Federal Writers' Project – Life Histories/2020/Fall/105/Section059/Liza

Biography

Liza (last name unknown) was born in the early 1870s on a farm not far from Asheville, North Carolina. She was the second of eight children, and regularly helped with farm duties. In late childhood, her family relocated further into the city, and at sixteen years old she was married. She soon had a daughter, but by the year 1900 her husband died. Liza loved her husband greatly and considered him as her hero. After his death, she began working as a maid for a white family. Soon after, she became the cook for the family and even started cooking for multiple families in Asheville. Often, Liza was sent out to find alcohol for the families despite the city’s ban of alcohol sales. North Carolina was the first state to enforce prohibition and would not repeal it until nearly 1937 (DigitalNC), but this also resulted in North Carolina becoming one of the biggest states for bootlegging. She realized she could get alcohol from people out of the city and sell it to the families herself to make money. Liza was incredibly successful in this and was able to buy a home in Asheville and a farm outside of the city, despite getting arrested several times along the way. Although a black woman, Liza refused to conduct business with black customers. She would only sell alcohol to white people, and cites this as the reason for maintaining her customers for so long. This is especially interesting, as research of these businesses in the South, called “drink houses”, were most often run by a black woman and really only used by other members of the nearby black community (Gentry 2016). In 1939, black people were still treated as second class citizens and many white people held harmful stereotypes of black individuals, such as that they were uneducated or unclean. Perhaps this is why Liza is meticulous about the cleanliness of her home, as it is where she does most of her business. After her daughter passed away, she began to take care of her grandson and raise him as her own. He too passed away, and she then wanted to pursue a slower paced business. While she made far less money, she rented out her farm and maintained higher prices than anywhere else in the town. No information is known about the end of her life or her death.

Social Context

Women in Bootlegging

As bootlegging became an increasingly popular method of earning money throughout the Prohibition Era, women quickly became fundamental to the business. It is estimated that there were even more women than men involved in bootlegging (O’Donnell 1924), however information is seriously lacking about the details surrounding these women. “The number of women engaged in this lucrative illegal activity, though large, is unknown, and official records document only those individuals who were arrested by local, state, or federal authorities.” (Sanchez 2000, 404). The records that Tanya Marie Sanchez did find in her research detail women who entered into bootlegging to support their families during challenging times, or in some cases women who wanted to pursue a high-stakes, exciting way of life. For white women, bootlegging presented an opportunity to experience independence, personal income, and the opportunity to have their own career, which had largely been something unavailable to white women for generations. Even less information is known about black women in bootlegging during this time. “The issue of race is noteworthy. Of the 173 female bootleggers for whom records exist [in Louisiana], only six are identified as African Americans. This number is remarkably low. “ (Sanchez 2000, 410). Of the few records that Sanchez was able to find, hardly any of them were accounts of black women. While this may raise the question of the extent of black women in bootlegging, Sanchez points out that the South was still deeply involved in segregation and Jim Crow policies. This resulted in minimal interaction between black and white communities, and so it is likely that white members of a town had no idea whether or not bootlegging was occurring in the black community as well. Essentially, bootlegging was just as segregated as other businesses throughout the South. Also, historical records and arrest reports for black citizens were often not saved or stored properly, making research that much more difficult. Women also experienced success in bootlegging as they were able to use the prevailing stereotypes of women for their benefit. Police officers were hesitant to search or arrest women as it could be considered embarrassing, and juries found it hard to believe that a woman could be capable of doing something so illegal (O’Donnell 1924). At the time, women were considered to be models of purity, as well as less intelligent than their male counterparts. Police officers, judges, and other legal positions were primarily held by men, and they often tried to avoid accusing these women. “Women in the bootleg game are becoming a great problem to enforcement officials. Prohibition agents, state troopers, and city police--gallant gentlemen all-- hesitate to embarrass women by stopping their cars to inquire if they are carrying hooch. The bootleggers and smugglers of booze are aware of this fact and take advantage of it.” (O’Donnell 1924, 8). Thus, women were often able to avoid getting caught, and even when they were they often received limited punishment.

African American Women in the Great Depression

Little research has been done as to how the Great Depression affected African American women specifically. During this period, white women began to enter into the workforce to support their households during a challenging time, and many white men that lost their jobs moved into occupations that were considered to be only for black men. This resulted in black men and women having their careers being increasingly taken over by white members of their community. Most black women had been a part of the workforce for generations, but during the Great Depression they often had to move into unconventional jobs to continue to support their families as many white women began to enter into the service industry, a sector that had been primarily dominated by black women. Unconventional jobs, ranging from bootlegging to labor-heavy occupations, were often the only options for black women. “Historical data from this time period fails to account for the everyday struggle of African American women — women who were discouraged from participating in the workforce they had continuously occupied. Throughout this crisis, these women suffered most heavily as mothers, wives, and workers.” (Ward 2018, 31). Due to the racist as well as sexist employment policies and societal norms, black women had less opportunities for jobs and found it much more difficult to get hired. They were consistently discriminated against for the color of their skin as well as their gender, as often black men were still preferred over them for many careers. Additionally, even prior to the Great Depression black families required two paychecks to cover basic household necessities. The fact that during a great economic crisis black households often only had one paycheck made it that much more of a burden on these families. “As work was already a part of many African American women’s lives they felt not only greater disenfranchisement from all groups, but were also amongst the worst off in the wake of the crisis; they were faced with a loss of wage for primarily two-wage households.” (Ward 2018, 31).

Works Cited

DigitalNC. “Prohibition, Bootlegging, and the Law in North Carolina.” Accessed September 24, 2020. https://www.digitalnc.org/blog/prohibition-bootlegging-and-the-law-in-north-carolina/.

Gentry, Cynthia S. “A Place of Gathering: Carolina Drink Houses.” Journal of Black Studies, July 26, 2016. https://doi.org/10.1177/0021934703258760.

O’Donnell, Jack. “The Ladies of Rum Row.” The American Legion Weekly, May 16, 1924.

Sanchez, Tanya Marie. “The Feminine Side of Bootlegging.” Louisiana History: The Journal of the Louisiana Historical Association 41, no. 4 (2000): 403–33.

Ward, Sarah. “Women and Work: African American Women in Depression Era America.” City University of New York, 2018. Women and Work: African American Women in Depression Era America.