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The Violent Role Of Prohibition In The 1920's

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Prohibition has been a big issue since the mid to late eighteen hundreds. Some states were under prohibition during that time, but during the 1920s no states were allowed to drink. For years female activist groups had been battling alcohol, and January 16, 1920, their wish was granted. Some of these anti-alcohol groups were non-violent, however some were extremely violent. The Woman’s Christian Temperance Union was a very large group of non-violent women who were against alcohol due to the impact it had on families. Lawmakers during prohibition decided to keep alcohol legal for medicinal and religious purposes. The 18th amendment (prohibition) was adopted in 1917. The then president Woodrow Wilson thought that the 18th amendment was unethical. …show more content…

Bootleggers were people who would smuggle around alcohol. This was, of course, highly illegal, and many were imprisoned. Some bootleggers were even active members of the police, or another no-nonsense kind of group. There were also women groups. These groups came long before the actual 18th amendment. They would protest, in a violent or peaceful way, against alcohol. One protester was named Eliza Jane Thompson, she was born August 24, 1816 in Hillsboro, Ohio. She was pat of the non-violent Women’s Christian Temperance Union. She was the daughter of the previous state governor, and had experienced the affects of alcoholism first hand. Her eldest sone, Clergymen, had been prescribed alcohol by a doctor, and eventually died in a inebriate asylum. Because of this, Eliza hated alcohol. She would go out in the streets and pray, which was a sign of radical disobedience. Now later, during the twenty there were actual bootleggers. One famous bootlegger was named George Remus. George was one of the most well know criminal attorneys in the midwest. Because of this he knew the ins and outs of the volstead act. He served as both a buyer and a seller, becoming one of the best bootleggers out there. He soon had 3000 employees working for him three shifts a day. In 1925 he was indicted for breaking the prohibition law. He was sentenced to two years in prison. His wife was the one who turned him in, and once he got out of prison, he shot her. When he was tired for killing her, he was found not guilty, on the sole ground of insanity. Gorge Remus was born November 14, 1872 and died January 20,

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Sheriff Chambers suffered and injury as a teenager that left him in lots of pain and “unknown to most of the county, he was prone to buy a bottle of Larthan’s Whiskey once every few months and he would take a nip some evenings when the pain was bad enough” (Sealy 17). A lot law enforcement officers were on the payroll of the big bootleggers during the 1920’s. “Many enforcement agents received monthly retainers (some receiving $300,000 a month) to look the other way… The corruption among agents was so prevalent that President Warren G. Harding commented on it in his State of the Union address in 1922” (Bootlegging). Bribing state officials wasn’t the only other crime that increased during this period, the homicide rate began to

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