The Prohibition Era was a sober period in 1920s America where the production,transportation, importation, and selling of alcohol was constitutionally banned. Ironically, drinking alcohol itself was not banned, and many unfazed Americans found creative ways to access alcohol. Wine and beer breweries opted to sell "near-beer," which was a form of liquor with an alcohol content below 0.5, and people produced moonshine and bathtub gin in their own homes. The more well known defiant of the Prohibition laws were speakeasies, illicit organizations like night clubs, stores, and even pharmacies that sold alcohol.
You may be familiar with the fictional character Jay Gatsby, the main protagonist of F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel The Great Gatsby, who used pseudo-pharmacies to sell alcohol and amass wealth. Similarly, the real, notorious crime boss Al Capone (a.k.a. "Scarface") used the economic opportunities provided by speakeasies to expand his wealth and increase his stronghold over Chicago.
Alphonse Capone was born in Brooklyn in 1899, the fourth of nine children. After dropping out of school in the sixth grade, he joined two "kid gangs," the South Brooklyn Rippers and the Forty Thieves Juniors, committing petty crime and vandalism across New York. At just sixteen, he joined a well-known gang, the James Street Boys, and met his mentor Johnny Torrio. After becoming a lieutenant in the Colosimo mob, Capone and his mentor used their influence to take full advantage of the chaos caused by the Prohibition; "growth industries" like speakeasies racked in up to $60 million annually for Al Capone. He and other criminal bosses profited greatly off of the discontent with the Prohibition, and by the end of his criminal career, Capone's gambling, prostitution, and bootlegging businesses collectively earned him almost $100,000,000.Sources:
https://www.history.com/news/10-things-you-should-know-about-prohibition
https://www.history.com/topics/roaring-twenties/prohibition
https://www.britannica.com/event/Prohibition-United-States-history-1920-1933
https://www.fbi.gov/history/famous-cases/al-capone
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Al-Capone
I enjoyed reading your post, and I really like the comparison you make between Gatsby and Capone! After all, like Gatsby, Capone was a self-made gangster-millionaire. I think that it is interesting to highlight how American society perceived Capone, and they glamorized him as the modern-day Robin Hood, similar to how they perceived Bonnie and Clyde. Capone was also credited with one of the most infamous mass murders in U.S. history: the St. Valentine's Day Massacre. One of Capone's longtime enemies George “Bugs” Moran, who ran a bootlegging operation in Chicago, had his men targeted and killed by Capone's (well, more specifically, an associate's working under Capone). Capone is widely credited for the massacre, and although he was glamorized in books and newspapers, he attracted the attention of President Hoover who ordered that he be captured and jailed. Although this incident marked the end to any significant gang opponent to Capone's, it is also said to have been his downfall, as he would spend a majority of the rest of his life incarcerated.
ReplyDeleteSources:
https://www.alcatrazhistory.com/cap1.htm
https://www.history.com/topics/crime/saint-valentines-day-massacre
This is super interesting! I didn't realize that the actual consumption of alcohol was still legal, and only the production process for it was. I was wondering how much people actually drank during the Prohibition, so after a little bit of research, it turns out that alcohol consumption fell 70% the first year that Prohibition was in place, but rose to the original consumption level by before it was no longer banned. It's really interesting how normal it was to drink against the law, but that's probably because it was such a habitual part of people's lives, and they didn't see it as super detrimental. This is kind of ironic, because it was first put in place to reduce crime, but more people were breaking the law during the end of Prohibition.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.cato.org/publications/policy-analysis/alcohol-prohibition-was-failure
https://www.nber.org/papers/w3675
This post war really interesting and informative! It's interesting to see how characters in books we read in english class connect to our nation's history. I knew that Gatsby used "shady" means to get money, but I had no idea he took advantage of the prohibition era to obtain it. After doing some research on this alcohol ban during the 1920s, I found that this law had the most significant impact on the poor. Apparently, before the eighth amendment went into effect (law banning alcohol), a lot of people from the upper class stockpiled alcohol for legal home consumption once the amendment became law. What I found most interesting was that Prohibition may have outlawed the sale/trade of alcohol, but it did not ban the actual consumption. Even Woodrow Wilson stored his alcoholic beverages to his home in Washington so he would have access to it after his term ended. His successor Warren Harding also moved his supply after his inauguration.
ReplyDeletehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prohibition_in_the_United_States
https://www.history.com/topics/roaring-twenties/prohibition