Prohibition: Its Effects on the United States of America

Prohibition: Its Effects on the United States of America

Prohibition:
It’s Effects on the United States of America

Scott Friedman

American Studies
Mrs. Golicz
April 17, 2009

On the night of January sixteenth, nineteen twenty, the course of America’s history was changed forever. Prohibition had just shut down saloons, distilleries, and breweries across the nation. United States senators felt that alcohol drove the country into chaos. Rules and regulations concerning the prohibition of alcohol were covered under the Volstead Act. The new laws prohibited acts such as carrying a hip flask, moving alcohol without a permit, receiving a bottle of liquor as a gift, or displaying advertisements for alcohol.[1] The government banned alcohol between nineteen twenty and nineteen thirty-three. Reasons for prohibition during this period were the so-called bad effects on peoples’ health, and poverty due to the over use of alcohol. Prohibition was a long-term mission for many people in the United States. The first group that put forth efforts to end the legal use of alcohol was formed in seventeen eighty-nine by a group of farmers in Litchfield, Connecticut. Not only were people angry about the new regulations, but they were dependent on alcohol to cope with the difficulties of the depression. The craving for alcohol across the nations led to a surge of illegal operations and groups revolving around the production and sales of moonshine. Prohibition of alcohol during the nineteen twenties in the United States of America set up the country to become a breeding ground for violent and organized crime. Through out the dry years, there was a steady incline of crimes and violence, changing the course of history throughout the United States.
Almost as soon as the new amendments were passed and put into play, bootleggers, speakeasies, and rumrunners sprang up across the country. Speakeasies were underground meeting places that not only served alcohol, but were also a gathering place for mobs, drugs, and prostitutes....

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