The Heritage and Science of Moonshine

    Prohibition resulted in unregulated and uncontrollable trade of bootlegged alcohol. Bootlegging resulted in a major decline in the quality of alcohol with the lack of government regulations of the product. An estimated 1000 Americans died annually as a result. Also, the cost only increased at the decade continued. The underground industry overall ran rampant as prices skyrocketed for unsafe alcohol.

Bootlegging is the making, selling and distribution of illegal goods such as alcohol. Many things lead into bootlegging but the main cause was the passing of prohibition. Bootlegging became a worldwide crisis in certain situations such as the critical rise of crime rates. There were many crimes, or criminal investigations that went on during the time of prohibition such as bootlegging, gang violence, and the modifications of cars to run from police also known as “rum-running.” It was a time of drastic criminal activity. There were many after effects of bootlegging such as the United States gaining a corrupt government, and

Smuggling alcohol was a very lucrative business for the unscrupulous. In order to ease the transportation, smugglers switched from beer and wine to hard liquor because it was more concentrated easier to hide. Since illegal liquor production was a black market, producers did not have to worry about government regulations when considering what to put into their drinks. In addition, many bootleggers were new to the game and did not know what they were doing. Many ended up accidentally producing poisonous liquor.

The Brown’s Landing property and adjoining rural properties also were havens for illegal moonshine stills in the first decades of the 20th century. The homegrown whiskey operations, which flourished on the then-remote western edge of present-day Port Orange, would have attracted law-enforcement attention. Moonshine wasn’t legal in the U.S. until 2010.

It was illegal even to transport the alcoholic beverages from one place to another. Often there would be high-speed chases in order to out run the police during the prohibition era. Mobsters made profit off of the alcohol. Various people took over cities and soon became a war on other bosses and cities. Violence started to take in place making guns shootings murders more often. for example for al Capone to survive this he spent almost half of his money earned from bootlegging profit on body guards. A lot of mafia related gangs were killing each other over

It all started when the prohibition forced alcohol producers to out run law enforcement. Moonshiners were forced to have faster cars than any of the officers. With the increased demand, mechanics started building cars specifically for moonshiners to evade the law enforcement agents.(Alderman) With specialized cars comes a specialized price which most people couldn't

The temperance reform. The government blamed everything bad that happened on the use of alcohol. So, they banned the manufacture, transportation, and selling of alcohol. This never really worked though. There were hundreds if not thousands of people who distilled their own alcohol, usually called moonshine, and sold it themselves. This is where the term “bootlegging” comes in. Bootlegging by definition is the making, selling, or distribution of illicit products such as liquor illegally. Although this reform has since been changed back, moonshine is still mostly illegal. This reform edited the 18th

The huge public demand for alcohol led to a soaring business for bootleggers. When prohibition began, people immediately wanted a way to drink. Hence, the extremely profitable bootlegging business was born. Before Prohibition gangs existed, but had little influence. Now, they had gained tremendous power almost overnight. Bootlegging was easy - New York City gangs paid hundreds of poor immigrants to maintain stills in their apartments. Common citizens, once law abiding, now became criminals by making their own alcohol. However, this posed risks for those who made their own. "The

They became rich and powerful by providing speakeasies and others who were willing to buy their alcohol. Some bootleggers got their alcohol from other countries. “The first large-scale organized criminal activity of the Prohibition Era was smuggling…The manufacture, importation, and sale of alcoholic beverages were perfectly legal in Canada, Mexico, and the Caribbean,” (Cohen). During the Roaring Twenties, someone who bought alcohol from other countries had to smuggle the alcoholic beverages inside the country. “As soon as Prohibition went into effect there was a dramatic increase in Mexican imports of scotch whiskey from Britain. The Mexicans weren't drinking more; eventually all of this whiskey made its way north across the border” (Cohen). 0Bootleggers were powerful and rich and became one of the biggest reasons for the increase of organized crime in the Era of Prohibition.

Some states such as New York, New Jersey, and Massachusetts did not enforce the prohibition act of 1920, causing funds to drop to the states for law enforcement agencies(GILDER). The prohibition Caused the rise of organized crime in the United States. Prohibition stated the creation of toxic moonshine, bootleggers used lead coils and lead soldering putting lead in moonshine(PEARSON). Others put additives in moonshine such as iodine and creosote causing blindness or even death. Over 12,000 people died from toxic moonshine Al Capone made over 60 million dollars from Bootlegging that’s 60 million dollars other US citizens lose. Many Bootleggers used Industrial alcohol in Products. The Federal Government started putting more poisonous chemicals in industrial alcohol causing over 10,000 deaths from consumption(PEARSON).Overall there are more negative effects of prohibition in the 1920’s. From poisonous alcohol to enforcement budget cuts it is all negative and is why prohibition failed. Even though prohibition stopped some americans from drinking alcohol it created a new door for new kinds of alcohol to come in to the US. Prohibition is bad in my opinion because it caused unnecessary deaths in america. That sets a final ending to the 18th Amendment in the 1920’s and forever

of bootleg liquor and the damage it was doing to those who imbibed. One of the "side effects" of prohibition was alcohol poisoning. Since bootleg alcohol was not produced in distilleries under government supervision and wasn't, except in rare instances, made under the direction of chemists, its quality was extremely suspect. The chances of obtaining what was considered to be the real stuff was never better than eight in a hundred. In most cases it had been spiked with chemicals and poisons to give it "kick". As a result the deaths from alcohol poisoning increased dramatically. Whiskey could be obtained by prescription from medical doctors. The labels stated clear warnings that it was strictly for medical purposes and any other uses were illegal,

I agree that moonshiners should not use wood alcohol in their beverages. I agree with everything you have to say, however, I am a little unsure of what you mean by "industrial product?" Do you mean that wood alcohol has to be made in a factory? I like how you showed both perspectives to the case. By saying that you can agree with wood alcohol being "simply and easy" to make, but then turning it around to see the negatives, you are showing that you understand (lack of a better term) where the moonshiners are coming from. I also like how you placed a more in depth description on how wood alcohol is made. I do see that you hit the topic of wood alcohol inducing blindness and/or death, but you never really go into detail about them. I see

Bootlegging brought in many great profits (Sifakis 111). Al Capone, a famous Italian-American gangster, made about $60 million from bootlegging (725). The gangs established illegal distilleries and breweries. Some gangs even produced their own alcohol to keep a steady supply of it for themselves (111). More than one million gallons of bootleg alcohol had been illegally brought into the United States by the late 1920s. Bootlegging even occurred within the United States because even though alcohol was illegal, the process of it was not (Organized Crime and Prohibition 1). Bootleg alcohol had begun being

I didn’t know then that I was getting rolled into a joint of crazy and I don’t mind now either. let’s call her friend moonshine she was in high school, a junior at the time, she was 5’9 with a model build and deep pitted acne scarring. It was no wonder though she was so skinny, she was worse off than me .It was nice being the moons friend. it was nice not being hidden, having someone to talk to, someone who understood, we had similar child hoods apart from the fact she had no one to expect better from. I guess that’s why it all fell apart she was like Rome so tall, great and glowing despite her flaws until “chandler” and “native” came along. They were in there twenties and even if I was blind, deff, and dumb I’d be able to tell if they walked into the room just by the heavy energy they carried.

However some of this alcohol was not the type of alcohol that they were used to drinking which resulted in many health problems. More employees were probably absent from work than before Prohibition, with alcohol poisoning from drinking the 'moonshine', which frequently resulted in blindness and death. This was because of the types of alcohol sold, where no one knew quite what they were getting. In fact much of this alcohol was industrial alcohol, unfit for consumption which caused blistered lips. Lack of public support was definitely quite