Prohibition started in the 1920’s. The campaign was run by people who wanted a dry country, they included the Anti-Saloon League and the Women’s Temperance Union. Prohibition was a time in history when alcohol was banned in the U.S by the senate. Seventy-four precent of people voted on banning alcohol and twenty-six precent voted on keeping alcohol still legal. Prohibition ended a little over a decade, thirteen years to be exact.

One of the reasons that caused Prohibition is that lots of men lost all their money and couldn’t pay taxes and pay for their families. Also, they would lose their house because they had no money because they spent it all on alcohol. It was also unpatriotic to drink during WWI because it was produced from grain. The U.S were fighting the Germans and they were well known for their beer. If you were seen drinking German beer it meant that you supporting the Germans.

All the people who voted for Prohibition thought that the crime rate would drop. Fifty percent of crime was caused by alcohol. But when the 18th Amendment started, crime rate actually spiked up because there were rumrunners and bootleggers. They illegally transported alcohol. Speakeasies were a secret place where you could drink alcohol without being caught. During Prohibition some people had to have alcohol so they hired people like rumrunners and bootleggers to get them alcohol. But if you didn’t want to get caught having alcohol you would just go in a speak easy and buy a drink there.

There is unorganized crime and organized crime, organized crime was big during Prohibition. The biggest organized crime lord was Al Capone, he was one of the most successful gangsters in history. He owned all the bootlegging operations in Chicago. Al Capone alone made 60 million dollars off of bootlegging, speakeasies, and rumrunning. He also had 2000 speakeasies. At the end he got arrested for tax aviation and was sent to Alcatraz for 18 years. When he got out his gang fell apart and he died in 1947.

During Prohibition the economy dropped because the selling and making of alcohol was banned. Restaurants closed and many lost their jobs because breweries and saloons closed. To enforce Prohibition it took $300 million. Every year 1000 people would die of poisoned alcohol that was made wrong. The government also lost over 11 billion dollars in taxes that they could have had.

The U.S. appealed the 18th Amendment December 5, 1933 with the 21st Amendment. They appealed it because the government lost lots of money, crime rates shot up, and the death toll raised. The 21st Amendment was a law that appealed the 18th Amendment, it is special because it is the only amendment that appealed another amendment in U.S history.