Prohibition & Bootlegging

[This article is issued in conjunction with the launch of my new book, Machine Guns in Narragansett Bay: The Coast Guard’s War on Rumrunners (History Press, 2023)]

In September 1922, …
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I have a new book out! It is Machine Guns in Narragansett Bay: The Coast Guard’s War Against Rumrunners (History Press, 2023).

Here are three upcoming appearances I will …
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[Editor’s Note: In early 1923, newspaper readers became enthralled with Gray Ghost, a “pirate prowler” that preyed on the rum supply ships stationed on Rum Row south of Block Island. …
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The 19th century was known for its social reform movements. The abolition of slavery and women’s suffrage movements are certain to top any list. But at the time temperance reform …
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On May 2, 1935, the Boston Traveler published an article comparing the career of two professionals: the first, Rhode Island-born James Howard McGrath, represented moral certitude and industry, a model …
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[Note from the editor:  An updated version of this article is in a chapter of my book Machine Guns in Narragansett Bay: The Coast Guard’s War on Rumrunners (History Press, 2023).  The …
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[Editor’s note: When interviewed in 1991, Ron Deaver was 97 years old and resided in a nursing home. Some sixty years earlier, in early 1930s Rhode Island, he actively participated …
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In Kent County, after more than a century of temperance supporters promoting laws banning the sale of alcohol, and the sometimes, violent opposition to such efforts, those in the temperance …
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Early ministers in Rhode Island, traveling from place to place to preach, often spoke out against various vices. For example, in his 1754 journal, the Reverend Jacob Bailey of Massachusetts …
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