The National Prohibition Act, known informally as the Volstead Act, was an act of the 66th United States Congress designed to execute the 18th Amendment (ratified January 1919) which established the prohibition of alcoholic drinks.

Volstead Act, U.S. law enacted in 1919 (and taking effect in 1920) to provide enforcement for the Eighteenth Amendment, prohibiting the manufacture and sale of alcoholic beverages. It is named for Minnesota Rep. Andrew Volstead, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, who had championed the bill.

Feb 24, 2017 · The Volstead Act. By the turn of the 20th century, temperance societies were prevalent in the United States. Concerned citizens had begun warning others about the effects of alcohol nearly 100 years earlier. In 1826 the American Temperance Society was founded to convince people to abstain from drinking.

The Volstead Act specified that “no person shall manufacture, sell, barter, transport, import, export, deliver, furnish or possess any intoxicating liquor except as authorized by this act.” The act defined intoxicating liquor as any beverage over 0.5% alcohol.

The Volstead Act prohibited the production, sale, transportation, and possession of beverages that contained 0.5% or greater alcohol by volume—a stringent definition that encompassed beer and light wines in addition to distilled alcoholic beverages, such as whiskey or gin. 5 Footnote

Oct 29, 2009 · The Prohibition Era began in 1920 when the 18th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which banned the manufacture, transportation and sale of intoxicating liquors, went into effect with the...

Known as the Volstead Act (H.R. 6810), after Judiciary Chairman Andrew Volstead of Minnesota, this law was introduced by the House to implement the Prohibition Amendment by defining the process and procedures for banning alcoholic beverages, as …

The National Prohibition Act, better known as the Volstead Act, defined an intoxicating beverage as anything that contained more than one half of one percent alcohol. By contrast, Canadian prohibition laws set the limit at 2.5 percent.

Jul 27, 2024 · The Volstead Act, officially known as the National Prohibition Act, was enacted by the United States Congress to provide for the enforcement of the 18th Amendment, which established prohibition in the United States.

Prohibition as enforced by the Volstead Act transformed American streets, businesses, and social life. In Minnesota the streetscape had changed seven months earlier when the state legislature voted for full compliance with the War Prohibition Act that went into effect on July 1, 1919.