This past week our group accomplished a lot. We finally nailed down our topic and what we would like to achieve. We decided to proceed on the moonshine route. One of our biggest concerns while considering that topic was that we wouldn't be able to find any experts willing to speak with us since it is illegal to manufacture your own moonshine. But I discovered that a friend of mine, Alex, comes from a family that has been making their own moonshine for a long time. Under certain conditions, Alex's dad agreed to let us film him making moonshine as well as answering some questions from us about the process and the culture of moonshine. I'm interested to see if Alex has any more family members, like grandparents, that have passed down this tradition in their family.
Possible Questions for Alex:
1. At what age were you taught how to make moonshine?
2. How often does your family make moonshine?
3. Is it a tradition passed on through your family?
4. If so, do you know how it got started in your family?
5. How long does it take to make moonshine?
6. Is it a bonding experience between you and your dad?
7. Why is making your own moonshine illegal?
8. Do you plan on showing your kids how?
9. Is it a common practice in your community growing up to make your own moonshine?
10. Do you know the practice of how making moonshine all started?
Possible Questions for Ryan Person (Wilmington Whiskey&Spirits Co. Owner):
1. Why didn't your store open?
2. Is the process of opening a distillery difficult?
3. What is required to open a distillery?
4. Did it have anything to do with New Hanover County's legal resistance to alcohol?
5. What would have been on the menu?
6. Are you currently still trying to open the store?
7. Did you decide to open the store elsewhere?
8. Did you have any resistance from the government for opening your store?
9. If so, do you think it was partly because of the Turlington Act from 1923? (<---find out if Wilm is under the Act still)
10. What did you hope for the store if it had opened?
Wednesday, January 25, 2017
Wednesday, January 18, 2017
Documentary Research
So from my research i’ve found out more about Wilmington’s relationship with alcohol and the legality of it all. What’s interesting to me is how it seems to be a war between people who love alcohol (and brew it themselves) and the people who want it banned (prohibition). In Wilmington there are a ton of breweries and people who make their own alcohol. I think we can talk about the people who make their own alcohol, the culture that goes along with it. Another thing that crossed my mind was moonshine. And I found out there was a shootout between the “most notorious” moonshiners on the carolina coast and the police over in Brunswick county that ended with the moonshiners being sent to the electric chair. (I’ll post articles about them too.) So overall I think we could talk about how prominent alcohol is in a port city community (leaving it open to port cities instead of only Wilm so that it has a more universal effect) even though there were many people in the past that were trying to prevent that from happening.
Top Articles to use:
http://www.starnewsonline.com/news/20100306/north-carolina-has-complex-history-with-liquor
This is the best article I’ve found so far. There are so many people mentioned that we could possibly even get in touch with. Also a lot of interesting stuff- like I didn’t know Wilm had a “feast of pirates”. Also, I heard about Carrie Nation on Drunk History the other night. She’s crazy. I think there is a lot more to this topic than we thought!
http://www.myreporter.com/2009/05/cw-and-elmer-stewart/
Article about Charles William Stewart and William Elmer Stewart
http://www.starnewsonline.com/article/NC/20140320/News/605030720/WM/
Article about a Distillery trying to open in Wilm (back in 2014 so I need to look it up to see if it ever actually opened)
http://www.whiskyvrienden.nl/company.php?id=3837 This is the owner’s contact info. So far I can’t find anything about them ever opening so he may be someone to interview.New Hanover county and alcohol
Super detailed article about the Feast of the Pirates which relates to our subject because this happened during prohibition...so they had an openly drunken parade in the streets of wilm while alcohol was illegal.
Short passage about NC Statewide Prohibition.
A short article about Barbary Coast which is the oldest bar in Wilm.
BLOCKADE RUNNERS- ships that were used to reach Confederate sides with supplies sent from England and occasionally smuggled alcohol.
This explains Wilm’s history as a port for blockade runners.
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