Between 1920 and 1933, the 18th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution made it illegal for Americans to manufacture, sell or transport alcoholic beverages. The goal of national prohibition was to stop the proliferation of saloons and end the poverty, depravity, family disintegration and industrial accidents caused by excessive drinking. But prohibition had unexpected consequences: speakeasies, bootleggers and criminal gangs flourished as drinking became the thing to do among college students, flappers and respectable middle-class Americans. The primary sources in this Jackdaw, including political cartoons, police reports and arrest records, photographs, and excerpts from a Prohibition pro and con debate, trace the Temperance Movement from its beginning in the early 1800s through the repeal of Prohibition. Historian: Christine Brendel Scriabine. The contents of this Focus Jackdaw feature:

Support Materials

• Illustrated Broadsheet Essay
• Timeline
• Critical Thinking Questions
• Recommended Reading List

Historical Documents

• Poster of 19th and 20th-century temperance and prohibition cartoons.
• Excerpts from the first Volstead Act, 1919.
• Sheriff’s office report of violation of prohibition law, Marion County Oregon, 1927.
• Still registration record for Frank Halley, 1927.
• Prohibition photo-poster.
• Poster of political cartoons, 1919-1932.
• Excerpt from “Prohibition Pro and Con: Joint Debate Between Representative of the Association Against the Prohibition Amendment and the Anti-Saloon League of America,” 1929.