Personal Narrative Of Henry Compeau's Life

These crimes carry a much more severe penalty than Moonshining alone. The Government may seize your property for tax evasion, and sentence to you to 15 years in prison for money laundering. Their primary concerns are still tax revenues and public safety. Today Moonshine production is not nearly as prominent. This is mostly due to the availability of reasonably priced Governmentally regulated liquors in many varieties. Moonshining overall has faded into history, and the people who still practice it typically do so as a hobby. One thing is for sure, Moonshine played a major role in America’s history and the shaping of our tax policies.

“By 1830, the average American over 15 years old consumed nearly seven gallons of pure alcohol a year – three times as much as we drink today” (PBS, nd). The result was the temperance movement. The Temperance movement was an anti-movement that swept across the country in the 1830s and 40s. The abolitionists tried to show that drinking alcohol was a sin and that the country needed to be cleansed. They called for a prohibition of alcohol. On January 17th, 1920, an amendment to the constitution was passed that banned the making, transporting, and selling of alcohol and other intoxicating beverages.

In a small town on the Ford?s farm in Greenfield Township Michigan, an innovated leader was born into an immigrant family. William Ford from County Cork, Ireland, his father, a predominant member in the local community in Greenfield Township Michigan and Mary Ford the youngest child of Belgian immigrants whose parents had died when she was a young girl and was adopted by a neighboring family, the O?Herns. William Ford would inherit the O?Hern farm and under his management have a great deal of success. William Ford and Mary Ford had five children. Henry Ford, the oldest child of five siblings, Margaret Ford, Jane Ford, William Ford, and Robert Ford grew up on the family farm.

The drink started too gets out of hand and the government wanted to control all of this alcohol. The controlling of alcohol that the government used was called prohibition. There were speakeasies, glamour, and gangsters that had abused the drinking of liquor. The increase of the illegal production and sale of alcohol were known as bootlegging. There were many during the 1920’s. People that drank illegally in illegal spots are proliferation of speakeasies. These bootleggers would be hired by men to smuggle alcohol to places out of the U.S. Crime had raised which had led the waning support for prohibition near the late 1920’s.

My great great grandfather Over Hoye was born in Norway on February 28,1854. In 1878, he came to the United States at the age of 24 with his young wife Ingeborg Wistad. They went to Winneshiek County, Iowa and lived their for one year. After that they went to Yellow Medicine County, MN. They had their first child Morton in December of 1880. They also had 6 other children, four of them died in childhood at age three, seven and fifteen.

The high price of bootleg liquor made working class and poor far more restricted during Prohibition than middle or upper class Americans. Even though costs for law enforcement, jails and prisons were on a rise, support for Prohibition was coming to an end. With the country sinking from the Great Depression in 1932, they had to create jobs and revenue somehow. They had no choice but to legalize the liquor industry because it would create jobs and revenue. Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt

It’s unnecessary to deny the fact that alcohol has fulfilled a very important role in U.S. history. There are several serious and certified evidences from the colonial periods to nowadays for that. In a lot of cases, wine or beer was on the table instead of water because

On December 31th, before the clock struck midnight, thirsty men went out and stocked up on liquor and alcohol before the Volstead act went into play. But was prohibition really necessary? Men had been coming home drunk to their wives and children; showing up to work drunk too. Men loved the pleasure that alcohol gave them and couldn’t stop even if their house or wife was on the line. Many women protested this, and got their way to ban the selling and buying of alcohol. Prohibition led to an increase of deaths and many more speakeasies and saloons popped up on the map. Therefore, America changed its mind because, nobody wanted to conform to Prohibition, deaths due to liquor skyrocketed, and it was unenforceable.

People ignored the law and continued to produce and sell alcohol; this led to the formation of bootleggers which were organized criminals. Gatsby is a bootlegger which is how he acquired his immense wealth in such a short amount of time. According to the textbook “Americans still ignored the law. People flocked to secret bars called speakeasies to purchase alcohol. Liquor also was readily available in rural areas through bootlegging- the illegal production and distribution of alcohol.”

The prohibition was a terrible time for america. A lot changed and alot of people didn't like either, even though so much changed it was for the best of america becuase many didn't know what to do about money or so on. The most important reasons was the progressive movement, the volstead act and the repeal and I'm going to tell you why I thin so. First, The progressive movement was a number of stated thought that drinking was behind more of americas more serious problems. Like corruption, child abuse, crime and other things. Henry Ford saw drinking as a huge drag on the econmony. Drunken workers and absentee workers were not good for american business. Next, was the volstead act and among other provisions the volstead act defined a drink as

If there’s a will there’s a way and many people found a will and a way to get alcohol during Prohibition. Many citizens found creative loopholes to still enjoy their liquors even during prohibition. During the first few months even the first year of prohibition, the alcohol that the citizens still had left was not illegal to drink or have, but when they began to run out they had to get crafty if they wanted to keep drinking. Certain types of liquor could still be acquired through a doctor’s medical prescription. “Labels boldly stated that the bottles contents were strictly for medicinal purposes and that other uses were strictly illegal.”(Scott, Robert.) So naturally, people found this as a loophole and exploited it. The amount of “patients” in America that needed this prescription before prohibition nearly doubled after the fact. If it were not for this one loophole,out of many, all of the distilleries remaining for this purpose (which were mainly the only ones left), would have closed and further crippled the already crippled liquor industry, probably to the point of no return. “Over a million gallons a year of “prescription” booze were consumed freely every year.” (Scott,

New money was described as deceitful and people who owned it were vulgar. They were considered outrageous and explicit. New money was made usually in illegal ways such as bootlegging. Bootlegging was a crime, but it was looked upon with admiration. It was disrespectful, but that didn’t stop many of the police from participating in such illegal acts. Bootleggers were prominent and many officers were dismissed from any further investigations. Bootlegging was so popular and organized that it was incorporated into the mainstream such as films and movies. These illegal activities occurred because of the Prohibition, which made alcohol illegal in the first place. Prohibition encountered corruption and law enforcement and death rate went up. Homicides began to increase, many of these were due to drunkenness. Wets began to battle drys (drinking wise), and morals and manners began to fail. There were a few women unions who began to speak out against violence and alcohol abuse. The twenty-first amendment, which made alcohol illegal argued that grain used for alcoholic beverages should instead be used for bread. Many places began to close due to the new law and failed to reopen afterwards, so in addition to bootlegging some Americans took it upon themselves to make their own drinks at home. Bootleggers had the chance to become extremely wealthy with “new money”. The places that were

Prohibition, referred to as the “Noble Experiment” by President Herbert Hoover did not suddenly pounce upon the unsuspecting American public. “It had been for a long time, menacing and noisily, lumbering in for the kill “ (Allsop 24). For about a hundred years up to the end of the eighteenth century, liquor, “the good creation of God” as it was referred to in Colonial ordinances was as accepted in the routine of life as bread or money. “It functioned as money for rum was the principle barter in the slave trade, and whisky was a profitable way of marketing grain” (Allsop 25). Spirits were an integral part of colonial economy and prosperity. They were routinely drunk by every one of all ages and sexes. Physicians prescribed rum and it was sipped in all households throughout the day. Crying babies were few because their bottles were laced with rum to keep them pacified (Behr 7). Even the Puritans who preached against all fleshly pleasures allowed alcohol. The Puritans merely condemned

People for prohibition would state that if drinking is banned, then Americans would simply drink less. However the prohibitionists were right only for a short amount of time, there was an impressive enlargement in less than a year. Since producing and shipping in alcohol was illegal, the booze lovers needed to discover ways to steer clear of being caught (“A Nation of scofflaws”). When the price of beer went up, due to it having to be moved in large sums, thereby its popularity dwindled. Nonetheless, hard liquor was more intoxicating and it was very simple to bootleg little amounts, and thus it popularity soared. An additional problem generated by prohibition was unlawful products had zero quality. In nineteen-twenty there were one-thousand

However, anti-Semitists and supporters of the Temperance Movement made it difficult to be successful in society. After Edward and Mary took a ship into New York, they used the little bit of money they had to move to Pennsylvania to settle and find work. Out of everywhere in the United States, the last name “McKeon” is most commonly found in Pennsylvania, and the majority of my relatives continue to live there today. Fighting through anti-Semitists and labels put upon them, Edward and Mary found work in Pennsylvania. Mary worked as a servant in a wealthy neighborhood, and Edward worked as a laborer for a cooperate factory. Working as laborers and servants and getting paid near to none was a harsh reality for immigrants from everywhere, but with hard work and sheer determination, my great great grandfather built up the McKeon family name to be well respected around the community as he was able to become a business man. For generations to come, my ancestors were able to slowly move from job to job and increase the wealth of the