Jimmy Dunnigan led a gang in 1870s New York whose 
Jimmy Dunnigan led a gang in 1870s New York whose main con was asking a shopkeeper to fill a hat with this substance before jamming the hat onto the shopkeeper's head and robbing the store.  This substance's namesake 1733 act prohibited the cheap import of it from the French and Spanish East Indies that had flourished for the previous two decades. After manufactured goods were traded for slaves in Africa, slaves were usually traded for this (*) substance in the Caribbean in the final leg of the triangle trade. In 1919, twenty-one people died when the Purity Distilling Company's tank of this substance exploded and flooded the streets of Boston. For 10 points, identify this remnant of boiled sugar cane, which can be fermented into rum.
Jimmy Dunnigan led a gang in 1870s New York whose main con was asking a shopkeeper to fill a hat with this substance before jamming the hat onto the shopkeeper's head and robbing the store.  
molasses