Prohibition in the United States

===Origins===
{{Main|Temperance movement in the United States}}
[[File:The Drunkard's Progress - Color.jpg|thumb|upright=1.25|''The Drunkard's Progress'' – moderate drinking leads to drunkenness and disaster: A lithograph by [[Nathaniel Currier]] supporting the [[temperance movement]], 1846]]
Consumption of alcoholic beverages has been a contentious topic in America since the [[Colonial history of the United States|colonial period]]. On March 26, 1636, the legislature of [[Province of Maine|New Somersetshire]] met at what is now [[Saco, Maine]] and adopted a law limiting the sale of "strong liquor or wyne", although carving out exceptions for "lodger[s]" and allowing serving to "laborers on working days for one hower at dinner."<ref>{{cite news |last1=Holliday |first1=Carl |title=World's First Prohibition Law |url=https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Town_Crier,_v.11,_no.16,_Apr._15,_1916_-_DPLA_-_b50c23aa8dcc416f896fd3075898129d_(page_12).jpg |access-date=2023-02-07 |work=The Town Crier |issue=v.11, no. 16 |date=1916-04-15 |location=Seattle |page=12}}</ref> In May 1657, the [[General Court of Massachusetts]] made the sale of strong liquor "whether known by the name of rum, whisky, wine, brandy, etc." to the Native Americans illegal.<ref>{{cite book | author=Anthony Dias Blue | title=The Complete Book of Spirits: A Guide to Their History, Production, and Enjoyment | publisher=HarperCollins | year=2004 | isbn=978-0-06-054218-4 | page= 73}}</ref>{{dubious|Looks like folklore|date=September 2016}}

In general, informal social controls in the home and community helped maintain the expectation that the abuse of alcohol was unacceptable: "Drunkenness was condemned and punished, but only as an abuse of a God-given gift. Drink itself was not looked upon as culpable, any more than food deserved blame for the sin of [[gluttony]]. Excess was a personal indiscretion."<ref name="AaronMusto1981">{{cite book |author=Paul Aaron and David Musto |chapter=Temperance and Prohibition in America: An Historical Overview |editor1-last=Moore |editor1-first=Mark H. |editor2-last=Gerstein |editor2-first=Dean R. |title=Alcohol and Public Policy: Beyond the Shadow of Prohibition |url=https://archive.org/details/alcoholpublicpol00moor |url-access=registration |location=Washington, DC |publisher=National Academy Press |year=1981 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/alcoholpublicpol00moor/page/127 127–128] |isbn=978-0-309-03149-3 }}</ref> When informal controls failed, there were legal options.

Shortly after the United States obtained independence, the [[Whiskey Rebellion]] took place in [[western Pennsylvania]] in protest of government-imposed taxes on [[whiskey]]. Although the taxes were primarily levied to help pay down the newly formed [[National debt of the United States|national debt]], it also received support from some social reformers, who hoped a "[[sin tax]]" would raise public awareness about the harmful effects of alcohol.<ref>Slaughter, 100.</ref> The whiskey tax was repealed after [[Thomas Jefferson]]'s [[Democratic-Republican Party]], which opposed the [[Federalist Party]] of [[Alexander Hamilton]], came to power in 1800.<ref>Hogeland, 242.</ref>

[[Benjamin Rush]], one of the foremost physicians of the late 18th century, believed in moderation rather than prohibition. In his treatise, "The Inquiry into the Effects of Ardent Spirits upon the Human Body and Mind" (1784), Rush argued that the excessive use of alcohol was injurious to physical and psychological health, labeling drunkenness as a disease.<ref>{{cite book|author=Jack S. Blocker |title=American Temperance Movements: Cycles of Reform|year=1989|publisher=Twayne Publishers|location=Boston|page=10}}</ref> Apparently influenced by Rush's widely discussed belief, about 200 farmers in a [[Connecticut]] community formed a [[Temperance movement|temperance]] association in 1789. Similar associations were formed in [[Virginia]] in 1800 and [[New York (state)|New York]] in 1808.<ref name="Blocker 1989 16">Blocker, ''American Temperance Movements: Cycles of Reform'', p. 16.</ref> Within a decade, other [[Temperance movement|temperance]] groups had formed in eight states, some of them being statewide organizations. The words of Rush and other early temperance reformers served to dichotomize the use of alcohol for men and women. While men enjoyed drinking and often considered it vital to their health, women who began to embrace the ideology of "true motherhood" refrained from the consumption of alcohol. Middle-class women, who were considered the moral authorities of their households, consequently rejected the drinking of alcohol, which they believed to be a threat to the home.<ref name="Blocker 1989 16"/> In 1830, on average, Americans consumed 1.7 bottles of [[hard liquor]] per week, three times the amount consumed in 2010.<ref name="t100524"/>