Historical and Cultural Aspects of Alcohol
(Carrol 1993)

Whether by accident or intent, beverage alcohol has played more than an inconsequential part in our national history. The earliest immigrants brought their own drinking attitudes and practices to their new homeland. According to legend, the Puritans landed at Plymouth Rock because their beers and victuals were running low. Contrary to popular belief, these early settlers considered alcohol as the good creature of God, and beers and wines became normal parts of family life and festive occasions. It was also during the colonial period that many a Yankee fortune was amassed by manufacturing rum from supplies of West Indies molasses. The rum was then traded for slaves in Africa, giving rise to the infamous "trading triangle" of molasses, rum, and black slaves. New England traders and shippers had discovered a flourishing business.

Early attempts to promote temperance were part of a moral crusade by several Protestant churches. Initially their aim was not abstinence, but moderation in the use of beer and wine. People were actively discouraged from drinking whiskey and rum--popular distilled spirits. However, by the late 1830's this movement had evolved into a campaign for total abstinence from all alcoholic beverages. The temperance movement gradually switched from education and moral persuasion to political organization and the power of the ballot box to realize its goals. Leaders of this social and moral reform movement sought to legally repress the liquor trade and prohibit the sale of all alcoholic beverages.

Eventually the Prohibition Party, the Anti-Saloon League, and the Women's Christian Temperance Union were successful in their campaign to establish nationwide prohibition by amendment to the federal Constitution. This effort was truly extraordinary, inasmuch as the major force supporting prohibition, the women of America, had not yet been granted the right to vote.

Passing Congress with the necessary two-thirds majority, the Eighteenth Amendment to the U.S. constitution was submitted to the states for ratification. By 1918, the needed 36 states had ratified the amendment that prohibited the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors used for beverage purposes.

The Volstead Act, passed in 1919, provided the amendment's enforcement. The constitutional amendment went into effect in January 1920, and ushered in the so-called Prohibition Era, America's "Noble Experiment." What was considered as only immoral before was now also illegal.

The nearly 14-year period of national prohibition (1920-1933) was not particularly successful in eliminating the "evil" and harmful effects of "demon rum" and other alcoholic beverages from America. The nation experienced inadequate enforcement of the Volstead Act and witnessed the growth of organized crime that engaged in a vast network of smuggling "bootleg booze." Ethnic minorities representing millions of drinkers felt that their natural folkways had been unjustly suppressed. And many who would never dream of violating other laws casually visited "speakeasies" or contracted with bootleggers for an example supply of refreshing liquid.

After both drinkers and nondrinkers began to question the government's right to make moral judgements, and at the height of the economic depression, America decided to end the noble experiment. Introduced by Congress, the Twenty-first Amendment to the U.S. constitution repealed the Eighteenth Amendment and ended national Prohibition in December 1933. Thirty-six states had ratified the amendment in less than 10 months. Other than federal taxation and production standards, the control of manufacture, distribution, and sale of alcoholic beverages reverted to the states.

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