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