Storied past gets a scholarly glance

Besides being a fantastic introduction to the process of making moonshine, Dan Pierce’s Corn From a Jar is the first covering the Great Smoky Mountains as a whole. Thus for audiences keen on gleaning more about the history, economics, social, and legal aspects of the trade in North Carolina and Tennessee, this is the perfect book. 

Pierce, a professor of history and department chair at the University of North Carolina at Asheville, draws from primary sources, dropping slices of life into his narrative to demonstrate the ubiquity of alcohol in the region’s social activities. In the book’s introduction, he promises a balanced accounting of men and women involved in the industry. “I hope the reader will come to understand that while the story of moonshine in the Smokies contains much that is sensational, downright demonic, and even romantic, it is most often a story of imperfect human beings trying their best to survive and even thrive in difficult circumstance in a challenging environment,” he writes. Pierce’s previous book, Real NASCAR (2010), focused on the racing sports’ origins—running illegal liquors, thus generating his interest in research and writing Corn From a Jar.

{module Share this!|none}The Great Smoky Mountains were excellent for making moonshine because of the prevalence of soft water needed for the distillation process. The rainfall the region receives—more than 80 inches per year—helped as well. Places like Cades Cove were prime moonshine making spots. 

Pierce explores how the social acceptance of drinking changes in the nineteenth, twentieth, and twenty-first centuries. In the 1800s, mothers thought nothing of giving their suckling infant a nip of liquor to calm their fretting and “indeed the pastor of the church would not draw stares if he had a flask of whiskey at his hip,” Pierce writes. Primitive Baptist congregations were especially forgiving of moonshiners who worshipped amongst them. Charles Lanman, visiting Buncombe County, N.C., in 1848, arrived at a barn-raising and commented “an abundance of whiskey had already been imbibed.” Distillers in the Great Smoky Mountains during the nineteenth century also produced brandies from a variety of local fruits that appealed to a different class of buyers due to its high price—judges and lawyers.

Making spirits allowed farmers to raise enough cash to pay taxes on their land—making corn into corn liquor meant a farmer could “increase the value of his corn by 150 percent,” Pierce writes. An excise tax of fifty cents per gallon went into effect in 1862, though moonshiners in the Great Smoky Mountains didn’t feel its effects until enforcement began in 1868. After the Civil War, moonshiners united against the tax: “the Confederacy saw the excise tax as another example of Yankee meddling. The many Unionists in the mountains chafed at the fact that a government they had fought to save was now making it more difficult for them to make a living,” Pierce writes.

Pierce deconstructs moonshiner stereotypes. Evidence he produces throughout Corn From a Jar supports his argument that making, selling, and distributing corn liquor was “no different than making a jar of apple butter, and no less of a need.” Moonshiners were socially mobile, church-going people with a sharp eye for problem solving, uncommon resilience, and entrepreneurial spirit we’d envy today. 

With prohibition, moonshining exploded. Prices increased as demand grew, and some moonshiners altered their recipe by substituting sugar for corn. Pierce describes the variety of ways moonshiners “hacked” the process to meet market demand.

Recently there’s been a moonshining renaissance thanks at least in part to a few notable figures, a History Channel documentary, and the State of Tennessee’s 200-mile auto tour replicating a bootlegging route. Changes in liquor laws also have made it legal to produce moonshine and other spirits as shown by the rise of companies such as Ole Smoky Distillery in Tennessee and Troy & Sons Distillers in North Carolina. 

The Great Smoky Mountains Association, a non-profit that supports Great Smoky Mountains National Park, published Corn From a Jar. GSMA’s publications, including this selection, are designed to enhance greater public understanding, enjoyment and appreciation of the national park. To purchase the book, visit shop.smokiesinformation.org.