The Federal Liquor Tax That Turned Farmers into Moonshiners

After the Civil War, when the federal government finally enforced an excise tax on distilled spirits, the cost made legal distilling impossible for small Cleveland County farmers. To operate lawfully required a $5,000 bond to secure a federal license, a $50 special tax, a $2 per-day operating tax, and a 50-cent tax on every gallon of brandy distilled (with whiskey taxed even higher).

Jones explains that most local farmers had only small stills and operated on a limited scale, making these requirements completely prohibitive. When they learned that being caught making illicit liquor meant heavy fines and jail sentences, they moved their stills to secluded places and worked at night by moonlight, giving rise to the term “moonshiners.”

Source: Mamie Jones.