When Lobster Was Prison Fare
In colonial New England, lobster was not the rare restaurant centerpiece it is today. It was so plentiful along the coast that it could be gathered in large quantities, making it a cheap source of food. That abundance put lobster on the tables of people with little power to choose their meals—including prisoners and, in some accounts, indentured servants.
The food’s low status was tied to its everyday availability. A meal that later generations would treat as a luxury could seem coarse and monotonous when it appeared too often. Prisoners reportedly objected to being fed lobster repeatedly, and Massachusetts rules limited how often prisons could serve it. The restriction was about the frequency of the meal, not a ban on lobster itself.
How Abundance Became Luxury
Lobster’s later transformation depended on more than changing tastes. As coastal supplies became less easy to obtain and transportation and preservation improved, lobster could reach diners farther from the shore as a distinct, desirable food rather than an ordinary local catch. Its reputation shifted with its circumstances: what once signaled cheap abundance could eventually signal scarcity and expense.
The striking reversal is that the prison restriction did not protect lobster from being served. It protected prisoners from being served it too often—a reminder that a food’s status can change dramatically when its supply, setting, and audience change.
