Bootlegging

Bootlegging, or rum-running as it was often called, is the unlawful manufacture, sale, or movement of alcoholic products. The source of the word "bootlegging" goes back to the 1880s and referred to the practice used by Americans in the Midwest of hiding flasks of illicit liquor in boot tops when they went to trade with the native Indians. The term was accepted as part of the American vocabulary when the Eighteenth Amendment was adopted by the United States Constitution, which prohibited all use of alcohol from 1920 until it was repealed by the Twenty-First Amendment in 1933.

Prohibition, as the restriction was called, terminated the legal sale of liquor; in the process, it created demand for an illegal supply and led to the establishment of organized crime in America, which persisted long after repeal of Prohibition. Bootlegging continued well into the late twentieth century, when it thrived as an illegal business in several cities and municipalities.

Background

The Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution was the result of close to one hundred years of attempting to remove alcohol from American society. Temperance organizations in many large cities and states actually caused those cities and states to go dry (prohibit alcohol) in 1918 even before the amendment was adopted, but it was the enactment of Prohibition that made it illegal to drink or buy alcohol. Anyone unlawfully making, importing, or selling alcohol during this time was called a bootlegger.

Bootleggers started out by smuggling foreign-made commercial liquor into the United States from across the borders of Canada and Mexico where it was still legal. Alcohol was also brought in by sea from Cuba, the Bahamas, and the French islands of St. Pierre and Miquelon.

Atlantic City, New Jersey, became a popular meeting point for bootlegging ships that moored just outside the three-mile limit permitted by the US government. The goods were dropped into fast-powered boats that were able to make it back to shore before the US Coast Guard caught them. When the area of jurisdiction was extended further out into the waters, bootleggers found other sources of their supplies, including selling the alcohol as "medicinal whiskey" distributed through drugstores on fake prescriptions.

Prohibition may have started as a way of converting America to a less wayward lifestyle, but it turned out to be the catalyst for a complete turnaround in American culture. Besides the introduction of organized crime, including the national American crime syndicate, the Mafia, which extended its power to narcotics traffic, prostitution, gambling rackets, labor racketeering, extortion, and loan-sharking, Prohibition brought in its wake what came to be known as the "Jazz Age" of the 1920s, where people sought a relaxed lifestyle and scoffed at all things reeking of authority, especially police enforcement and the court system. Nightclubs and speakeasies—so named because patrons had to whisper code-words to enter—became popular hang-outs for locals where prohibited alcoholic substances were served unhampered—at a price. By 1927, there about thirty thousand illegal speakeasies existed—two times the number of legal bars before the Eighteenth Amendment.

Prohibition was repealed by the Twenty-First Amendment in 1933, but the effects on the American national psyche were long lasting, ushering in a time of general cynicism and distrust and a society bent on recreation and pleasure seeking.

Impact

The enactment of the Eighteenth Amendment to the US Constitution, often referred to as the Prohibition Amendment, did more to change the face of America than any other amendment. Besides being the only amendment approved by Congress that was repealed just several years later, the reasons for its introduction were questionable to begin with.

It would seem that prohibiting citizens from eating or drinking any product is a restriction on human behavior. Does any democratic country have the right to tell people what foods or drinks are good for them? In today’s society, this would never be considered acceptable. But times were different then. America had just emerged from World War I, the "Great War," people were putting their lives back together again, businesses were just starting up anew, and society was able to tolerate more government intervention.

The main proponents of Prohibition were women reformers concerned about the link of alcohol to child and wife abuse. Other supporters included industrialists, such as Henry Ford, who were worried about the effects of too much "drink" on labor productivity, and other advocates who believed that outlawing drinking could eliminate political corruption.

Prohibition failed greatly, however, and its revocation was a great source of relief for America and the world. But its aftereffects lingered for many years as organized crime and a feeling of mistrust for any authority established themselves as acceptable societal norms for many years.

Bootlegging, the major result of Prohibition, became a big business in that era and led to the emergence of the "mob" and notorious gangsters such as Al Capone, Lucky Luciano, Meyer Lansky, and others whose names are synonymous with organized crime. Not mentioned in most accounts, however, are Henhouse Bootlegger, Esther Clark, Moonshine Mary, and other criminal-minded women in the forefront of bootlegging during this time.

Some say women were far better bootleggers than men because in many states, male police officers were not legally permitted to search women. Thus, these women were known to hide flasks of illegal liquor on their bodies and taunt male policemen who would not attempt to go near them.

Women bootleggers were hired by the alcohol-smuggling syndicates to ride alongside the men in order to cut down on searches and robberies. And whenever a woman was arrested for bootlegging, she was hailed by the press as the "Queen of the Bootleggers." Back then, it was considered insulting to accuse a woman of such a dastardly crime as smuggling.

Another outcome of Prohibition was stock car racing. Since moonshine runners had to find ways to avoid the law while delivering their products, they needed speedy-action vehicles that could outrun the police. Stock cars were small and fast and as more and more were built, moonshiners began racing them. Stock car racing was officially established in the 1930s, but it was still considered illegal, so racers could not run on tracks. Bill France formed the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR) in 1948 to regulate stock car racing.

Bibliography

"Eighteenth Amendment." Constitution Annotated, Congress.gov, constitution.congress.gov/constitution/amendment-18/. Accessed 17 Jan. 2025.

Lawson, Ellen NicKenzie. Smugglers, Bootleggers, and Scofflaws: New York City and Prohibition. Excelsior, 2013.

Minnick, Fred. "Women’s History Month Spotlight: Women Bootleggers." HuffPost, 10 Mar. 2014, www.huffpost.com/entry/womens-history-month-spot‗b‗4927284. Accessed 17 Jan. 2025.

"Prohibition." History, 24 Apr. 2023, www.history.com/topics/1920s/prohibition. Accessed 17 Jan. 2025.

Roos, Dave. "How Prohibition Put the ‘Organized’ in Organized Crime." History, 25 July 2024, www.history.com/news/prohibition-organized-crime-al-capone. Accessed 17 Jan. 2025.