Max Mann's Whiskey Jug: Primary Source Deep Dive (Grades 9-12)
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This whiskey jug belonged to Max Mann, a Jewish saloon owner at the turn of the century. Born to Jewish immigrants in the South, Max grew up in Bayou Sara, a diverse Louisiana river town with a reputation for debauchery owing to its nightlife. It served as the largest port between New Orleans, LA, and Natchez, MS. Bayou Sara boasted a prominent Jewish population; however, there were neither synagogues nor churches in the town. The Jewish immigrants and their descendants accounted for much of the merchandising and trade in agricultural hubs along the Mississippi. In its heyday, Bayou Sara was home to over 300 businesses. Primarily, these enterprises consisted of hotels, brothels, gambling houses, and saloons.
Max Mann owned the eponymous Max Mann Saloon, the most popular saloon in town, making him one of the wealthiest men in Bayou Sara. Mann’s main import was Five Feathers Whiskey, a popular whiskey brand throughout the South. Mann sourced it from Edwin Schiele & Company of St. Louis, and it was transported via riverboats. Max claimed to be the label's sole agent in Bayou Sara and the surrounding area. He also dealt Harper Rye Whiskey. However, Mann encountered a fatal flaw in his business model: his location on the riverfront, while convenient for merchants, was extremely prone to flooding. In 1912, Bayou Sara suffered a severe flood that submerged much of the town. Within a few years, the town bounced back, and Mann relocated the saloon to another part of town. However, the Mississippi River continued to rise, and the levees weakened. As Mann’s saloon continued to thrive despite the hardships of frequent floods, hostility festered towards alcohol amongst the Anti-Saloon League and the Women’s Christian Temperance Union.
These organizations crusaded against alcohol on the principle of reducing destruction in the towns as a result of drunken behavior and of having their men be more present in the home. Drinking was central to American life all the way up to the White House, where President Andrew Johnson had given a drunk inauguration speech and set the precedent for alcoholism to be embedded within the culture. Furthermore, the emergence of red-light districts happened cross-country, with the most prominent being San Francisco’s Barbary Coast, which mirrored Bayou Sara on a metropolitan scale. During World War I, anti-German sentiment fueled further anti-alcohol activism, since Germany’s main cultural export was beer.
As such, calls to ban alcohol correlated with anti immigration endeavors since much of the industry was dominated by immigrants from Germany, Ireland, and other regions of Eastern Europe. The 18th Amendment to the Constitution was ratified in early 1919 and forbade the sale of alcohol but not its consumption, leading to the practice of moonshining, in which people gathered the ingredients for liquor and make it in their own homes. They’d do so in their basements to be out of sight. Thus began a period in American history known as Prohibition. At its inception, enforcement of the 18th Amendment was left to the States. Louisiana voted against Prohibition, so the state was unaffected until the 1919 Volstead Act, which forced every state to enforce the ban on alcohol sales. This forced Max to shut down his saloon. Prohibition caused Bayou Sara to decline tremendously until it was finally washed away in the 1927 Mississippi Flood.
Comprehension Questions:
Where did Max Mann source his whiskey?
What world events caused more Americans to support Prohibition?
What is moonshining?
Discussion Questions:
Look at the primary sources and read the article. After reading the article, what questions do you still have about the sources?
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