Whiskey Bootleggers

The Start of Whiskey Bootleggers

Whiskey Bootleggers occupy a special position within the fabric of American history. Somewhere between outlaw and artist does the whiskey bootlegger find his place among other controversial figures of an era that was defined by repressive laws and economic hardship. The 1920s appeared to contain the perfect admixture of sociological elements in order to engender the most well-known list of infamous criminals. This decade was marked by an unprecedented growth of organized crime, and it was here that the whiskey bootlegger was able to carve out a name and a reputation for himself.

18th Amendment Banned Whiskey

After the passing of the 18th Amendment on October 28, 1919 which made the sale and production of liquor illegal, a collective “No!” was uttered by whiskey bootleggers, who knew the law to be unjust. For whiskey bootleggers, especially those living in the Appalachian Mountains, making whiskey was the only means they had of providing for their families. Trading between farmers and whiskey bootleggers was common practice in most rural areas. With no other choice, the whiskey bootleggers kept on doing what they did best, making whiskey. Only now their work was done secretly and illegally. Hence, the term of bootlegging, which was a reference to when soldiers during the Civil War would sneak small quantities of alcohol into camp by hiding the bottles in their boots, was applied. And that is exactly what the whiskey bootleggers did, except they hid their distilleries in the mountains and not in their boots.

Whiskey Bootleggers Production

Whiskey bootleggers were old hands at the practice of making whiskey and knew that cold running water was an absolute necessity to their product. That is why whiskey bootleggers’ stills were often high up on the side of a mountain near the source of a stream. Then they would build a log shed over the still and cover it with evergreen branches. Some whiskey bootleggers, who had had their stills raided numerous times by sheriffs, actually dug underground rooms where they would work. They then put beams overhead and covered them with dirt and other plant materials. This not only made it much more difficult to locate whiskey bootleggers’ stills, it also ensured that the hard work of the whiskey bootleggers would not be dumped out if and when they were discovered.

Whiskey Bootleggers and the Law

Law officers, however, had many methods for finding whiskey bootleggers’ hidden stills. According to a legend, they would use hogs, because hogs it was said, loved the corn mash that whiskey is made of. Often, whiskey bootleggers erected wooden gates around their stills to prevent free range hogs from falling into the pools of mash and drowning. A story was told how once a large hog fell into a mash box where he drowned. The whiskey bootleggers found her dead and bloated body in there several days later, but kept on and made the whiskey despite the hog’s body. From then on, if whiskey was too strong, the man drinking it would say, “That must’a had a dead hog in it.”