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Essay On Speakeasies In The 1920s

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Speakeasies in the 1920s The 1920s was the time that we think of when we think of Prohibition, The Great Gatsby, jazz, and the start of the Great Depression. Among the major things at the time were speakeasies and they were quite common being found in almost all major cities at the time. It didn’t matter where you were; if you needed a place to drink, a speakeasies was where you would go. Speakeasies became almost synonymous with the 1920s because of how they sprang up in response to the 18th amendment as well as being one of the reasons it failed, and how they would be connected to major criminal activities. For starters, Speakeasies were hidden illegal drinking dens because in 1920 the Volstead Act was passed, enforcing the 18th amendment making the sale, production, and consumption of any alcoholic beverage illegal. As expected this didn’t really sit well with Americans who still wanted their boozes. So if an American wanted a drink they had a few options laid out before them. They could make it themselves and …show more content…

“There were different types of speakeasies in most major cities that varied in quality, size, and the types of people that visited them ” (Alchin) and ranged from being a good place for people to relax, socialized, and of course drink in relative safety (that is unless the police come busting down the door), to poor run down rooms that could kill you for drinking poisoned alcohol or worse. Within a good speakeasy there were jazz players and even dancers to entertain visitors. Inside they would serve cocktails which are mixtures to mask the taste of the alcohol at the time as some was quite poorly distilled. They were so popular that some places even had celebrities come in. Now of course the alcohol had to come from somewhere as buying, selling, and producing alcohol was illegal. Thus entered gangs and moonshiners responding to the demand for the devil’s drink

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Speakeasies helped people protest prohibition during the 1920s. There were around 32,000 speakeasies in New York alone in the 1920s. According to arthurstavern.nyc, the shift in not disturbing alcohol caused government tax revenue to drop by 73% in the first year of prohibition. The revenue that the speakeasies were making created an underground economy, more known as the black market today. Owners of speakeasies bought most if not all of their

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