Oysters

According to the 1860 census, eight states produced oysters. The census enumerated 426 firms that employed 2,165 hands and produced a catch worth $1.4 million. Connecticut possessed that largest portion of the industry (44.7 percent). Oysters were dredged by sailboats and rowboats. Dealers in New York paid between $3 and $12 per thousand common oysters. They were shipped fresh, canned and pickled. A description provided by a traveler to the United States in the mid-1850s testifies to the popularity and abundance of oysters:

"There is no place in the world where there are such fine oysters as in New York, and the sea-board cities of America; fine in flavor, and of a size unparalleled in the oyster beds of Whitstable, Ostend, or the once celebrated Rocher de Cancale. Nor has the gift of oysters been bestowed upon an ungrateful people. If one may judge from appearances, the delicacy is highly relished and esteemed by all classes, from the millionaire in the Fifth Avenue to the 'Boy' in the Bowery, and the German and Irish emigrants in their own peculiar quarters of the city, which (soit dit en passant) seem to monopolize all the filth to be found in Manhattan. In walking up Broadway by day or by night – but more especially by night – the stranger can not but remark the great number of 'Oyster Saloons,' 'Oyster and Coffee Saloons,' and 'Oyster and Lager Beer Saloons,' which solicit him at every turn to stop and taste. These saloons – many of them very handsomely fitted up – are, like the drinking saloons in Germany, situated in vaults or cellars, with steps from the street; but, unlike their German models, they occupy the underground stories of the most stately commercial palaces of that city. In these, as in the hotels, oysters as large as a lady's hand are to be had at all hours, either from the shell, as they are commonly eaten in England, or cooked in twenty, or, perhaps, in forty or a hundred different ways. Oysters pickled, stewed, baked, roasted, fried, and scolloped; oysters made into soups, patties, and puddings; oysters with condiments and without condiments; oysters for breakfast, dinner, and supper; oysters without stint or limit – fresh as the fresh air, and almost as abundant – are daily offered to the palates of the Manhattanese, and appreciated with all the gratitude which such a bounty of nature ought to inspire."