Prohibition Dbq

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From 1919 until 1933, national Prohibition dominated every aspect of American life. Prohibition began in the late 1800s with the Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) and the Anti-Saloon League, both of which, not always peacefully, fought for the total abolition of alcohol in the United States. People that sided with these unions were known as “the drys”. Eventually, in a failure to compromise with “the wets”, those who believed that alcohol was meant for pleasure and should not be abolished, the 18th Amendment was created, which outlawed the buying and selling of alcohol. Due to the overall anger of citizens, organized crime dramatically increased during the period after the passing of the 18th Amendment. Finally, 14 years later, Congress …show more content…

The views of these groups can be traced back to when colonists first arrived in America. General James Oglethorpe, the leader of the newly established Georgia in 1733, informed his colonists not to drink anything stronger than beer because he was afraid it would decrease production (Hill 17).One of the most well-known unions was the Women’s Christian Temperance Union; “The object of this Union [was] to educate public sentiment up to the level of total abstinence, to train the young, reform and save the inebriate, and hasten the time when the dram-shops shall be banished from the streets by law” (“Constitution & Plan”). Their plan was to urge as many people of the United States as they could to pledge total abstinence, to have women instruct their children about abstinence and keep liquor out of their homes, and to place a pledge book in every church, every member's pocket, and every parlor table in America (“Constitution & Plan”). The plans failed to mention how the Prohibitionists would force their views on those not willing to listen, which led to violent tendencies throughout the …show more content…

Carry Nation, a member of the WCTU, was notorious for destroying saloons and was arrested and imprisoned several times (McGerr 82). Nation, and women like her, despised alcohol because of events that had happened earlier in their lives. For example, Nation's first husband was an alcoholic, and she was quoted saying, “It is very significant that the pictures of naked women are in saloons. Women are stripped of everything by them. Her husband is torn from her, she is robbed of her sons, her home, her food and her virtue, and then they string her clothes off and hang her up bare in these dens of robbery and murder. Well does a saloon make a woman bare of all things!” (qtd. in McGerr 86). If one looks at the original purpose of the WCTU, then one can see that the goal was to diminish violence. Nation, who was a part of this union, went against that pledge by administering groups that destroyed saloons all over the country purely with violence. This showed that several WCTU members had more violent tendencies than their alcoholic

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