Prohibition. Moonshine. Bootlegging.

For many people, these words conjure up images of slick city gangsters, shoot-outs, and police raids. These images are only part of a larger picture, however, and this site attempts to demonstrate the variety of ways in which moonshine and illegal liquor have permeated the culture over the years, particularly in the South.

This site concentrates on North Carolina and the surrounding states during the first thirty years of the 20th century. By using a range of sound, video, photographs and text, we hope to show that the process of making, selling and drinking moonshine has been a part of daily life for some people for many years. Moonshining is often more of an economic than a political or moral issue, and is rarely as glamorous as popular culture has portrayed it.

This site was created in November 1997 by Michael Manning, Sarah Smith, and Eric Chernoff as a course project within the UNC-CH School of Journalism. This site was revised in May 2020 to work properly in current web browsers and to remove broken links.

Images, texts, transcriptions, and/or recordings reproduced in this document may be protected by copyright. Users who contemplate reproducing materials for other than private use should make an additional effort to determine ownership and, if restricted, seek permission before reproducing them. Permission to publish must also be requested from the:

Manuscripts Department
Wilson Library, CB #3926
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Chapel Hill, NC 27514

Dabney, Joesephn Earl. Moonshine Spirits: A Chronicle of Corn Whiskey from King James' Ulster Plantation to America's Appalachians and the Moonshine Life. Asheville, NC: Bright Mountain Books, 1974.

Gabbard, Alex. Return to Thunder Road : The Story Behind the Legend Gabbard Publications, 1992.

Miller, Wilbur R. Revenuers & Moonshiners : Enforcing Federal Liquor Law in the Mountain South, 1865-1900 Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1991.

Morgan, John P. and Tulloss, Thomas C. "The Jake Walk Blues" Old Time Music. London: England, 1978 pp 17-24

Morgan, John P. and Tulloss, Thomas C. "The Jake Walk Blues: A Toxicologic Tragedy Mirrored in American Popular Music" JEMF Quarterly. Los Angeles, 1977 pp122-126

"Phonographs, second pianos." Accessed via http://www.mindspring.co m/~goatboy/brady/home.htm on 12 November 1997; link now defunct.

"Player Pianos." Accessed via http://www.ruralnet.net.au/~mwaters/index.html on 12 November 1997; link now defunct.

White, M. L. A History of the Life of Amos Owens: The Noted Blockader of Cherry Mountain, N.C. Cleveland Star Job Print, 1901.

Wilkinson, Alec. Moonshine: A Life in Pursuit of White Liquor. New York: Knopf, 1985.