A lot of people consider lobster to be a culinary delicacy.  In 17^th century colonial America, however, it wasn’t exactly desirable. The seafood was mostly fed to those with little say in their diets, such as prisoners and indentured servants working off their contracts.  Seen as the cockroach of the sea, 17^th century European settlers found the New England’s shoreline was littered with theses clawed crustaceans.   Lobsters were so prevalent they were used by Indigenous inhabitants as fishing bait or fertilizer. Though eating lobster was useful in times of food scarcity, no one considered them desirable foods.  In fact, during the famine of 1623, Plymouth Colony Governor William Bradford lamented that the settlers’ best meal was a lobster or a piece of fish.  Lobster was such an undesirable food that laws were put in place to prevent inmates from being fed lobster every day, and servants were said to write lobster limits into their contracts.   The evil reputation of a lobster dinner didn’t really begin to change until the 19th century, when improved transportation allowed fresh lobster to be shipped to inland diners. 

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