Prohibition
By: Jackson Pearson
In 1920, the United States, after the 18th amendment was passed, prohibited the sale, production, importation, and transportation of alcoholic beverages. This era in United States history is referred to as Prohibition. The drinking of alcohol had been looked down upon ever since the colonies had settled. The consumption of alcohol was, in many American eyes, a sin. Leading up to the passing of the amendment, there was even a tax on alcohol referred to as a “sin tax”. Obviously, the drinking of alcohol had caused many problems in society, but many Americans were outraged over the ban. However, there was a large percentage of the U.S. population supporting the amendment and doing many things to raise awareness of the dangers of alcohol.
The American Temperance Society (or ATS for short), helped initiate the first temperance movement. This movement was essentially trying to create a “dry” United States; to make the U.S. how this early group wanted to it took a little less than a century(94 years) after its creation. The ATS was the first group to be created for this movement and had many members (by 1835, 1.5million). The ATS group was largely composed of religious members, with a motive to rid the U.S. of alcohol because of it being a sin to drink.
With many organizations encouraging the ban of alcohol, Kansas was the first state to make the consumption of alcohol illegal. Kansas outlawed alcohol in 1881 and created the first somewhat gateway to the creation of the 18th amendment 39 years later. Between the years 1881 and 1920, there was much debate on the subject of banning alcohol. Many court cases took place that favored the prohibition of alcohol; but there was also many that did not support the ban. Richmond P. Hobson was a representative from Alabama supporting the ban of alcohol. In 1914, Hobson showed support for the prohibition amendment but with only the majority vote and not 2/3 of the votes, the amendment did not pass congress. But in 1920 congress had a majority rule in favor of amendment, which passed the amendment to ban the sale, importation, transportation, and production of alcoholic drinks.
The scramble to stock up on beer, whiskey, and other alcoholic beverages happened in 1919. Many Americans stockpiled themselves with alcohol, because the amendment did not ban the consumption of alcohol, many saw the ban coming and prepared themselves for when things went “dry”. After the amendment had passed some resorted to smuggling, illegally making, and bootlegging alcohol. Many wealthy men had a steady supply of alcohol and the passing of the amendment did not affect anything to them besides the cost of a drink.
Once the amendment was passed it did not work nearly as well as the supporters of the amendment had hoped. The Prohibition Era was not very successful in the fact that many people still consumed alcohol. There was crime produced by the amendment and many people lost jobs (bootlegging, making alcohol illegally, and shootings over alcohol). Saying the amendment made the nation clear of liquor and beer would be a very false statement. It did diminish the amount of alcohol consumed overall but did not affect the nation how it was supposed to. The 21st amendment to the constitution took place in 1933; this amendment removed prohibition from the nation. After the 21st amendment, the nation was back to what it was before. The saloons were back, and stores sold and factories created alcoholic beverages once again.
The American Temperance Society (or ATS for short), helped initiate the first temperance movement. This movement was essentially trying to create a “dry” United States; to make the U.S. how this early group wanted to it took a little less than a century(94 years) after its creation. The ATS was the first group to be created for this movement and had many members (by 1835, 1.5million). The ATS group was largely composed of religious members, with a motive to rid the U.S. of alcohol because of it being a sin to drink.
With many organizations encouraging the ban of alcohol, Kansas was the first state to make the consumption of alcohol illegal. Kansas outlawed alcohol in 1881 and created the first somewhat gateway to the creation of the 18th amendment 39 years later. Between the years 1881 and 1920, there was much debate on the subject of banning alcohol. Many court cases took place that favored the prohibition of alcohol; but there was also many that did not support the ban. Richmond P. Hobson was a representative from Alabama supporting the ban of alcohol. In 1914, Hobson showed support for the prohibition amendment but with only the majority vote and not 2/3 of the votes, the amendment did not pass congress. But in 1920 congress had a majority rule in favor of amendment, which passed the amendment to ban the sale, importation, transportation, and production of alcoholic drinks.
The scramble to stock up on beer, whiskey, and other alcoholic beverages happened in 1919. Many Americans stockpiled themselves with alcohol, because the amendment did not ban the consumption of alcohol, many saw the ban coming and prepared themselves for when things went “dry”. After the amendment had passed some resorted to smuggling, illegally making, and bootlegging alcohol. Many wealthy men had a steady supply of alcohol and the passing of the amendment did not affect anything to them besides the cost of a drink.
Once the amendment was passed it did not work nearly as well as the supporters of the amendment had hoped. The Prohibition Era was not very successful in the fact that many people still consumed alcohol. There was crime produced by the amendment and many people lost jobs (bootlegging, making alcohol illegally, and shootings over alcohol). Saying the amendment made the nation clear of liquor and beer would be a very false statement. It did diminish the amount of alcohol consumed overall but did not affect the nation how it was supposed to. The 21st amendment to the constitution took place in 1933; this amendment removed prohibition from the nation. After the 21st amendment, the nation was back to what it was before. The saloons were back, and stores sold and factories created alcoholic beverages once again.
In 1920 the United States conducted a nationwide experiment: stop the consumption of alcohol. The experiment looked as if it would work but after 13 years the experiment met an end and alcohol was once again back. The goal to remove alcohol was a less realistic than the goal to find bigfoot; there was no way that it would work
 |
| Many people wanted prohibition to happen. |
 |
| Lots of events took place trying to overturn Prohibition. |
 |
| Many women were strongly against men drinking. |
 |
| This image shows barrels of beer being emptied into the streets. |
 |
| A newspaper when the amendment was ratified. |
Sources
This source was a great source about
Richmond P. Hobson. It showed how he supported a prohibition amendment and how
he voiced his support for it. It is a credible source because it is on The Ohio
State University website.
This source provided a great deal of
information all about the process of how Prohibition happened. It is credible
because it is the History website. It was written by the History.com Staff.
Using this website required me to find the facts on my other sources to check
that the facts are true, but it allowed me an insight of what Prohibition was
like. This source also had great pictures that had great captions to explain
the pictures.
This source was great because of the great
video; the video created a larger understanding of Prohibition. The site also
had many facts on it that was backed up by many historians. This source proved
great to me because of how many facts it had and the videos that explained a
great deal to me on the site.
This site provided many interesting facts
about prohibition. The author, David J. Hanson, Ph.D., is a very intelligent
historian and professor from Professor Emeritus of Sociology of the State
University of New York at Potsdam. This is a very credible source that had many
great facts.
This site provided a decent amount of
information about the American Temperance Society. Even though it is not a very
big site it provided the information that was needed for the topic I needed to
know about.
This was a primary source of the Volstead act.
It also had a description of what was being said in the act. This source was
excellent in providing the original information, and an easier to read version.
This source also provided a huge understanding in the language used in the
document that prohibited alcohol in the United States.
No comments:
Post a Comment