What Is The 18th Amendment Essay

Improved Essays
The 18th Amendment prohibited the manufacture, transportation and sale of all alcoholic beverages in the United States. This Amendment was passed on December 17, 1917 and eventually repealed in 1933. This Amendment was first passed for many reasons. Many believe it had to do with the Progressive Movement. This Movement was made up of many states that decided that drinking was behind the majority of America’s problem like, corruption, child abuse, and worker safety. In addition to these reasons, some people believed that drinking was a huge drag in the economy as well. After these reasons got out, individual states started to vote themselves dry. Twenty- six states voted themselves dry by the time America entered World War I in 1917. This was …show more content…
For example the President of the United States during this time kept the White House well stocked with bootleg liquor even though when he was a Senator, he had voted for Prohibition. The Volstead Act was legislation to carry out the 18th Amendment. The Senators and Congressman who voted for a “dry country” are violating the Volstead Act persistently. In fact, many many of these Congressmen and Senators appeared in a drunken condition in the halls and corridors of Congress. Corruption infested the government during this time. If you were caught bootlegging(selling alcohol illegally) during Prohibition you could receive 6 months to a year in jail just for selling a pint or a quart of whiskey. This is just one of the many reasons Prohibition was later vetoed in 1933.

Prohibition seemed to make more problems than solutions. Prohibition brought about bootlegging and an increase in racketeers, gangsters, homicides, dope selling, etc. It got gangsters richer and made them more violent in their attempts to control liquor sales and many other illegal activities such as prostitution and gambling. Homicides increased drastically during prohibition. The homicide rate was the greatest in America in 1933 towards the end of Prohibition. The rate was 10 per 100,00 Americans in

Related Documents

  • Decent Essays

    18th Amendment Dbq

    • 234 Words
    • 1 Pages

    The Eighteenth Amendment was written due to Prohibition. Prohibition happened during the 1800’s; also from 1920 through 1933. Prohibition was the prevention of manufacturing, selling, or transportation of alcohol in the United States. This paper will discuss the reasons that led to the Amendment, how effective the Amendment was, and lastly, the overall benefit of the Amendment. Many Americans were drinking illegally, which led to more people selling liquor via bootlegging.…

    • 234 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Prohibition was the ban of alcohol. It started on December 17th, 1917.This was the 18th amendment. The vote from the house of representatives to get it ratified was 282 to 128. The senate's vote was 47 to 8. Finally in the early 1920’s it came into effect…

    • 621 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Imagine walking by a sports bar that shut down because it can't sell alcohol. That was a reality in the days of Prohibition. Prohibition was America's attempt at solving many of its alcohol caused issues. Though many people thought it was a good idea, it soon was repealed by Americans as it did not do what it was meant to do, stop the problems, all it did was create more. Prohibition was the banning of anything to do with alcohol, such as trading, possessing, or buying it.…

    • 555 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    After the prohibition law was passed, America started to lose money. According to Doc E, America lost a little over $20 million. People were so desperate for alcohol that they started to make their own and find any way to smuggle it in. The government was not making any money off these bootleggers or people who made their own alcohol because it was self profit and there was no tax for them to collect. The government didn’t know about this for awhile because it was impossible for them to patrol the border between Mexico and Canada (Doc C).…

    • 526 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    As a result, the Volstead Act was rationalized in 1919, placing a ban on importing and brewing alcoholic beverages and launching the Prohibition era of the United States. During this time, liquor supply quickly became limited. However, it was still legal to drink; the remaining supply at the time the law was passed was still available for sale or consumption. This caused prices for liquor to become inflated, as it was either extremely rare or it was sold illegally. In both cases, this increased the value of liquor because of how hard it was to get, whether it was legal or not.…

    • 1643 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Great Essays

    1919 Prohibition Dbq

    • 1377 Words
    • 6 Pages

    The 1919 Experiment known as the Prohibition “When the Mayor of Berlin, Gustav Boess, visited New York City in the fall of 1929, one of the questions he had for his host, Mayor James J. Walker, was when Prohibition was to go into effect. The problem was that Prohibition has already been the law of the United States for nearly a decade. That Boess had to ask tells you plenty about how well it was working” (PBS). Ironically in 1919 the eighteenth amendment was put into place for the benefit of society that make illegal “manufacture, sale, or transportation intoxicating liquors”. This ratification brought on many changes to American society.…

    • 1377 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The most well-known piece of legislation that came from the 1920’s was the passage of the 18th Amendment. Ratified on January 16 ,1919 he amendment, also known as Prohibition, banned the manufacturing, transportation and selling of alcohol. The proponents of the amendment believed that liquor was destructive and was the leading cause of the rise in crime. They also believed that it would curve solve…

    • 1713 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Prohibition was put into effect in 1920 through the Eighteenth Amendment, decreased respect for the government, and encouraged bootleggers (“Crime 1920-1940”). Bootleggers illegally smuggled alcohol to the public, became wealthy, and became public cult heroes during the Great Depression (“Gangsters During the Depression”). Prohibition eventually ends in 1933 through the Twenty First Amendment due to the negative impact on crime and alcoholism. Respect for the government is restored and the crime rate drops soon after Prohibition ends (“Prohibition”).…

    • 613 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    "The very men who made the Prohibition law are violating it. How can you send a man to jail for selling alcohol, when you know that the men who make the laws... are themselves patronizing the men selling it." (Doc E) So, what caused America to rethink the 18th Amendment? Easy, the crime rates sky rocketed, the enforcement could have cared less, and the economy…

    • 640 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    The 18th Amendment

    • 2499 Words
    • 10 Pages

    With the beginning of a new year on January 1920 was not only the decade of the first showing of Mickey Mouse, or the first televised World Series, but with the ratification of the 18th amendment. The 18th amendment made the sale and distribution of alcohol illegal. Since this decade, every law or new amendment that was issued seemed to only be…

    • 2499 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Causes And Effects Of Prohibition In The 1920s

    • 979 Words
    • 4 Pages
    • 4 Works Cited

    Prohibition was supposed to end many social problems in our country, but instead increased organized crime and never really ended the social problems. Alcohol was available because bootleggers would smuggle alcohol into the United States from Canada, Mexico, and the Bahamas. The illegal alcohol would be taken to speakeasies which were illegal saloons. They were called speakeasies because you were not supposed to talk about them. Many police officers did not enforce the laws because they were bribed to keep quiet about speakeasies, and many officers were regular customers (Freshet).…

    • 979 Words
    • 4 Pages
    • 4 Works Cited
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    According to The Inside of Prohibition by Mabel Walker Willebrandt says that senators and congressmen have appeared on the floor in a drunken condition and bootleggers infested the halls and corridors of congress and ply their trade there. Basically, prohibition stopped nothing. Instead of everyone obeying the law, people just sold illegally as if they didn’t care. People also lost respect for the Government and the law enforcement. No one respected the law and the majority of society went against the laws.…

    • 482 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Roaring 20's Essay

    • 1066 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Prohibition was a 13 year period of time in the United States, spanning from 1920 to 1933, in which the manufacture, transportation and sale of alcohol was illegal. It was the 18th Amendment to the Constitution, designed in an effort to reduce drinking. It didn’t work. Instead of people drinking less, they began to drink more and in more unhealthy ways. They had to make their own alcohol, which usually tasted disgusting and was of an extremely high proof and could be dangerous to consume too much of.…

    • 1066 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Organized Crime During Prohibition Organized crime existed long before the 1920’s, but it wasn’t as organized or as huge. Their rise in America was mostly due to bootlegging. Prohibition allowed organized crime to flourish and increase its effectiveness. Organized crime greatly affected, and was affected by, prohibition. “Prohibition was a unique economic opening for this generation- an opening unlike anything that previous generations of criminals had known, an opportunity whereby a man who might today be described as an underachiever or social misfit could achieve status”(Mappen 4).…

    • 1252 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Introduction of Prohibition Prohibition was introduced to all American states apart from Maryland in 1920. Prohibition was the banning of alcohol; you could be arrested for sale, manufacture and transportation of alcohol. There were many factors that influenced the introduction of prohibition, One of the main factors was the temperance movements two examples of this were the anti-saloon league and Women’s Christian temperance movement. The temperance movements were at the strongest in rural areas, they put pressure on state governments to introduce prohibition. They put pressure on them by claiming the Damage to drinkers health they also protested that the sale in alcohol produced crime and…

    • 637 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays