Rory
Evans
4/07/13
White
lightning Way
Copperhead
Road by Steve Earle
Rory
Evans 4/07/13
U.S.
Labor history Research Paper
White
lightning Way
Alcohol
has been both an American enterprise and institution since the first
Europeans reached the North American continent. The amount these
early colonists drank was substantial, partly due to widely held
belief at the time that water sources would most likely be
contaminated and alcohol offered a safe alternative. A bill from a
tavern “two days before the signing of the constitution”, in
fact, stated that the 55 delegates drank “54 bottles of Madeira, 60
bottles of claret, eight of whiskey, 22 of porter, eight of hard
cider, 12 of beer and seven bowls of alcoholic punch.”1
This early adoption and the centuries of consumption leading up to
the Temperance movement, which eventually resulted in Prohibition,
helps explain the public’s widespread resistance. The passage of
the 18th amendment
to the Constitution in January 1919 which made the sale of alcohol
illegal began the Prohibition era in the United States.2
To enforcement this amendment the Volstead Act was passed, which
deemed “intoxicating liquors” defined as “any liquors
containing more than .5% alcohol,” as illegal.3
Resistance to the Volstead Act, and to Prohibition in general, took
two forms: the consumption of illegal spirits and the smuggling of
these spirits, often referred to as “bootlegging” or “rum
running.” This essay focuses on the latter, as the sheer scale of
this illicit industry during the Prohibition era, the perpetrators
unemployed citizens turned smugglers, earns it a place in U.S.
working class history. It must be understood in all economic
depressions, the most vulnerable citizens, the least secure in terms
of employment are those with little formal education the “blue
collar workers,” who when opportunity presented itself turned to
this illicit and highly profitable trade. Evidence of this can be
seen in the makeup of the crew of smuggling vessel The
Black Duck, before the onset of the
depression they had all been local fisherman.
This paper will focus on the methods, motivations, and stories of the
smugglers including the countermeasures arrayed against them.
One
notable incident involved the notorious rum running vessel The
Black Duck which operated out of Newport,
Rhode Island, and the controversy surrounding the death of three of
the vessel’s crew members on the night of December 29, 1929. Most
of the seamen who crewed these vessels were not hardened criminals;
most had no direct connection with the organized crime they helped
fund. Rather, they were simply the unemployed after the stock market
crash of October 1929. For The Black Duck
a “50-foot speedboat, fitted with twin 300-horsepower engines,” a
typical night’s run would start with the pickup of booze off of
foreign ships in international waters, followed by a high-speed trip
to a designated beach or harbor with men waiting to unload the
cargo.4
The Black duck had
been particularly successful at outrunning the Coast Guard, but on
this night, two armed Guard vessels lied in wait. At 2 am Coast
Guard the commander Alexander Cornell commanded the bow gunner to
“let him have it.” Twenty-one rounds were fired at the ship
before the gun jammed.5
The Black Duck
disappeared but then surprisingly reappeared, heading toward the
Coast Guard vessel. The Coast Guard men who climbed aboard described
their findings: “The pilothouse is awash in blood, three bodies
sprawled on the floor the only man standing is the captain hand
shattered.”6
This
action caused immediate public outcry. A hearing was held in the
Rhode Island Grand Jury. While some believed the Coast Guard’s
action were overly aggressive, the Coast Guard argued that “the
liquor craft was trying to escape when fired on.”7
Ironically the infamous Black Duck
was eventually converted into a Coast Guard patrol boat. It was
involved with a chase of its own with the rum running speed boat
Artemis off the coast
of Long Island which also led to the vessel being fired upon. At
this time, local shipyards knew the top speed of the Coast Guard
patrol boats was 26 miles and hour, so a “Freeport shipyard made
rum running boats that were capable of traveling nearly 30 miles an
hour even when loaded down with liquor.”8
The Artemis not only
escaped with crew intact, it also managed to successfully deliver its
cargo of whiskey on a beach “three miles west of Orient Point.”9
While
legends were being created on the high seas, a different kind of
legend was being created along the back woods roads of rural America.
These alcohol smugglers also relied on speed in their contest with
local authorities and defiance of Prohibition. Their smuggling
vehicle of choice, however, was the V8 automobile. There is
documentation of the virtual arms race between rum runners and
authorities on the basis of pure mechanical horse power, and of the
sheer daring to drive at top speed on winding roads. Many of these
rural rumrunners were in business for themselves, both producing and
distributing home brewed spirits, referred to as moonshine. Again,
hard economic times especially in rural areas turned many a man to
this illicit trade, while still others kept the multi-generational
backwoods stilling of their forbearers alive.
A song
that best illustrates this is Steve Earle’s “Copperhead Road,”
while a modern piece, retains the essence of the smuggling
experience. Earle begins by recounting history of his “Granddad”
who bears the same name, telling us “He only came to town about
twice a year”, and that “he'd buy a hundred pounds of yeast and
some copper line,” referring to the construction of alcohol
stills.10
Earle then tells us of his choice of car, a former police car bought
at auction. This “Big Black Dodge” had been built in response to
motorized bandits and rum runners came equipped with high horse power
engines.11
This was not enough, however, and Earle sings “he and my uncle tore
that engine down… I still remember that rumbling sound,” meaning
that they increased the bore of the engines cylinders for more
power.12
“Copperhead Road” ends Earl’s legend with the line, “He was
headed down to Knoxville with the weekly load… You could smell the
whiskey burnin' down Copperhead Road.”13
Moonshining
and smuggling of these spirits, as well as the smuggling of spirits
manufactured in other countries like Canada, satisfied the thirsts of
ordinary American’s in a “Dry Country.” While popular
historical accounts focus attention only on the gangsters and
organized crime who profited from this trade, it must be asked who
were the smugglers themselves? If you lived and were fortunate
enough to still be employed during the Great Depression, they were
your neighbors, fellow blue collar workers now unemployed, however,
unwilling to simply except their circumstances, yet willing to risk
their freedom and at times their lives for numerous reasons. Some
accounts have been documented, while others have been lost to time,
still their daring and cunning of these individuals have created
stories, songs, and legends which will endure.
1
Stanton Peele, “Were the Founding Fathers Alcoholics,”
HuffingtonPost,
(2010). (access 8 march 2013):
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/stanton-peele/alcohol-addiction-were-th_b_610598.html.
2
Phillip P. Mason, Rumrunning
and the Roaring Twenties
(Wayne State University Press, 1995) 35.
http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=FiZWrNjIPykC&oi=fnd&pg=PA21&dq=+rum+running&ots=l9n9ZyANSi&sig=FgmC_S-JMNbFZCHjIXRJqrlxKNA#v=onepage&q=rum%20running&f=false.
3
Mason, Rumrunning
and the Roaring Twenties,
35.
4
Judith A Babcock, “The Night
the Coast Guard Opened Fire,” Yankee, vol 63, issue 12, 2, (1999).
(access 8 march 2013):
http://rpsuffc.suffolk.lib.ny.us/ebsco-web/ehost/delivery?sid=7dcade68.
5 Judith
A Babcock, “The Night the Coast Guard Opened Fire,” Yankee, vol
63, issue 12, 2, (1999). (access 8 march 2013):
http://rpsuffc.suffolk.lib.ny.us/ebsco-web/ehost/delivery?sid=7dcade68.
6 Judith
A Babcock, “The night the coast Guard Opened fire,” 3.
7 “Coast
Guard Shots Hit Aft,” The New York Times (New York City, NY), Jan.
4, 1930.
8
Jim Merritt, “New York's "Rum
Row", New York State Archives, Volume 2, Number 3, (2003):
http://www.archives.nysed.gov/apt/magazine/archivesmag_winter03.shtml
9 Jim
Merritt, “New York's "Rum Row", New York State Archives.
10
Steve Earle, Copperhead
Road, produced by,
Steve Earle, Tony Brown, (1989; Uni Records, 1989.), CD.
11
Steve Earle, Copperhead
Road, produced
by Steve Earle, Tony Brown.
12
Steve Earle, Copperhead
Road, produced
by Steve Earle, Tony Brown.
13
Steve Earle, Copperhead
Road, produced by
Steve Earle, Tony Brown.
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