Federal Writers' Project – Life Histories/2021/Spring/105i/Section 24/Bessie Mae Boatwright

Overview
Bessie Mae Boatwright was interviewed by Nellie Toler for the Federal Writers Project. Boatwright was a prostitute and bootlegger that lived through the Great Depression.

Biography
Bessie Mae Boatwright was born in 1919, and at the time of the interview was residing in Paris, Tennessee at 19 years old. She was the oldest of five children, and her parents were bootleggers who illegally sold alcohol during prohibition in the United States. Boatwright followed in her parents footsteps and started bootlegging at a young age. She dropped out of school after eighth grade and became a prostitute by age 13 but served time in an unknown institution for such after being caught. After getting out, she continued to be a prostitute at a brothel called Buzzard’s Roost. Boatwright claims to have enjoyed her job, and she lived with her mother who became accustomed to seeing her drunk and in bed with men daily. She claims life is about getting drunk and having sex primarily.

Boatwright does not remember losing her virginity and began prostitution at a young age. This landed her in an unknown sort of institution. She prostitutes herself sometimes for as low as a quarter, which would be worth $5 today. According to her, she has had Gonorrhea multiple times that she says, “it’s like eating green apples,” and does not phase her at all. She sees nothing wrong with this job as it is the ideal way to make money without having to work in a factory. Her mother expects to find her drunk and in bed with a random man at any given time.

At the time of the interview, Boatwright had been involved with a married man for two years. There is a 26-year age gap between the two, and she uses his car to drive and does so under the influence. Also, Boatwright claims that girls hate her because of her looks.

Prostitution During the Great Depression
Prostitution was a particularly popular job during the Great Depression. Women began playing a bigger role in underground economic activity by taking on that role as well as bootlegging.

Anti-prostitution sentiment started in Europe in the 1870s and spread to the United States. Governments sought to abolish or prevent state-sponsored prostitution, but the movement lost momentum around World War I. Anti-prostitution efforts only resulted in legislation that hurt prostitutes instead of providing assistance.

Chicago was at the forefront of the anti-prostitution movement by establishing Chicago's Morals Court, which was intended to "annihilate" prostitution. Arrested women were subject to mandatory and invasive medical examinations.

Origin
A wave of religious calls for temperance swept the United States in the 1820s and '30s. Maine passed the first state prohibition laws in 1846, and many other states followed suit by the time the Civil War began in 1861. By the 20th century, temperance movements were very common with women playing a major role as alcohol was seen as a destructive force in families and marriage.

18th Amendment
President Woodrow Wilson instituted a temporary wartime prohibition after the United States entered World War I in 1917. Congress then submitted the 18th Amendment, which would ban the manufacture, transportation, and sale of liquor. It was ratified on January 16, 1919, having had 33 states enacted their own legislation. Prohibition became federally enforced in October 1919 with the National Prohibition Act, which is more commonly known as the Volstead Act.

The passage of the 18th Amendment fueled the rise of organized crime with gangsters making money off of bootleg liquor. When it ended in 1933, many gangsters lost their way of making money and turned back to gambling and prostitution.

Women
The loose enforcement of prohibition ushered in a wave of female bootleggers. Now, "women moved into spaces that had once been reserved exclusively for men." For example, women in Butte, Montana, made and sold liquor. Women that drank began to be perceived as prostitutes or "loose" for drinking in saloons.

Racism
Blacks during Prohibition were demonized as "liquor-crazed, violent, and sexually depraved." This view was seen as contradictory as Blacks largely had long supported temperance campaigns and anti-liquor legislation. Prohibition played an large role in the political and economic repression of blacks.