Maine Passes First Prohibition Law: America's Temperance Movement Gets Teeth
Maine enacted the first statewide ban on alcohol manufacturing and sales, earning the legislation the contentious title "the Maine Law" despite loopholes for medicinal and industrial use. This bold move by Mayor Neal Dow sparked a national temperance wave that eventually drove the 18th Amendment into effect in 1919. The experiment ultimately proved its own warning: the widespread pitfalls of prohibition forced the repeal of the national law just thirteen years after it began.
June 2, 1851
175 years ago
Key Figures & Places
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