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Moonshine & Moccasins
Written By: Donna Rhodes | Issue: 2021/06 – June
Strong Brew and the Demands of the Tax Man fed the resentments that boiled over into the Moccasin War.
We’d be hard-pressed to find a Plateau resident who’s unfamiliar with the 1885 Moccasin War (a legendary moonshine dispute).
But if you are among those unedified, acquaint yourself by reading chapter 10 of Ran Shaffner’s Heart of the Blue Ridge.
There are several versions of the Moccasin War legend, depending on which side is tellin’ it. It boiled down to the Georgia Confederates vs. them Highlands Yankees.
Samuel Kelsey (one of the town’s founders, born in Florida …Florida, New York, ironically) received a letter a year before the showdown took place. After reading it, and startled by the signature, tc (the clan), he wrote on the outside: “Important KKK letter.” He kept it in his desk drawer. Excerpts from that letter follow. Be warned. It’s a grammatical train wreck, but the intent is right on track:
Mr. Kelsey
this is to inform you that we have been hering fer a long time that you damed yankeys has ben threating to fetch the revenew to stop us ga boys from fetching whiskey to highlands and we her that you have got them to come at last and we are wating fer them . . . you have made your brags that you whipped us not us but our fathers and that is a damd lie fer tha got out of ration or tha wood of ben with you yet now if you lot thinks there is no hel gis ceap on if there is any body bothered through her we as a clue cluck clan will put evry staer and mil and barn in Ashes at risk of hel
The letter rambles on with threats of physical harm to life, limb, and property. Some believe the following year’s Moccasin War was the letter’s promise made good.
To learn more about Highlands wild beginnings, visit highlandshistory.com or email [email protected].
