PROHIBITION

&

THE EIGHTEENTH AMENDMENT

18TH Amendment

What was Prohibition?

• Prohibition: Banning Of Alcohol

• 18th Amendment: Prohibit Consumption/ Manufacture /Sale /Transportation of Alcohol

• Volstead Act: Enforced 18th Amendment

Why Was Prohibition Introduced?

1. Moral Reasons: Alcohol Bad / Mostly Rural People

Prior to 18th Amd. 75% of Americans lived in Dry Counties/Areas

2. Groups: Pushed Gov. to Ban Alcohol Temperance Reformers

3. WW I: Unpatriotic to Drink / Save Wheat for Troops

“Drys & Wets” Argued p222

DRYS ARGUED

BAN ALCOHOL

• Improved individuals

• Strengthened families

• Created better Society

• Stopped diseases

WETS ARGUED

Not To Ban Alcohol

• Did not stop Americans drinking

• Turned law abiding citizens into criminals

• Created illegal networks

• Violence

• Corruption etc..

In 1920: THINK

What would You Have been?

Wet Or Dry?

For or Against Banning Alcohol?

& WHY???

LOOK-

Is this Cartoon For or Against The Banning of Alcohol ? Why?

LOOK-

What is the message of this cartoon?

What were the effects of Prohibition?

1. Speakeasies

2. Moonshine

3. Organised Crime

4. Political Corruption

Speakeasies• Secret Saloon Bars

• Sold “Bootleg” Alcohol

• Before Prohibition there were 15,000 bars in New York. By 1926 there were 30,000 speakeasies!

• Name: “Green Mill” Secret Password or knock at the door

Moonshine

• Spirit made secretly in home made stills

• Several hundred people a year died from this during the 1920s

• In 1929 it is estimated that 700 million gallons of beer were produced in American homes

‘Bootleggers’• Alcohol Smugglers: Made

thousands of dollars making/selling alcohol

• Famous Smuggler: William McCoy Made fortune by bringing alcohol from West Indies & Canada

Organised Crime

• Racketeers/ Gangsters: Owned illegal businesses Owned Speakeasies / Distilleries/

• Bribed: Police/ Judges / Politicians

• Controlled areas in Cities

Al Capone: Scar FaceControlled South-Side of Chicago

• By 1927; Earning $60 million a year from bootlegging

• His gang was like a private army. He had 700 men under his control

• Responsible for 500 murders

BUGS MORANControlled North Side of Chicago

Worth A $100

by the time he

died

ST VALENTINES DAY MASSACRE

ST VALENTINES DAY MASSACRE

AL-CAPONE V BUGGS MORAN

Bootleg Rivalry

Delivery: Warehouse 2122 N. Clark St.

7 Moran Men Waited

Al Capone’s men arrived dressed as police

Moran’s men all killed