NOVEMBER 23, 1862:
The New York Times reports
on four lady smugglers arrested in the Memphis, Tennessee area. Jews were also
routinely stereotyped as smugglers, and this would lead to a famous incident
between President Lincoln and General Ulysses S. Grant. The article reads in
part:
“They are Mrs. MINNIE
BURR, Miss WINCHESTER, Miss MERRILL, [and] Miss CREIGHTON. The chief of the
party, Mrs. BURR, is a somewhat well-known, not to say notorious, resident of
Memphis, who, if common report is to be believed, possesses considerable more
liberality of disposition than prudence, She has been strongly suspected for
some time of being engaged in the contraband trade between this point and the
rebel lines…A large wagon which accompanied them, was found well loaded with
military goods, cotton cards, masculine wearing apparel, salt, &c...Each
one of the ladies was found to have concealed inside their stays, in pockets
underneath their skirts, and in two cases even inside their drawers, a large
amount of letters, papers and documents of different kinds, to the number of
some hundreds, some of them said to contain valuable information...The amount
of smuggling now carried on from this points is almost incalculable...The city
is infested with a swarm of Jews and other speculators...Many women are engaged
in it, the peculiarities of their costume affording them special facilities for
carrying it on…[one woman’s] odd appearance led to further inquiry, and on
investigation there was discovered suspended to a stout girdle about her waist
a four gallon demijohn of whisky.”
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