Prohibition

The 18th Amendment

-By 1916 over half of the states in the U.S. had passed laws prohibiting alcohol -On January 29th, 1919 the 18th amendment to the US Constitution was ratified. -It prohibited the sale, manufacture, and transportation of alcohol, and officially established Prohibition

Consequences

-One of the biggest outcomes of Prohibitino was the class divide that created. Only the wealthy could still afford legal alcohol -Because the lower classes could not afford it, they were the ones who made bath tub gin. Because they did not know how to properly make it, they would use things like hydrogen peroxide, which led to thousands of painful deaths. -Also as Annie taught us last week, the gan violence increased significantly during Prohibition

The 21st Amendment

-The 21st Amendment was ratified in December of 1933 -This amendment repealed the 18th Amendment, making alcohol legal again -Finally by 1966 all states had revoked individual Prohibition laws -And I found it interesting that the 18th Amendment was the only amendment in history to ever be repealed.

The Volstead Act

-The Volstead Act was passed on October 28th, 1919 -Unlike the 18th Amendment, this act officially clarified the law by defining that any beverage with a 0.5% alcohol concentration or higher was considered intoxicating liquor. -It also eliminated all existing prohibition laws in different sates in the U.S.

Challenges

-The government faced numerous challenges in trying to enforce prohibition -The biggest problem was that the 18th Amendment had many loopholes in it -One of these loop holes was that the Amendment was not put into effect until a year after it was ratified. This allowed individuals to buy alcohol while it was still legal and store it. -In addition, The Volstead Act stated that consuming alcohol, if prescribed by a doctor, was legal. This amounted to thousands of faulty prescriptions written in the 1920's for alcohol.

The Roaring 20's

-The name "the roaring 20's" comes from this time period in history when the economy was booming, and there was excessive drinking and partying. -A few key terms from this era are bootlegging, speakeasies, moonshine, and bath tub gin. -Bootlegging" - was the illegal manufacturing and sale of liquor, and it was a very lucrative business. Gangsters such as Al Capone would hire men to smuggle in rum from the Caribbean and whiskey from Canada, and bring it back into the U.S. -"Speakeasies" - Were secret bars and nightclubs opened by gangsters, where people could socialize and drink. -"Moonshine" - was liquor distilled by individuals -"Bathtub Gin" - was alcohol that people would literally make in their bathtub. It lead to many deaths.

The Temperance Movement

-The temperance movement began in the 1820's -It aimed to promote moderation when consuming alcohol -Some of the biggest supporters of the temperance movement were women because alcohol was seen as being destructive to marriages and families. -Supporters of this movement also believed that alcohol was the cause of crime and murder -A group called the Anti-Saloon league, which was established in 1893, was the lead lobbying group for the Temperance movement. They believed that saloons were places of evil that kept men from their families, and encouraged men to spend all of their families' income on alcohol.

The End of Prohibition

-Towards the end of the 1920's the support for Prohibition was declining -The end of Prohibition was accelerated by the start of the Great Depression known as Black Tuesday. -People realized that legalizing the liquor industry again would create hundreds of jobs -Then in 1932 when Franklin D. Roosevelt ran for President, he won ensuring to appeal Prohibition

Prohibition

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