Moonshiners and Prohibitionists: The Battle over Alcohol in Southern Appalachia

338 Pages·2011·21.47 MB·English

by  Bruce E. Stewart

Moonshiners and
Prohibitionists
NEW DIRECTIONS IN SOUTHERN HISTORY
SERIES EDITORS
Peter S. Carmichael, Gettysburg College
Michele Gillespie, Wake Forest University
William A. Link, University of Florida
The Lost State of Franklin: America’s First Secession
Kevin T. Barksdale
Bluecoats and Tar Heels: Soldiers and Civilians
in Reconstruction North Carolina
Mark L. Bradley
Becoming Bourgeois: Merchant Culture in the South, 1820–1865
Frank J. Byrne
Cowboy Conservatism: Texas and the Rise of the Modern Right
Sean P. Cunningham
Raising Racists: The Socialization of White Children
in the Jim Crow South
Kristina DuRocher
Lum and Abner: Rural America and the Golden Age of Radio
Randal L. Hall
Entangled by White Supremacy: Reform in
World War I–Era South Carolina
Janet G. Hudson
The View from the Ground: Experiences of Civil War Soldiers
edited by Aaron Sheehan-Dean
Reconstructing Appalachia: The Civil War’s Aftermath
edited by Andrew L. Slap
Southern Farmers and Their Stories:
Memory and Meaning in Oral History
Melissa Walker
Law and Society in the South:
A History of North Carolina Court Cases
John W. Wertheimer
M
OONSHINERS
AND
P
ROHIBITIONISTS

The Battle over Alcohol
in Southern Appalachia
BRUCE E. STEWART
T U P K
HE NIVERSITY RESS OF ENTUCKY
Copyright © 2011 by The University Press of Kentucky
Scholarly publisher for the Commonwealth,
serving Bellarmine University, Berea College, Centre College of Kentucky,
Eastern Kentucky University, The Filson Historical Society, Georgetown
College, Kentucky Historical Society, Kentucky State University, Morehead
State University, Murray State University, Northern Kentucky University,
Transylvania University, University of Kentucky, University of Louisville,
and Western Kentucky University.
All rights reserved.
Editorial and Sales Offi ces: The University Press of Kentucky
663 South Limestone Street, Lexington, Kentucky 40508-4008
www.kentuckypress.com
15 14 13 12 11 5 4 3 2 1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Stewart, Bruce E.
Moonshiners and prohibitionists : the battle over alcohol in southern
Appalachia / Bruce E. Stewart.
p. cm. — (New directions in Southern history)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-8131-3000-2 (hardcover : alk. paper)
ISBN 978-0-8131-3017-0 (ebook)
1. Distilling, Illicit—North Carolina.—History—18th century. 2. Distilling,
Illicit—North Carolina.—History—19th century. 3. Prohibition—North
Carolina—History—18th century. 4. Prohibition—North Carolina—
History—19th century. 5. North Carolina—Social conditions—18th century.
6. North Carolina—Social conditions—19th century. I. Title.
HJ5021.S84 2011
364.1’33209756—dc22 2010050374
This book is printed on acid-free paper meeting
the requirements of the American National Standard
for Permanence in Paper for Printed Library Materials.
Manufactured in the United States of America.
Member of the Association of
American University Presses
For Sunny

Contents
List of Tables and Illustrations ix
Preface xi
Introduction 1
Part I: The Beginnings of Antialcohol Reform, 1790–1860
1. “This Country Improves in Cultivation, Wickedness, Mills, and
Still”: Distilling and Drinking during the Antebellum Period 9
2. Select Men of Sober and Industrious Habits: Alcohol Reform and
Social Confl ict during the Late Antebellum Period 31
Part II: The Golden Age of Moonshining, 1861–1876
3. “Is There Any Way to Get at the Distillers?” The Fall and Rise of
the Moonshiners, 1861–1868 63
4. “They Tax Us and Give Us Negro Civil Rights”: Moonshiner
Violence and the Politics of Federal Liquor Taxation,
1868–1876 87
Part III: The Road to Prohibition, 1870–1908
5. Civilization Requires Prohibition: The Beginning of the End for the
Moonshiners, 1870–1882 117
6. “These Big-Boned, Semi-Barbarian People”: Creation of the Myth
of Violent Appalachia and Its Consequences, 1878–1890 149
7. “Afl oat on the Tide of Improvement”: The Uplift Movement
and Rise of Prohibition Sentiment in Rural Communities,
1885–1900 171
8. “Wilt Thou Send the Revenues Down upon the Distillers”:
A Political History of Prohibition, 1882–1908 189
Conclusion 215
Notes 221
Bibliography 283
Index 315

Tables and Illustrations
Tables
Comparison of Population and Gallons of Whiskey Produced in
North Carolina, 1810 and 1840 22
Per Capita Gallons of Whiskey Produced in Western North Carolina,
1840 23
Liquor Tax Revenue Collected in North Carolina, 1866–1869 79
Counties with the Lowest Decrease in Corn Production in Western
North Carolina, 1860 and 1870 83
Counties with the Greatest Decrease in the Cash Value of Farms,
1870 and 1880 137
Vote on Prohibition in Western North Carolina, 1881 147
Aggregate Population-Church Ratio in North Carolina, 1890 181
Increase in Children Attending Common Schools in North Carolina,
1870 and 1890 181
Capital Investment in Manufacturing in Counties with the Largest
Number of Rural Communities Enacting Local Option, 1880 and
1900 187
Cash Value of Farms in Counties with the Largest Number of Rural
Communities Enacting Local Option, 1880 and 1900 188
Illustrations
Early-twentieth-century distillers making whiskey 14
Moonshine still 16
View of the French Broad River above Asheville 18
Farm on the French Broad River, ca. 1860 20
Rev. Francis Asbury, 1814 25
Logrolling 27
The Tree of Temperance 38
Certifi cate for the Sons of Temperance, 1857 45
Augustus S. Merrimon, ca. 1870 46
Advertisement for Daughters of Temperance, ca. 1835–1856 50
Zebulon B. Vance 66
Engraving of “Illicit Distilling of Liquors—Southern Mode of Making
Whiskey” 84