Prohibition

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Prohibition

• The 18th Amendment

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What was Prohibition?

• A law called the Volstead Act introduced in the
  USA in January 1920.
• It banned the manufacture, sale and transport of
  alcohol.
• The federal government had the power to enforce
  this law.
• It theory the USA became dry.
• It has since become known as the noble
  experiment.

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Why was prohibition introduced?

• It already existed in many states
• Moral reasons
• Campaigners like the Anti-Saloon League of
  America
• The First World War

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What is the message of this cartoon? (6)
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What is the message of this cartoon? (6)
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What is the message of this cartoon? (6)
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What is the message of this cartoon? (6)
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What were the effects of prohibition?

• Speakeasies
• Moonshine
• Smuggling
• Organised crime

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Speakeasies

• Secret saloon bars opened up in cellars and back
  rooms.
• They had names like the Dizzy Club and drinkers
  had to give a password or knock at the door in
  code to be let in.
• Speakeasies sold bootleg alcohol, smuggled into
  America from abroad.
• Before Prohibition there were 15,000 bars in New
  York. By 1926 there were 30,000 speakeasies!

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Moonshine

• A 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.

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Bootleggers

• Smugglers called Bootleggers made thousands of
  dollars bringing in illegal alcohol to America.
• America has thousands of miles of frontiers so it
  proved easy.
• Famous smugglers like William McCoy made fortunes
  by bringing alcohol from the West Indies and
  Canada.

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Organised Crime

• The enormous profits to b made attracted
  gangsters who started to take control of many
  cities.
• They bribed the police, judges and politicians.
• They controlled the speakeasies and the
  distilleries, and ruthlessly exterminated their
  rivals.

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Al Capone

• By 1927 he was earning some 60 million a year
  from bootlegging.
• His gang was like a private army. He had 700 men
  under his control.
• He was responsible for over 500 murders.
• On 14th February 1929, Capones men dressed as
  police officers murdered 7 members of a rival
  gang. This became known as the Valentines Day
  Massacre.