Federal Writers' Project – Life Histories/2020/Summer II/Section 10/Mary Miller

Federal Writers' Project – Life Histories/2020/Summer II/Section 10/Mary Miller
Born	1871 Asheville, NC
Died	Unknown
Occupation	Bootlegger

Biography

Mary Miller was an African-American bootlegger and speakeasy proprietor in 1930s Asheville, North Carolina. Raised on a farm with her seven siblings, Miller was a life-long Asheville resident. Her marriage at age 16 left her with one daughter and eventually a grandson who she raised. Her liquor business began when, while employed as a maid for a white family, she was asked to buy illegal liquor from bootleggers. She then offered the family her own homemade version, realized the opportunity in the lucrative market, and opened her own speakeasy from her kitchen. Miller was well-liked in the community and by her upper class white customers, patrons who paid her anywhere from 5¢ to 65¢ for different quantities of alcohol. She was interviewed for the Federal Writer's Project in February of 1939.

Historical Context

Prohibition

The 18th Amendment of the US Constitution ratified in 1919 made the sale, manufacture, and transportation of liquor a federal crime and plunged the United States into the era of Prohibition. This led to underground networks of illegal liquor sellers, commonly called bootleggers, developing across the country. The state of North Carolina had been dry since 1908, and when national prohibition ended with the repeal of the 18th Amendment in 1933, Asheville, North Carolina remained dry and populated with bootleggers until a citywide referendum in 1947.

The passage of the Prohibition amendment was the result of nearly a century of moral and political lobbying by members of the Temperance Movement, who believed that consumption of alcohol led to “virtually all of society’s ills”. Deeply tied with the Protestant church and the surge of religious fervor in the mid 1800’s, the movement was led mainly by women in the influential Women’s Christian Temperance Union.

Women

During Prohibition, many women became part of the bootlegging industry. These women were overwhelmingly poor and working- class mothers, who, separated from their husbands or widowed, were in need of income. Many were never caught or prosecuted due to laws restricting the search of women, leading some at the time to believe women bootleggers actually outnumbered men. In court “desperate mothers” tended to receive lesser sentences, with delayed incarceration, reduced bails, and reduced fines. Records show most of the arrested women to be white immigrants-in one Louisiana Parish only six of the 173 arrests were black women.

African Americans

Throughout the fight for Prohibition leading up to the 1920’s and 30’s, black voters in the south were a crucial margin for both sides of the issue. Some black intellectuals such as Booker T. Washington, as well as many black church leaders, were in favor of prohibition because they believed alcohol had a negative impact on the community. Meanwhile northern newspapers claimed the Southern Prohibition movement, “was based upon a determination to keep liquor away from Blacks and at the same time provide a way for white people to get it.” After the 18th Amendment was passed, large-scale black-led bootlegging organizations developed in northern metropolitan areas, while in the south, black people were often relegated to lower roles in white-led organizations.

Moonshine

Moonshine is a high-proof corn-based alcohol traditionally made in home stills in the American South. The liquor first came to the region with Scots-Irish immigrants in the 18th century and it likely got its name from its illicit manufacture, which is often done late at night by the light of the moon. In the Prohibition era South, Moonshine made up a majority of the bootlegging industry, and huge swaths of the Appalachian population were involved in either its creation or distribution. The Great Depression left many communities without any form of legal employment, so families in need of money turned to moonshine as a way to provide.

The Great Depression in Southern Appalachia

The Great Depression began in 1929 with the crash of the stock market, causing widespread economic devastation throughout the world as well as high levels of unemployment and poverty. In the Southern Appalachian Mountains, this hit especially hard. Each of the region's biggest industries-coal mining, textile production, and agriculture-were already in steady decline in the decade leading to the crash. President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal programs were able to provide some jobs in the Civilian Conservation Corps in the mid 30’s through the establishment of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park as well as the Blue Ridge Parkway. Attempts to salvage the region's agriculture sector, however, were less successful. After the collapse of mining and textile jobs, workers flocked back to family farms on degraded, unfruitful land, and mountain agriculture has continued to degenerate over time causing loss of income for most families and the area as a whole. The economic downturn and lack of employment opportunities continued in Appalachia for decades to follow. Asheville North Carolina, a regional hub, faced the largest per capita debt of any city in the nation, and was unable to fully pay off its debts until 1977.