In the 1920s, the United States and Canada entered the era of Prohibition. While being voted dry was greeted with dismay by many Americans, for dozens of coastal communities in Atlantic Canada hard hit by a downturn in the fisheries and still recovering from World War I, it was a golden business opportunity.
Rum Running is a half hour documentary that explores how citizens of Atlantic Canada participated in the alcohol smuggling trade. The film depicts the high stakes role that Nova Scotia and the French Islands of St. Pierre and Miquelon played during that era.
Every month rum runners from the Maritimes would deliver up to 300,000 cases of alcohol - rum, whiskey, wine and other liquors - from St. Pierre to America’s notorious ‘Rum Row’ off the northeast US coast. This thriving trade injected much needed capital into dozens of Maritime communities during tough economic times and made some individuals rich.
Rum Running will premiere on CBC Television’s Land & Sea, Sunday, February 19, 2012 at 12 Noon.
For those of us who don't receive Canadian television, following the Sunday broadcast, the documentary can be watched on the CBC website.
(The video we mentioned back in December, about Nova Scotia schooners, is still available for viewing on the CBC website, in case you missed it...)
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