Michelle
DePinto
March 29, 2013
Southern
Farmers: The Real Gangsters of Prohibition
“Schmitt
grew up cooking moonshine. His grandfather taught his father, and his
father taught his brother. Every August, after the hay was in and
before the corn was ready to harvest, Schmitt’s father set up the
still.”1
White
lightning, hooch, mountain dew- Americans have been drinking
moonshine since they figured out how to make it. Recently, moonshine
has been entering mainstream entertainment through reality television
shows like Discovery Channels “Moonshiners” and top charted
movies such as Lawless. Although moonshine was consumed by people all
over the United States, it is predominantly a southern commodity. In
the 1920s and 1930s moonshine production and consumption was
heightened due to Prohibition. While history has glamorized the
consumption of this illegal drink through speakeasies and gangsters,
it is important to consider the makers of moonshine, the southern
farmers who had been, and continue to, produce moonshine for
themselves and a nation that has always demanded alcohol. In a time
when class and social status meant everything, the illegal use of
moonshine was a secret connection working men and women of the north
and south shared. Working class men loved to drink, upper class men
loved to make money, and southern farmers loved making moonshine. It
wasn’t always a smooth operation but southern farmers, who
otherwise would never have made history, became heroic during this
time when states were going dry and the federal government had
decided to ban the sale and consumption of alcohol. The
Southern farmers involved in producing, selling, and consuming
moonshine, as well as those who were part of the fight against it,
formed an alternate working class of the early twentieth century.
Prohibition
was the United States government’s attempt in to ban alcohol and
improve the lives of Americans. The desire for a dry nation came from
the increase in domestic abuse along with other crimes that were
occurring in the cities and urban areas. At this time, women began
fighting for their right to vote, among other things. Since women
were overwhelmingly the victims of domestic abuse, they had a strong
interest in getting prohibition passed. Religion also played a big
role in the anti-alcohol sentiment. The Women’s Christian
Temperance Union along with the Anti-Saloon League were the driving
forces behind the eventual passage of the Volstead Act and the
Eighteenth Amendment to the constitution which was ratified on
January 16, 1919. There had been previous attempts at prohibition in
the previous century but it was always decided that temperance
regulations would be left up to state and local governments. The
Eighteenth Amendment officially prohibited the manufacture, sale, and
transportation of alcohol.2Arguably,
Prohibition backfired as a strategy because moonshining, the illegal
distillation of whiskey, then reached its peak.
3
The resulting boom of illegal alcohol making, along with the many
crimes that came along with it, was never anticipated by the
government.
Southern
farmers became the heart of moonshine production in the 1920s and
1930s. Around the same time that prohibition went into effect,
farmers were experiencing a substantial decline in the price of
cotton. Overproduction of crops made prices fluctuate and tenant
farmers had to worry about staying with their farms. To supplement
their income, many of these farmers turned to moonshining. Homemade
whiskey making was a common practice all over the nation. Alcohol
continued to be in high demand, and it was almost a lucky break for
the farmers that the government was banning such a desired commodity
at this time. Southern farmers capitalized on this need since they
had the space, materials, and expertise in the art of moonshining.
Isolated
rural areas in the southern mountainous states were prime areas of
moonshine production. Appalachia, as it is known, consists of all the
states along the Appalachian Mountains from southern New York to
northern Mississippi. This area was perfect for moonshining for a few
different reasons. First, it was isolated and open terrain; there was
nothing else to do if there was no farming to be done. “Moonshining
was a good way to make a little extra money in a cash-poor,
subsistence farming economy.”4
In between harvests, there was little to do in these areas since
there was not a strong sense of community. The farmers all lived on
their isolated land and devoted most of their time to their crops.
When the seasons ended they resorted to moonshine, for their own use
as well as a supplemental income for the lack of harvested crops.
Another popular reason for moonshining in these states was the access
to caves in the mountains. Moonshining got its name from the practice
of making the whiskey at night when the smoke from the stills could
not be seen. Caves were another way for people to make and, more
importantly, hide their moonshine from neighbors and law enforcement.
Caves provided a sheltered and hidden work place, and contained a
source of water, a main ingredient in moonshine.5
Moonshining
became its own secret industry during Prohibition. It was usually a
family effort to become part of the moonshining business, mostly
because families did not have ties to anyone else in the community
and needed to rely on each other. The men usually worked the stills
and the women kept an eye on law enforcement. If a person’s, or
family’s, recipe and technique produced a better- tasting drink
then another, the demand for it went up. A typical recipe included
water, rye or corn, sugar, and yeast. The mixture had to be mixed
together then left to ferment into a mash, then later boiled. The
result was a clear liquid, which was the moonshine.6
The recipes were passed down through the generations, proving how
this practice had become embedded in Southern life for decades.
During
Prohibition, the quality of moonshine was not as important as the
actual production of the drink, which was very similar to factory
work in the north. Moonshiners cut corners so they could speed up the
process of bottling and shipping the liquor faster, just like how the
introduction of Taylorism in the factories made the workers work as
fast as possible. There was a chain of people who were involved in
getting the finished product to the cities where the demand was
highest. After being bottled, the moonshine had to be transported to
cities. Once it arrived it was sold to a bootlegger for a price. He
then would sell it to speakeasies, individuals such as city officials
and law makers, or other prominent people in society like business
owners, among anyone else who was interested and could afford to pay
the price. The fact that people from all different classes indulged
in drinking illegal moonshine showed how vital the production was,
even if it was illegal. If there were people willing to pay the
increased prices of moonshine, the farmers in the south were not
going to stop producing it until their stills were taken or they were
put in jail.
Throughout
this whole process there were government officials who were trying to
stop this process by raiding still sites and arresting anyone caught
in possession or in the act of producing illegal moonshine. “Federal
revenuers also knew the region’s reputation, and their late-night
raids shut down some stills. But production in the area continued for
years, and the moonshiners often outsmarted the law” Writes Jay
Barnes in his article “The Rise and Fall of a Moonshine Capital”.7
The revenuers made up an entire sector of the Alcohol, Tobacco, and
Firearms unit of the treasury. This was very similar to the way legal
commodities that were being processed and shipped across the country
were regulated by the government. The only difference was that the
revenuers were looking for criminals.
Moonshining
provided a brief period of relief to struggling southern farmers
during the Prohibition era. The production, sale, and consumption of
this illegal liquor was taken on by an alternate working class that
was never fully recognized. In fact, this working class sought to
keep itself a secret from authorities. In 1933 Prohibition was
repealed by the Twenty-First Amendment, which greatly reduced the
need for illegal moonshine production. Not only did moonshine create
its own working class, but it also affected the preexisting classes
who made up the clientele basis. The popular culture of the flappers
of the “Roaring Twenties” or gangsters like Al Capone get most of
the historical glory of the 1920s and 1930s, when it was really
southern farmers who risked their livelihoods making an illicit
commodity. Moonshine continues to be produced throughout the United
States. Although it is a fading tradition due to the easy access of
liquor in everyday life, moonshining and the Southern working class
farmers who performed it retain a rich historical legacy.
1 Kyle Clayton, “The Last Of The Moonshiners Tell Their Stories”, Indiana Public Media, (http://indianapublicmedia.org/news/moonshiners-stories-43623/) accessed on March 26, 2013
2 The Charters of Freedom, “A New World is At Hand”, (http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/constitution_amendments_11-27.html#180), accessed March 24, 2013,
3 Bill O'Neal, "MOONSHINING," Handbook of Texas Online (http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/jbm01), accessed March 24, 2013. Published by the Texas State Historical Association.
4 Jason Sumich, “It's All Legal Until You Get Caught: Moonshining in the Southern Appalachians” Appalachian State University Department of Anthropology, (http://anthro.appstate.edu/field-schools/papers/2007/sumich) accessed March 24, 2013
5 Joseph C. Douglas, “MINERS AND MOONSHINERS: HISTORIC INDUSTRIAL USES OF TENNESSEE CAVES”, Midcontinental Journal of Archaeology, (http://www.jstor.org.libproxy.cc.stonybrook.edu/stable/20708162?seq=9&Search=yes&searchText=Moonshine&searchText=South&searchText=1920s&list=show&searchUri=%2Faction%2FdoBasicSearch%3FQuery%3DMoonshine%2B1920s%2BUS%2BSouth%26Search%3DSearch%26gw%3Djtx%26prq%3DMoonshine%2B1920s%2BUS%26hp%3D25%26acc%3Don%26aori%3Da%26wc%3Don%26fc%3Doff&prevSearch=&resultsServiceName=null) accessed March 24, 2013
6 Moonshine- Blur Ridge Style, “Building the Moonshine Industry” (http://www.blueridgeinstitute.org/moonshine/building_the_moonshiner_industry.html) accessed March 25, 2013
7 Jay Barnes, “The Rise and Fall of a Moonshine Capital”, (http://www.ourstate.com/moonshine-capital/) accessed on March 24, 2013
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