Alcool, crime et prostitution: Frelighsburg de 1890 à 1930 / Alcohol, Crime and Prostitution: Frelighsburg from 1890 to 1930

The author points out that the border towns of the Eastern Townships experienced intense periods of crime and smuggling of alcohol before and during the period of American prohibition, that officially began in 1919 and lasted until 1933. The villages of Frelighsburg and Abercorn were important supply centers for smugglers, and several hotel owners on the Canadian side benefited from the patronage of Americans who crossed the boundary line to drink. Bootleggers also benefited by supplying illicit alcohol to railway workers during the Eastern Townships' railway boom years between 1880 and 1910. These boom years also saw the rise in prostitution, and the author outlines the career of Lillian Miner (1866-1951), alias Queen Lil, a Vermont-born and Boston-trained brothel owner who transformed the American Hotel, on the border between Glen Sutton, Quebec, and East Richford, Vermont, into the "Palace of Sin", attracting clients from Montreal and Boston, as well as locals.

Frelighsburg, QC

Société d'histoire et de patrimoine de Frelighsburg

2016

en & fr