Bootlegging Rebellion

During the period of prohibition, from 1920 to 1933, the sale, manufacture and transportation of alcohol was made illegal, through the Volstead act of 1919, leading to the first and only time an Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was repealed. Throughout this time in American history gangsters were common and were constantly increasing in every city but one in particular stood out from all the others making a significant impact on American history. Scarface, Alphonse Capone or more commonly known as Al Capone; who was the most infamous gangster, taking advantage of the era of Prohibition, ran an organized crime association in Chicago during the 1920s. He was responsible for over 500 murders; he had 700 men under his control and earned $60 million a year for bootlegging. Capone, who was glamorised in media and shown as charitable to the helpless was also controlling and violent and became an iconic figure of the successful American gangster who insisted he was just ‘supplying the public demand’.

Prohibition was a period of 14 years of American history in which the manufacture, sale and transportation of alcohol was made illegal. As it became illegal, people wanted it more. All over America people were drinking illegal alcohol. The alcohol would be smuggled in from the Caribbean or from Canada. The gangsters would then open up bars (speakeasies) for people to come in and drink. The gangsters saw this as a chance for them to earn money as people wanted the alcohol. These bars were often searched for by prohibition agents and the aim was for them to get shut down. The majority of these agents were under qualified and underpaid therefore the gangsters

The prohibition caused much controversy in the 1920’s. The 18th amendment was passed on Jan 16, 1920, it said in Title II, Section 3 the National Prohibition Act states that "No person shall on or after the date when the 18th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States goes into effect, manufacture, sell, barter, transport, import, export, deliver, furnish or possess any intoxicating liquor except as authorized in this act." (United States constitution). The Prohibition opened up many big business opportunities in the illegal marketing of alcohol. The people who took advantage of this opportunity were known as “Bootleggers”. With the enactment of this law organized crime was established, allowing men such as Al Capone to capitalize

Prohibition was a law that stated nobody could manufacture, store in barrels or bottles, transport, sell, possess, or consume alcohol from 1920-1933. They created the law in hopes of lowering crime rates, and to improve overall health and hygiene in America. The law wasn’t very heavily followed because Americans would either consume alcohol by visiting other countries or by illegally importing it into the United States. There were also underground establishments called

At the same time, why did the US introduce prohibition? Two years after the World War One ended the US government was in a huge debt. Vaguely, congress thought it would be a good idea to ban alcohol since it supposedly causes Americans problems. Such as domestic abuse of women and angered congress, because people rather spend money on alcohol than war bonds. This ban of alcohol would be later called and enforced by the 18th amendment. However, as time went on with the amendment in place Americans began to realize that it was pointless to ban alcohol. The only thing that came out of banning alcohol was retaliation, hypocritical congressmen, and the increase of killing.

Prohibition began with the ratification of the 18th amendment stating,”…the manufacture, sale or transportation of intoxicating liquors…for beverage purpose is hereby prohibited.”(Constitution). In fact the Prohibition Act was effective in reducing the amount of alcohol consumed by the public; it, however, trigger an up-roar of organized criminal activity like the Mafia during the Prohibition movement.

It was illegal even to transport the alcoholic beverages from one place to another. Often there would be high-speed chases in order to out run the police during the prohibition era. Mobsters made profit off of the alcohol. Various people took over cities and soon became a war on other bosses and cities. Violence started to take in place making guns shootings murders more often. for example for al Capone to survive this he spent almost half of his money earned from bootlegging profit on body guards. A lot of mafia related gangs were killing each other over

Prohibition was counter productive to the predicted outcome. Wives did not want there husbands to always end up coming home drunk. People loved alcohol and they wanted more when intros gone so people got into bootlegging to fulfill the needs. It may have brought satisfaction to the innocent people but it yielded a lot of crime and

In the 1920s, America began to experience a lot of modernization with the era of prohibition, lively spirited flappers, and a clash between science and religion. Just after World War I, Americans had to make the hard transition from farm life, to work in the cities. Life in the cities was very different from the small life in small towns. With many immigrants in America, city life offered Americans change socially with its tolerance with drinking, gambling and dating life. Just after World War I, prohibition to manufacture, sell, and transport alcohol took place because of the Eighteenth Amendment.

This led to the closing of many bars and stores that sold alcohol, but this did not stop people. It led to the opening of speakeasies that were illegal bars. Many people knew that prohibition was going to happen, so before it was set into law people went and stockpiled alcohol and some people had a supply that would last them years. This was a work around because it was illegal to make and sell booze, it was not illegal to drink it. Many people use this law as an opportunity to make a lot of money and this led to many gangs and bootleggers.

Prohibition created a huge push for alcohol which really sparked a want for refreshments and to party. Alcohol consumption started to increase as people rebelled against the 18th amendments. This increase in the consumption of alcohol led to

The contributing factor to the sudden increase of felonies was the organization of crime, especially in large cities. Because liquor was no longer legally available, the public turned to gangsters who readily took on the bootlegging industry and supplied them with liquor. Most speak-easies were owned by bootlegging mobsters. On account of the industry being so profitable, more gangsters became involved in the money-making business. Crime became so organized because "criminal groups organize around the steady source of income provided by laws against victimless crimes such as consuming alcohol" (Thorton, 13). As a result of the money involved in the bootlegging industry, there was much rival between gangs. The profit motive caused over four hundred gang related murders a year in Chicago alone (Stack, 4). Prohibition actually enabled organised crime to grow and in an effort to stay in

The main cause of Prohibition was religious views coming into the light. Groups such as the Protestant Evangelical had many views similar to all the others when it came to alcoholic beverages. The only difference is that when it came down to it the Evangelical were more likely to help clean up a person who was used to over drinking, this was not the case of Temperance groups. They felt that they had more of an obligations to help the children and wives whose lives had been affected by what they called “drunkards”. Although there was this big difference between the two it did not stop them from coming together to try and fix what they felt needed fixing. These religious groups had the idea that they would start with cleaning up people and then move on to their idea of helping the whole nation. To try and change people's lives the Evangelicals would state verses from the

When caught bootlegging liquor you would be issued a fine, this made things alright because everyone was happy, the laws were so hard to enforce that the government was just happy collecting fine money and the bootleggers were happy cause it was a small price to pay for the amount of money they were making. The most ironic thing about prohibition is that it is the major bases for what we call organized crime.

Prohibition was a period of time in which the sale, manufacture, or transport of alcoholic beverages became illegal. It started January 16, 1919 and continued to December 5, 1933. Although it was designed to put an end to all drinking, it simply created a large number of bootleggers who produced and sold illegal alcohol. Many of these bootleggers became very rich and influential through selling alcohol and also through other methods. They pioneered the practices of organized crime that are still used today. Thus, Prohibition led to the rapid growth of organized crime.