Prohibition

__**Prohibition in the 1920s**__

Prohibition of alcohol is the practice of prohibiting the manufacture, transportation, import, export, sale, and consumption of alcohol and alcoholic beverages from 1920 to 1933. Prohibition began on January 16, 1920, when the Eighteenth Amendment went into effect. Prohibition was intended to lower crime and corruption, reduce social problems, lower taxes needed to support prisons and poorhouses, and to improve the health and hygiene in America.



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The sale of alcohol was illegal, but alcoholic drinks were still widely available in underground drinking establishments. People would sell it and drink alcohol secretly. Some people also kept private bars to serve their guests. Legal and illegal home brewing was popular during Prohibition. These people were called bootleggers. One way people got alcohol was because whiskey could be obtained by prescription from medical doctors. Even though the labels said it was for medical purposes doctors freely wrote prescriptions and drug-stores filled them without question. Since no one stop this, there became more patients. So over a million gallons were consumed per year through these freely given prescriptions.



Although, Alcohol became more dangerous to consume. There began more organized crime, courts and prisons systems became overloaded and endemic corruption of police and public officials occurred.People obviously didn't want to get rid of alcohol. Gangsters dominated in citys were the ones that distributed alcohol. The most famous was Chicago's with Al Capone.



Al Capone was "Public enemy 1". He worked for Johnny Torrio, who was the city's leading figure in the underworld. He had to intimidate Torrio's rivals so they would give up their territory to Torrio. He also had to convince speakeasy operators to buy illegal alcohol from Torrio. Capone was very good at what he did. Within 2 years, he was earning $60 million just on alcohol sales. Capone bribed the police and the important politicians of Chicago. His armed thugs watched over the election booths to make sure the Capone's politicians were returned back into office. After 1927 the city's mayor was Big Bill Thompson, who was one of Capone's men.

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Crissy Lewis

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1920-30.com. "Prohibition in the United States". 1920s Prohibition. 25 Apr. 2011 []

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