Hardships of Life During the Depression

Life in America and the Dust Bowl

Let’s Bank On It

• As the Stock Market crashed, millions of Americans rushed to their banks to withdraw their money- but they were turned away. This led to a drop in consumer confidence

Bank Crisis

• American’s took whatever money they had and hid it in their mattresses and bread boxes

• The banks had run out- there just wasn’t enough money in circulation

• This forced thousands of banks to close

Cycle of Depression

• With the Crash of the Stock Market and banks failing, the US started into a depression where the following characteristics are found: – 1. Few Jobs and 2. Little

Demand

• Depressions work into a cycle:

WorkersLose

Their Jobs

Can’t Buy

Goods

Don’tGet Paid

BusinessesClose

Not Only in America

• Because of the Dawes Plan, the US was lending money to Germany to invest and pay back France and Great Britain

• In the 1930s, Germany stopped paying their reparations and we couldn’t continue to give any aid either so Europe went into a Depression as well

Unemployment

• Initially the unemployed rate was 3.7% which is GREAT

• But as the Depression worsened, 25% of Americans lost their jobs (That’s 1 out of every 4!)

• Those who didn’t lose their jobs had their wages and hours cut

Unemployed Americans• At this time we didn’t have

welfare!**

• If you lost your job, you couldn’t pay rent, buy nutritious food, and many children had to drop out of school to get jobs

• Families had to get their food at food banks and breadlines started by charities

Hoovervilles

• Millions of unemployed Americans had to live on the streets

• They formed communities called Hoovervilles named after President Herbert Hoover

Gated Communities!

• Hoovervilles were shantytowns of tents and shacks or lumber, tin and glass.

• They were on parks and any deserted land.

• They kept themselves warm with fires and covered themselves with newspapers. (Hoover blankets).

Bellringer

• When is Black Tuesday? What happened on that day?

• October 29,1929 was the day when the stock market crashed- everyone was trying to sell their stock and no one was buying it so the price dropped- We lost $50 billion in one day- it was the spark that started the Great Depression

Plight of the Farmers

• We have mentioned that farmers had been overproducing crops ever since World War I. Life got worse for farmers during the Great Depression

• Part of the reason is the Great Plains suffered from a drought

Farmers Woes

• From 1930 to 1934, one million American farmers couldn’t pay their mortgages

• Banks foreclosed on the land and took it back (and the machinery)

• Some worked as tenant farmers (similar to sharecropping)

No More Grass

• A drought is when the land does not get enough rain

• If you are a farmer, your job depends on the weather- without rain, crops can’t grow

• In the 1930s, there weren’t any irrigation ditches and water was scarce

• During WWI, with demand high, farmers bought land on the Great Plains and continuously planted on it. They cut down the tall grass which had kept the topsoil from blowing away

• With constant growing, especially with wheat, the land lost a lot of nutrients and didn’t get a break

Orange? Alamo? Rose? Nah… Dust

• Dust Bowl is the nickname given to the Great Plains during the 1930s.

• Drought, loose topsoil, and high winds contributed to dust storms that blinded and choked farmers, killed cattle, birds, and fish. It got everywhere- destroyed farms and houses

• Dust from Nebraska actually traveled to Massachusetts! That’s how strong the winds were

Cough Cough

• Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, New Mexico, Colorado, and Nebraska made up Great Plains states that were affected by the Dust Bowl

• Since dust destroyed the land, farmers had to pack up and leave their homes

Okie Dokie!

• Farmers who left the Great Plains and traveled out West (especially to CA) looking for jobs were called Okies.

• However, once they got out West, they realized life wasn’t much better and there weren’t jobs

• John Steinbeck wrote the novel Grapes of Wrath describing the hardships faced by Okie farmers