What Was The Effect Of Botlegging In The 1920's

Bootlegging was a highly profitable but illegal business during the 1920s, a period known as Prohibition in the United States. Prohibition was a nationwide constitutional ban on the production, importation, transportation, and sale of alcoholic beverages that lasted from 1920 to 1933. Transporting alcohol in a hazardous and risky manner, bootleggers would deliver it to illegally operated speakeasies, while other bootleggers produced alcohol from home in dangerous brewing operations. While the intention behind Prohibition was to reduce crime, corruption, and social problems related to alcohol consumption, it had the opposite effect. Bootlegging was a large part of the crime-ridden 1920s and greatly contributed to the lawlessness of the time.

Due to the legal ban on the production, transportation, and sale of alcohol, bootleggers had to devise clever ways to transport it undetected. They would use cars, trucks, and even boats to move the alcohol from one place to another. To avoid being caught, they would often choose remote areas or back roads for their transportation routes. The alcohol was often stored in secret compartments in the vehicles or disguised as other products, making it difficult for law enforcement officers to find and confiscate it. Bootleggers would often modify their cars to go much faster than ever intended, this speed allowed them to outrun the police easily, but came with the increased risk of a crash at high speeds. The ones transporting the illegal alcohol were often very young people looking for quick money. This hazardous transportation process involved the risk of accidents, theft, and violence. Nevertheless, bootleggers were willing to take these risks because of the enormous profits they could

Due to the high demand for alcohol during Prohibition, some bootleggers started producing their own. These homemade brews were often made using dangerous and untested methods, which resulted in impure alcohol. This involved setting up makeshift distilleries or brewing operations in their homes, basements, or barns, using ingredients such as sugar, yeast, and water. This production process could lead to explosions or fires during brewing. Consumption of this alcohol caused blindness, paralysis, and even death in some cases. Moreover, some bootleggers mixed industrial alcohol, usually used in rubbing alcohol, detergents, and plastics, with other ingredients to make their brews, leading to the death of many people who consumed the alcohol, according to Prohibition of Alcohol, “Some industrial alcohol could be flavored and sold as scotch, gin, or bourbon. Much of it, however, had been mixed with methanol” (Korsmeyer 305). Even considering all these risks people were so desperate for alcohol that they would drink this dangerous alcohol. This practice of producing alcohol in dangerous conditions highlights the risks involved in