No. 427: Modern Moonshinin' in Tennessee

From Geneva DeCobert

Whiskey became a natural byproduct for some of the earliest farmers in the states. Corn was a fast-growing native American crop, and early farmers soon found that they had much more than they could handle. As whiskey would take up less space, weigh less, and could be sold for a higher value as an artisan product, the market took off quickly. By 1790, Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton, looking for revenue for the fledgling United States of America, insisted that the federal government levy a tax on whiskey. And thus, the federal Whiskey Tax was born a year later—with big breaks for major distillers, of course.

Protests immediately followed. One day in 1791, excise officer Robert Johnson was on his collection route in Western Pennsylvania when eleven men dressed as women attacked him. Johnson was stripped, tarred, feathered, and had his horse stolen before being left in the woods. When he issued arrest warrants for the two men he recognized, the man sent with those warrants suffered the same fate—forcing Johnson to resign from his post.

Things escalated until a year later, when President Washington assembled federal troops to march on the area. They arrested all suspected rebels and took them to Philadelphia for trial, where two were charged with treason only to eventually be given presidential pardons. Protests continued—in the form of tax evasion—throughout the states until 1802 when Thomas Jefferson repealed the tax alongside the Republican party. At this point, the money had been deemed nearly impossible to collect.

Later, during the Civil War, the Confederate government outlawed all whiskey production, hoping it would aid in fielding more troops. This period was when the term “moonshining”, or the process of distilling by the light of the moon, came into fashion. After the Civil War, the ban was lifted and distilleries cropped up so fast in response that there were hundreds statewide by 1908.

Unfortunately, the boom didn’t last. Tennessee led the nation in prohibition, and distilling was banned again in 1910—ten years before the federal government instituted prohibition nationwide. “Moonshining'' remained the cultural standard until 1939, six years after the repeal of federal prohibition. At the same time, a statewide tax on transactions of distilled liquor was implemented. In part because of taxes like this, clandestine home distilling had firmly planted itself within the zeitgeist of the American South.

There aren't that many differences between the home distillers of 1790 to 1939 and the home distillers of today aside from the technology. “Government officials are quite invested in heavily taxing certain substances,” notes Tore Olsson, Associate Professor of History at the University of Tennessee. “Often people, especially those in the mountains, are trying to get away from this kind of interference.” Both federal and state governments completely outlaw home distilling, but the law is nearly powerless in the face of the American tradition. The two men I spoke with have little concern for the legality of their hobby and take pride in what they create. While many enjoy sharing product and even equipment, there isn’t much to be said for trading recipes—in the true spirit of American autonomy, everyone has their own special technique.

Moonshiners often have pseudonyms specific to the skill (to maintain anonymity), and “Tom Boggins” is no different. Boggins is a true homesteader: when we spoke, he was taking a short break from milling his own wood to use in a firewood barn. A born Nashvillian, Boggins learned each new skill he utilizes every day on the farm by himself, with only a collection of books for direction. Everything he does is driven by an “it can’t be that hard” gene deep within him, and whiskey distillation is no different. “It’s not that hard,” he laughs, “And if it is, who cares? It won’t be the second time.”

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