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If ever there was a state that gleefully thumbed its nose at Prohibition, it was Rhode Island, a reporter wrote. Throughout the Roaring Twenties, Rhode Island was probably the most antiProhibition state in the union.Rhode Island and Connecticut were the only two states not to ratify the 18th Amendment to the Constitution — commonly referred to as Prohibition. The unpopular law, outlawed alcohol for 14 years and helped give birth to organized crime in America, also fueled the wild times that became known as the Roaring 20s.Politicians, the government and law enforcement agencies knew as early as 1922 that Prohibition was a failure and that the Volsted Act was impossible to enforce. While many states battled bootleggers who produced beer and bathtub gin, Rhode Island, with its 400 miles of open coastline, was a haven for rumrunners bringing in the real stuff from Canada and the Bahamas using speed boats and other vessels. Those who couldnt afford the imported hooch made their own with a variety of home recipes, of which the ingredients could be easily purchased at local stores.The laws unpopularity could be seen in the aftermath of the death of three rumrunners who were cut down by members of the Coast Guard on December 29, 1929. A Newport reverend told his congregation, The deaths of these men must bring to us a little more clearly the horrible price we are paying in attempting to enforce laws which are fundamentally unAmerican and unChristian.

 

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