 --> 00:22:25,320 Speaker 1: managed the introduction of Frederick's ice into New Orleans, which 357 00:22:25,320 --> 00:22:28,960 Speaker 1: would become his biggest market in the Deep South. In 358 00:22:29,040 --> 00:22:32,480 Speaker 1: eighteen twenty one, Frederick finally managed to get ahead of 359 00:22:32,520 --> 00:22:35,080 Speaker 1: his debts and it seemed as though the ice business 360 00:22:35,080 --> 00:22:38,480 Speaker 1: would just grow from there. But that year Frederick had 361 00:22:38,520 --> 00:22:42,040 Speaker 1: a nervous collapse. He had been working himself to exhaustion 362 00:22:42,240 --> 00:22:44,760 Speaker 1: trying to make the ice business lucrative enough to pay 363 00:22:44,760 --> 00:22:48,720 Speaker 1: off his debts. Everything was compounded by his generally weak 364 00:22:48,760 --> 00:22:51,480 Speaker 1: health and the fact that he'd had both yellow fever 365 00:22:51,640 --> 00:22:54,560 Speaker 1: and malaria along with other ailments while he was in 366 00:22:54,600 --> 00:22:59,439 Speaker 1: the tropics. He did recover, though, and by ninety six 367 00:22:59,480 --> 00:23:02,200 Speaker 1: the ice business had gotten so big that he brought 368 00:23:02,200 --> 00:23:06,080 Speaker 1: on Nathaniel J. Wyath to supervise and direct the harvesting 369 00:23:06,160 --> 00:23:10,960 Speaker 1: side of it. Wyath introduced several improvements, including a horse 370 00:23:11,040 --> 00:23:16,240 Speaker 1: drawn ice cutter that he had invented the prior year. Previously, 371 00:23:16,400 --> 00:23:18,760 Speaker 1: ice had been cut by hand, which meant that the 372 00:23:18,760 --> 00:23:21,800 Speaker 1: blocks were uneven, they were harder to insulate, and they 373 00:23:21,800 --> 00:23:26,280 Speaker 1: were prone to shifting in transit. But Wyatt's cutter scored 374 00:23:26,400 --> 00:23:29,359 Speaker 1: the ice in a perfect checkerboard, which allowed crews to 375 00:23:29,440 --> 00:23:33,280 Speaker 1: cut the blocks into very regular, tightly stackable blocks that 376 00:23:33,400 --> 00:23:36,639 Speaker 1: left very little space for air or for shifting, and 377 00:23:36,680 --> 00:23:39,120 Speaker 1: also let them fill the holds a lot more full. 378 00:23:40,080 --> 00:23:44,119 Speaker 1: In January of eighty nine, Wyath also suggested a method 379 00:23:44,200 --> 00:23:47,760 Speaker 1: of making the blocks thicker, basically cutting a sheet of ice, 380 00:23:48,080 --> 00:23:50,840 Speaker 1: sliding it under solid ice to make a double layer, 381 00:23:51,280 --> 00:23:53,760 Speaker 1: and then cutting around the stack to allow it to 382 00:23:53,800 --> 00:23:57,680 Speaker 1: float while refreezing. This let them make blocks of ice 383 00:23:57,760 --> 00:24:00,840 Speaker 1: up to twenty inches thick, when previously they had considered 384 00:24:00,880 --> 00:24:04,480 Speaker 1: themselves lucky for a naturally frozen layer of nine to 385 00:24:04,560 --> 00:24:08,960 Speaker 1: twelve inches, so he was starting to do financially really well. 386 00:24:09,119 --> 00:24:12,439 Speaker 1: And then two events massively changed Frederick's life. In eighteen 387 00:24:12,480 --> 00:24:16,320 Speaker 1: thirty three, when he was forty nine, he started making 388 00:24:16,560 --> 00:24:21,359 Speaker 1: massive investments into coffee futures, and he also met Euphemia Fenno, 389 00:24:21,440 --> 00:24:25,560 Speaker 1: who was aged nineteen. Tutor was immediately smitten with her 390 00:24:25,800 --> 00:24:28,800 Speaker 1: and they were quickly engaged, but he kept it in 391 00:24:28,920 --> 00:24:33,320 Speaker 1: the wedding secret from his family, who he was increasingly 392 00:24:33,560 --> 00:24:39,240 Speaker 1: estranged from. There was a lot of drama and pettiness 393 00:24:39,480 --> 00:24:44,600 Speaker 1: in the Tutor family. His if if you read accounts 394 00:24:44,640 --> 00:24:48,560 Speaker 1: that that get into his family dynamics, um, it's really 395 00:24:48,800 --> 00:24:52,960 Speaker 1: his his brother in law, Robert Halliwell Gardner, that comes 396 00:24:53,000 --> 00:24:56,240 Speaker 1: off the best of all of them. Um. So by 397 00:24:56,280 --> 00:24:59,159 Speaker 1: this point he was not really getting along and he 398 00:24:59,200 --> 00:25:01,280 Speaker 1: did not tell the him that he was getting married. 399 00:25:01,280 --> 00:25:05,080 Speaker 1: But they got married on January eighteen thirty four, and 400 00:25:05,080 --> 00:25:09,240 Speaker 1: they would go on to have six children. The coffee speculation, 401 00:25:09,440 --> 00:25:12,199 Speaker 1: on the other hand, would not be nearly so productive. 402 00:25:13,000 --> 00:25:16,320 Speaker 1: Coffee prices collapsed and he lost about two hundred and 403 00:25:16,359 --> 00:25:20,320 Speaker 1: fifty thousand dollars of his investors money. He convinced his 404 00:25:20,359 --> 00:25:23,960 Speaker 1: creditors to allow him to continue his ice business unhindered, 405 00:25:24,359 --> 00:25:27,320 Speaker 1: committing to pay at least the interest back every year 406 00:25:27,520 --> 00:25:29,919 Speaker 1: and estimating that it would take about six years to 407 00:25:29,960 --> 00:25:34,600 Speaker 1: pay off. The sale of ice to India is what 408 00:25:34,800 --> 00:25:38,280 Speaker 1: ultimately allowed him to pay off this debt. He had 409 00:25:38,359 --> 00:25:41,439 Speaker 1: already planned to expand into India with a couple of 410 00:25:41,480 --> 00:25:45,640 Speaker 1: business partners even before he realized how bad his financial 411 00:25:45,720 --> 00:25:50,160 Speaker 1: situation was because of this whole coffee situation. In spite 412 00:25:50,200 --> 00:25:53,359 Speaker 1: of the fact that it was a four month, fourteen 413 00:25:53,400 --> 00:25:57,560 Speaker 1: thousand mile that's twenty two kilometer journey to India that 414 00:25:57,680 --> 00:26:01,199 Speaker 1: involved crossing the equator twice, it turned out to be 415 00:26:01,240 --> 00:26:05,240 Speaker 1: his most lucrative destination by far. I feel like if 416 00:26:05,280 --> 00:26:08,640 Speaker 1: he had just invested in coffee after I had been born, 417 00:26:08,680 --> 00:26:13,240 Speaker 1: he would have been fine. Yes, sure, I mean I 418 00:26:13,320 --> 00:26:16,119 Speaker 1: have a many many cups a day habits, so I 419 00:26:16,119 --> 00:26:19,200 Speaker 1: could have kept him afloat. Thanks to the British East 420 00:26:19,200 --> 00:26:22,040 Speaker 1: India Company, India was home to a lot of British 421 00:26:22,080 --> 00:26:25,800 Speaker 1: people and Anglo Indians, and among this population it was 422 00:26:25,880 --> 00:26:29,679 Speaker 1: incredibly fashionable to complain about how hot it was and 423 00:26:29,720 --> 00:26:33,840 Speaker 1: to describe the Indian subcontinent as the most punishingly miserable 424 00:26:33,880 --> 00:26:37,720 Speaker 1: hot place on earth, and although the British had adopted 425 00:26:37,720 --> 00:26:40,080 Speaker 1: a number of local methods for dealing with the heat, 426 00:26:40,320 --> 00:26:44,280 Speaker 1: including using saltpeter infused water to chill bottles of wine, 427 00:26:44,760 --> 00:26:47,480 Speaker 1: many of these ways of coping were very time and 428 00:26:47,600 --> 00:26:52,960 Speaker 1: labor intensive. A lot of more affluent households actually had 429 00:26:52,960 --> 00:26:56,800 Speaker 1: a person whose job it was to use this saltpeter 430 00:26:56,920 --> 00:27:00,520 Speaker 1: infused water to cool things and like that. Since job 431 00:27:00,560 --> 00:27:04,480 Speaker 1: was as important as the cook uh, it took a 432 00:27:04,520 --> 00:27:10,000 Speaker 1: lot of work um. But in addition to dedicating people 433 00:27:10,160 --> 00:27:13,760 Speaker 1: to chilling stuff, India also did have its own sources 434 00:27:13,840 --> 00:27:16,720 Speaker 1: of ice. One was ice brought in from around the 435 00:27:16,800 --> 00:27:21,200 Speaker 1: Himalayas to further south in the subcontinent, and the other 436 00:27:21,400 --> 00:27:24,840 Speaker 1: was a novel way of manufacturing it. People would cut 437 00:27:24,880 --> 00:27:27,520 Speaker 1: pits into the ground and then fill the pits with 438 00:27:27,640 --> 00:27:32,240 Speaker 1: straw and then place shallow earthenware dishes onto them, filled 439 00:27:32,240 --> 00:27:35,439 Speaker 1: with a couple of inches of water. As the water 440 00:27:35,680 --> 00:27:39,959 Speaker 1: seeped through the earthenware vessels, that acted as an evaporative cooler, 441 00:27:40,000 --> 00:27:42,920 Speaker 1: which let the water freeze even if the air temperature 442 00:27:43,040 --> 00:27:46,440 Speaker 1: wasn't quite to the freezing point. Yet. That's some cool 443 00:27:46,480 --> 00:27:52,320 Speaker 1: science at work right, But this method didn't yield much ice, 444 00:27:52,480 --> 00:27:55,199 Speaker 1: and some of it was more like slush, So the 445 00:27:55,200 --> 00:27:58,760 Speaker 1: British population was incredibly eager for a steady supply of 446 00:27:58,800 --> 00:28:01,720 Speaker 1: tons of ice at a time. The British population of 447 00:28:01,760 --> 00:28:05,760 Speaker 1: Kolkata raised money for ice houses under the understanding that 448 00:28:05,920 --> 00:28:08,000 Speaker 1: some of the ice stored there would be reserved for 449 00:28:08,040 --> 00:28:11,639 Speaker 1: medical use in years when the ice harvest was poor 450 00:28:11,840 --> 00:28:15,000 Speaker 1: or ships were lost in transit. The ice in India 451 00:28:15,200 --> 00:28:17,960 Speaker 1: was strictly rationed and you had to have a doctor's 452 00:28:17,960 --> 00:28:21,680 Speaker 1: note to get more. This isn't actually the first doctor's 453 00:28:21,720 --> 00:28:23,760 Speaker 1: note that there is an important role in the story. 454 00:28:24,040 --> 00:28:26,760 Speaker 1: When William was trying to negotiate a license with the 455 00:28:26,760 --> 00:28:30,359 Speaker 1: British government to sell in the British colonies, they thought 456 00:28:30,440 --> 00:28:33,399 Speaker 1: that this idea was so far fetched that it must 457 00:28:33,480 --> 00:28:36,439 Speaker 1: just be a front for smuggling. So he had to 458 00:28:36,480 --> 00:28:39,520 Speaker 1: get a note from a doctor explaining how ice could 459 00:28:39,520 --> 00:28:47,960 Speaker 1: be beneficial in in Caribbean colonies. So tutors first ice 460 00:28:48,040 --> 00:28:52,000 Speaker 1: delivery to India arrived in Kolkata on September six, eight 461 00:28:52,240 --> 00:28:56,080 Speaker 1: thirty three, and intense British demand for it made it 462 00:28:56,120 --> 00:28:59,600 Speaker 1: an immediate success. It was not just the demand for 463 00:28:59,680 --> 00:29:03,520 Speaker 1: ice that made the Anglo British market so lucrative. The 464 00:29:03,520 --> 00:29:08,160 Speaker 1: British East India Company's terms were very favorable for Frederick Tudor. 465 00:29:08,400 --> 00:29:11,840 Speaker 1: He got a lot of exemptions and and incentives that 466 00:29:11,920 --> 00:29:15,800 Speaker 1: made India more profitable than any other market, and so 467 00:29:15,800 --> 00:29:19,440 Speaker 1: soon he was expanding into other Indian cities as well. 468 00:29:20,320 --> 00:29:24,800 Speaker 1: In eighteen thirty four, Frederick also began shipping ice Tarrio, 469 00:29:24,880 --> 00:29:28,560 Speaker 1: and this was coincidentally where his brother William had died. 470 00:29:29,120 --> 00:29:31,960 Speaker 1: William had left the business after being appointed to US 471 00:29:32,040 --> 00:29:35,360 Speaker 1: consul in Peru in eighteen twenty four, and he was 472 00:29:35,400 --> 00:29:39,719 Speaker 1: appointed charge a fair for Brazil in eighteen seven. He 473 00:29:39,800 --> 00:29:43,320 Speaker 1: died there of an infection on March ninth, eighteen thirty 474 00:29:44,760 --> 00:29:48,360 Speaker 1: Although Frederick dabbled in plenty of other side investments and 475 00:29:48,440 --> 00:29:50,959 Speaker 1: side businesses over the course of his life, nothing was 476 00:29:51,000 --> 00:29:54,800 Speaker 1: ever nearly as successful as the ice trade, and he 477 00:29:54,880 --> 00:29:58,040 Speaker 1: was doing so much business through exports that he was 478 00:29:58,480 --> 00:30:02,080 Speaker 1: nearly unaffected by the Panic of eighteen thirty seven or 479 00:30:02,360 --> 00:30:05,240 Speaker 1: by the start of the Civil War, completely stopping his 480 00:30:05,320 --> 00:30:08,640 Speaker 1: shipping to southern ports, and that, as a side note, 481 00:30:09,760 --> 00:30:13,160 Speaker 1: led to some of the development of artificial refrigeration technologies 482 00:30:13,200 --> 00:30:15,400 Speaker 1: as the South had come to rely on these ice 483 00:30:15,480 --> 00:30:18,440 Speaker 1: exports that they could no longer get because they were 484 00:30:18,480 --> 00:30:21,160 Speaker 1: at war with the North and they needed their ice. 485 00:30:21,240 --> 00:30:24,600 Speaker 1: Tea we love it in the South. Uh Tutor paid 486 00:30:24,600 --> 00:30:27,520 Speaker 1: off the last of his coffee debts in eighteen forty nine. 487 00:30:27,720 --> 00:30:30,200 Speaker 1: He was sixty five at the time. It had actually 488 00:30:30,240 --> 00:30:33,000 Speaker 1: taken him fourteen years to do it, during which time 489 00:30:33,000 --> 00:30:36,800 Speaker 1: he paid about fourteen thousand dollars worth of interest. He 490 00:30:36,960 --> 00:30:40,320 Speaker 1: continued to be heavily involved in the ice trade until 491 00:30:40,480 --> 00:30:43,360 Speaker 1: very late in his life, and eventually a lot of 492 00:30:43,360 --> 00:30:47,160 Speaker 1: the New England ice harvesting moved north into Maine. The 493 00:30:47,200 --> 00:30:50,720 Speaker 1: harvesting season was longer, and the ice could be harvested 494 00:30:50,720 --> 00:30:54,160 Speaker 1: directly from the Qunebec River and then loaded directly onto 495 00:30:54,200 --> 00:30:56,600 Speaker 1: a ship, rather than having to transport it from all 496 00:30:56,640 --> 00:31:00,479 Speaker 1: these ponds over land to the harbor in Boston. Also, 497 00:31:00,720 --> 00:31:03,720 Speaker 1: the ice in Massachusetts towards the end of his life 498 00:31:03,800 --> 00:31:07,120 Speaker 1: was becoming a lot dirtier as the land around the 499 00:31:07,160 --> 00:31:10,440 Speaker 1: ponds was more developed and as the horses used to 500 00:31:10,520 --> 00:31:15,720 Speaker 1: draw the ice plows left their waist behind. By eighteen 501 00:31:15,760 --> 00:31:18,920 Speaker 1: fifty six, ice companies in New England were sending one 502 00:31:18,960 --> 00:31:23,080 Speaker 1: hundred fifty thousand tons of ice to forty three nations, 503 00:31:23,120 --> 00:31:26,120 Speaker 1: and similar businesses had sprung up in other cold weather 504 00:31:26,200 --> 00:31:30,280 Speaker 1: parts of the country as well. Although Frederick had continually 505 00:31:30,320 --> 00:31:34,080 Speaker 1: sought monopolies and did occasionally managed to secure them, they 506 00:31:34,080 --> 00:31:38,680 Speaker 1: didn't generally last for long. Competition with other ice exporters 507 00:31:38,760 --> 00:31:42,680 Speaker 1: increased over the course of his life, especially when Italian traders, 508 00:31:42,720 --> 00:31:45,920 Speaker 1: who were much closer to India than Boston was, began 509 00:31:45,960 --> 00:31:50,000 Speaker 1: transporting alpine ice, and as New York began to overtake 510 00:31:50,040 --> 00:31:53,280 Speaker 1: Boston in terms of overall shipping, much of the ice 511 00:31:53,320 --> 00:31:57,880 Speaker 1: trade had moved there. Frederick Tutor died on February six, 512 00:31:58,000 --> 00:32:00,320 Speaker 1: eighteen sixty four, at the age of a be and 513 00:32:00,400 --> 00:32:04,520 Speaker 1: he was by then vastly wealthy, both from the actual 514 00:32:04,640 --> 00:32:08,800 Speaker 1: profits of the ice trade, but also really importantly from 515 00:32:08,840 --> 00:32:11,920 Speaker 1: the land value of all this property that he had 516 00:32:11,960 --> 00:32:16,520 Speaker 1: bought decades before to build ice houses on. His widow 517 00:32:16,640 --> 00:32:19,320 Speaker 1: ran the business after his death, changing her name to 518 00:32:19,520 --> 00:32:23,800 Speaker 1: Fenmo Tutor in eighteen sixty seven. Possibly don't actually know 519 00:32:23,880 --> 00:32:27,360 Speaker 1: her motivations for sure, but the speculation is so that 520 00:32:27,440 --> 00:32:30,320 Speaker 1: correspondence in the ice trade would assume that she was 521 00:32:30,360 --> 00:32:36,000 Speaker 1: a man She also in the continuing Pile of things 522 00:32:36,040 --> 00:32:40,440 Speaker 1: that make make of wonder whether Frederick was that much 523 00:32:40,480 --> 00:32:44,520 Speaker 1: fun to be around. She went through and annotated all 524 00:32:44,600 --> 00:32:47,720 Speaker 1: of his journals from the early years of their marriage, 525 00:32:48,200 --> 00:32:51,160 Speaker 1: often saying things happen in a very different way than 526 00:32:51,200 --> 00:32:54,239 Speaker 1: we're written down in the journals, and alleging that he 527 00:32:54,280 --> 00:32:58,080 Speaker 1: had been sharing quote the marriage privileges with the woman 528 00:32:58,160 --> 00:33:02,040 Speaker 1: he had lived on and off with since eighty four. 529 00:33:02,320 --> 00:33:05,640 Speaker 1: I don't know who that woman was or slash may 530 00:33:05,680 --> 00:33:08,480 Speaker 1: have been. Since this is an allegation, right, we have 531 00:33:08,520 --> 00:33:14,760 Speaker 1: nothing but Venmo Tutor's word at that point um and 532 00:33:14,840 --> 00:33:17,600 Speaker 1: during the window of time when Tutor was the ice King, 533 00:33:17,640 --> 00:33:21,080 Speaker 1: though the ice trade was changing the world, the first 534 00:33:21,120 --> 00:33:24,520 Speaker 1: home refrigerators were powered by huge blocks of ice, hence 535 00:33:24,560 --> 00:33:27,520 Speaker 1: the name ice box. They didn't just help people save 536 00:33:27,600 --> 00:33:30,640 Speaker 1: money by keeping their food longer without spoiling, though, they 537 00:33:30,680 --> 00:33:34,880 Speaker 1: also improved public health. Without the ability to keep food cold, 538 00:33:35,280 --> 00:33:39,080 Speaker 1: pathogens multiplied in warmer weather, leading to acute diarrhea known 539 00:33:39,120 --> 00:33:43,320 Speaker 1: as summer complaint, which could be fatal. Aside from that, 540 00:33:43,640 --> 00:33:47,720 Speaker 1: just as examples, hospitals use ice to cool patients who 541 00:33:47,720 --> 00:33:51,400 Speaker 1: had high fevers. Fishing vessels were able to stay at 542 00:33:51,560 --> 00:33:54,480 Speaker 1: sea longer because they could keep their catches on ice, 543 00:33:54,920 --> 00:33:58,400 Speaker 1: and perishable foods could be shipped much farther away, so 544 00:33:58,440 --> 00:34:01,520 Speaker 1: this changed the tie of food that people were able 545 00:34:01,560 --> 00:34:05,560 Speaker 1: to eat. Tropical fruits could also be shipped much farther 546 00:34:05,760 --> 00:34:08,200 Speaker 1: packed an ice that had first been shipped to the 547 00:34:08,200 --> 00:34:11,720 Speaker 1: tropics to pick it up. The British Royal Navy even 548 00:34:11,880 --> 00:34:15,360 Speaker 1: used ice to cool their gun turrets. And of course, 549 00:34:15,520 --> 00:34:19,400 Speaker 1: the advent of artificial refrigeration and ice making once again 550 00:34:19,600 --> 00:34:24,640 Speaker 1: changed everything. Mechanical refrigerators were in development by the eighteen seventies, 551 00:34:25,040 --> 00:34:28,799 Speaker 1: and home refrigerators were becoming ubiquitous by the nineteen twenties. 552 00:34:29,600 --> 00:34:33,600 Speaker 1: Once manufactured ice became a possibility, most folks stopped wanting 553 00:34:33,640 --> 00:34:37,120 Speaker 1: to use frozen pond water that could potentially have horse 554 00:34:37,160 --> 00:34:40,120 Speaker 1: poop in it. Of Course, the ice trade, much as 555 00:34:40,200 --> 00:34:42,800 Speaker 1: was the case with butter versus margarine, the ice trade, 556 00:34:42,800 --> 00:34:45,680 Speaker 1: tried to make a a lot of arguments about how 557 00:34:45,760 --> 00:34:48,880 Speaker 1: artificial ice was bad and chemical. You should want this 558 00:34:49,000 --> 00:34:53,440 Speaker 1: naturally fresh pond water that horses have been pooping in 559 00:34:53,600 --> 00:34:57,680 Speaker 1: and on for decades. I mean, we still right. There 560 00:34:57,680 --> 00:35:00,840 Speaker 1: are variations of that that are not so much legal 561 00:35:00,920 --> 00:35:04,400 Speaker 1: arguments as marketing schemes, right, Like you want this water 562 00:35:04,560 --> 00:35:09,640 Speaker 1: fresh from a stream, not one that's been processed. Uh. 563 00:35:09,760 --> 00:35:13,040 Speaker 1: I don't think anybody's making the case for horse poop water. 564 00:35:14,000 --> 00:35:18,240 Speaker 1: So one of his descendants donated all of his papers 565 00:35:18,239 --> 00:35:21,760 Speaker 1: and all the family papers to Baker Library at Harvard 566 00:35:21,800 --> 00:35:24,839 Speaker 1: Business School, and I kind of want to go down 567 00:35:24,880 --> 00:35:28,359 Speaker 1: there and pour through them and try to figure out, like, 568 00:35:28,480 --> 00:35:35,360 Speaker 1: did he think about what he was doing regarding establishing 569 00:35:35,360 --> 00:35:38,960 Speaker 1: a business that for so long was almost exclusively trading 570 00:35:39,080 --> 00:35:41,960 Speaker 1: to people that were making all their money off of slavery, 571 00:35:42,080 --> 00:35:49,560 Speaker 1: Like he has to have known about slavery being wrong, 572 00:35:49,680 --> 00:35:53,280 Speaker 1: especially since he was literally harvesting ice from where Henry 573 00:35:53,400 --> 00:35:56,879 Speaker 1: David Throw was hanging out the row was a staunch abolitionist. 574 00:35:58,840 --> 00:36:02,800 Speaker 1: But I couldn't find any anybody that had looked into 575 00:36:02,840 --> 00:36:06,120 Speaker 1: that at all. Most of the sources are really candid 576 00:36:06,239 --> 00:36:08,960 Speaker 1: about the fact that he was selling to you know, 577 00:36:09,080 --> 00:36:12,120 Speaker 1: you know, British colonial India, which has its own set 578 00:36:12,960 --> 00:36:18,279 Speaker 1: of issues and human rights concerns and all of that. 579 00:36:19,560 --> 00:36:25,279 Speaker 1: But I didn't find any anyone really looking into the 580 00:36:25,360 --> 00:36:29,799 Speaker 1: part where he created a trade that was so reliant 581 00:36:29,800 --> 00:36:34,160 Speaker 1: on slavery. For so long, I would be willing to wager. 582 00:36:34,760 --> 00:36:36,560 Speaker 1: And this is a bet that can probably never be 583 00:36:36,600 --> 00:36:40,760 Speaker 1: proven out unless we somehow managed to reanimate long decease people. 584 00:36:42,239 --> 00:36:44,880 Speaker 1: I would bet he didn't even really think about it. 585 00:36:46,280 --> 00:36:52,200 Speaker 1: That is my sad suspicion. I suspect he was like, 586 00:36:52,920 --> 00:36:55,160 Speaker 1: I just want to sell my ice. I don't care 587 00:36:55,400 --> 00:37:01,480 Speaker 1: to I'm not going back to prison, ma'am. I do 588 00:37:01,640 --> 00:37:05,439 Speaker 1: know that there is a letter that's in some way 589 00:37:05,520 --> 00:37:10,680 Speaker 1: related to slavery and to the Movement for Abolition Abolition 590 00:37:11,480 --> 00:37:14,560 Speaker 1: that's listed in the finding guide of the Tutor Family 591 00:37:14,800 --> 00:37:17,640 Speaker 1: papers at Harvard, But I like, I don't know what 592 00:37:17,680 --> 00:37:23,160 Speaker 1: that letter is is about. I feel like it's We 593 00:37:23,239 --> 00:37:27,640 Speaker 1: have gotten comments before on social media about how like 594 00:37:27,800 --> 00:37:31,960 Speaker 1: the money related to slavery was all the Southern money, 595 00:37:31,960 --> 00:37:34,680 Speaker 1: and that's so false. And to me, this is a 596 00:37:34,800 --> 00:37:39,720 Speaker 1: really good example of how a northern industry could really 597 00:37:40,360 --> 00:37:45,560 Speaker 1: be heavily connected to slavery, even if it wasn't using 598 00:37:45,719 --> 00:37:50,839 Speaker 1: enslaved labor or directly enslaving anyone um a lot of 599 00:37:50,840 --> 00:37:54,120 Speaker 1: the as I was like, I really, I don't know. 600 00:37:54,160 --> 00:37:56,319 Speaker 1: I should not have been astonished, but I was. And 601 00:37:56,360 --> 00:37:58,319 Speaker 1: as I was looking around trying to figure out if 602 00:37:58,320 --> 00:38:00,600 Speaker 1: there was anything that anybody had really you put together 603 00:38:00,640 --> 00:38:03,479 Speaker 1: about this, and I kept finding articles where the only 604 00:38:03,520 --> 00:38:06,880 Speaker 1: reference to slavery at all was the caption of a 605 00:38:07,000 --> 00:38:11,840 Speaker 1: photo of some ice being unloaded by enslaved people in 606 00:38:11,880 --> 00:38:13,960 Speaker 1: a Caribbean port, and I was like, well, this is 607 00:38:14,280 --> 00:38:19,680 Speaker 1: my unsatisfactory experience of the week. Uh in in an 608 00:38:19,719 --> 00:38:22,000 Speaker 1: episode I chose because I thought it was going to 609 00:38:22,080 --> 00:38:27,359 Speaker 1: be more fun than talking about eugenics. Nothing's ever fun 610 00:38:27,400 --> 00:38:37,799 Speaker 1: in history. 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