On January 16, 1920, in accordance with the 18th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, the National Prohibition Act (also known as the "Volstead Act") enforced the prohibition against the production, importation, transportation, and sale of alcoholic beverages in the United States. For the next 13 years, halting the flow of illegal alcohol proved to be the bane of the nation's Prohibition agents but a boon for organized crime, speakeasies, and bootleggers.
Religious and temperance groups advocated prohibiting the sale and consumption of alcohol in the United States as early as the first decades of the 19th century. Maine became the first state to outlaw the sale of alcoholic beverages (except for industrial and medicinal purposes) in 1846. Following the 1873 founding of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU), first president Annie Wittenmyer worked to raise awareness of alcohol's role in the rising number of spousal abuse incidents. Eight years later, the WCTU succeeded in lobbying Kansas' legislators to prohibit the manufacture of alcohol in the state.
In 1893, the fight against alcohol gained a new and powerful ally in Rev. Howard Hyde Russell who founded the Anti-Saloon League in Oberlin, OH. The organization's rapid expansion and political influence coincided with the spike in corruption, prostitution, domestic violence, and vagrancy that city dwellers witnessed in the nation's fast growing urban centers. Aggressive lobbying by the Anti-Saloon League and the WCTU—along with their alliance with the Women's Suffrage Movement—led Oklahoma, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, and Tennessee to pass prohibition legislation during the first decade of the 1900s. Limitations on the availability of alcoholic beverages during World War I helped anti-alcohol advocates convince Congress that the nation needed lasting federal prohibition legislation.
On August 1, 1917, a U.S. Senate-passed resolution proposed language for a constitutional amendment prohibiting the sale, manufacture, and distribution of alcoholic beverages in the United States. A revised resolution passed the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate on December 18, 1917. Many states already had local legislation regulating alcohol, so state legislatures quickly affirmed the amendment. Mississippi was first to affirm the amendment on January 7, 1918, and Nebraska's approval on January 16, 1919, made nationwide Prohibition the law of the land. One year after the 18th Amendment's ratification, the United States went "dry" on January 16, 1920.
The 18th Amendment nationalized prohibition, but because it did not define the term "intoxicating liquors," federal and state governments were required to determine methods for enforcing the law. When voting for the 18th Amendment in 1917, many Americans and members of Congress assumed the legislation referred only to "hard liquor" and exempted beer and wine. However, thanks to the lobbying efforts of Anti-Saloon League leader Wayne Wheeler, the prohibition against "intoxicating liquors" encompassed any beverage containing more than .5 percent alcohol. The House of Representatives and Senate passed the National Prohibition Act (popularly known as the "Volstead Act")—coauthored by Wayne Wheeler—on July 22 and September 5, 1919, respectively. Expressing concerns that the Volstead Act infringed upon American's civil liberties, President Woodrow Wilson vetoed the bill on October 27, 1919. The House of Representatives overrode the president's veto within hours. Following the Senate's vote to override Wilson's veto, the Volstead Act became law on October 28, 1919.
Over the next 13 years, more than 1,500 prohibition agents like Eliot Ness, Tom Threepersons, and Frank Hamer (famous for tracking down notorious outlaw couple Bonnie and Clyde) attempted to enforce the Volstead Act while bootleggers and gangsters like Al Capone, Charles "Lucky" Luciano, Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel, Enoch "Nucky" Johnson, Arnold Rothstein, and Carlo Gambino thumbed their noses at the 18th Amendment. Despite vigorous enforcement efforts that included the seizure of more than 1 million gallons of illegal alcohol and the arrest of thousands of gangsters and bootleggers, America's taps continued to flow and organized crime flourished.
By the early 1930s, the United States was locked in the grip of the Great Depression and Americans were growing increasingly weary of the violence associated with Prohibition. More importantly, Congress began reexamining the value of tax revenues generated by the manufacture and sale of alcohol. Members of Congress introduced dozens of bills to amend the Volstead Act or repeal the 18th Amendment. During the 1932 Presidential Election, Democratic candidate Franklin D. Roosevelt told supporters it was "time to correct the 'stupendous blunder' that was Prohibition." Incumbent Republican candidate Herbert Hoover was unwilling to voice a similar belief for fear of alienating anti-alcohol voters.
On November 8, 1932, Roosevelt defeated Hoover in a landslide victory, garnering more than 57 percent of the vote and carrying 42 of the nation's 48 states. In February 1933, Congress passed the Joint Resolution Proposing the 21st Amendment to the United States Constitution ("Blaine Act") proposing the repeal of the 18th Amendment. Less than 3 weeks after moving into the White House, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Cullen-Harrison Act into law on March 22, 1933, which amended the Volstead Act so the production of some beer and wine was legal. The next month, Michigan led the states in affirming the repeal of the 18th Amendment on April 10, 1933. On December 5, 1933, Utah's affirmation of the Blaine Act ratified the 21st Amendment. Later that day, President Roosevelt issued a proclamation stating that, "The policy of the Government will be to see to it that the social and political evils that have existed in the pre-prohibition era shall not be revived nor permitted again to exist . . .I trust in the good sense of the American people that they will not bring upon themselves the curse of excessive use of intoxicating liquors, to the detriment of health, morals, and social integrity." The 13-year experiment with nationwide temperance was over.
You can learn more about Prohibition and the intoxicating beverages that led to its passage and repeal using census data and records. For example:
Data from the 2017 County Business Patterns series showed that California led the nation with 1,499 wineries (NAICS 31213). Washington and Oregon followed with 336 and 263, respectively.
In 2017, California's vineyards and wineries—the majority of which are located north of San Francisco in Sonoma and Napa Counties—employed 31,711, with an annual payroll of more than $2 billion.
Wine industry experts estimate that in 2017, California's vintners produced 241 million nine-liter cases with a retail value of $35.2 billion .
The popularity of the American Temperance Movement grew rapidly during the 1800s. Although many of the movement's advocates favored peaceful means to end the sale and consumption of alcohol, others took more radical steps.
Inspired by an alcoholic ex-husband, Carrie A. Nation (born in Garrard County, KY, in 1846) was one of America's more radical temperance leaders, claiming a divine message inspired her to take more provocative measures after peaceful protests failed to end alcohol sales in Kansas.
Between 1900 and 1910, police arrested the hatchet-wielding Nation numerous times for destroying bars in Kansas and Missouri. She paid her fines from lecture fees and the sale of hatchet souvenirs.
Nation's shocking antics—including her approval of President William McKinley's 1901 assassination earned the firebrand widespread scorn. She was penniless when she died in Leavenworth, KS, in 1911.