WHAT WAS LIFE LIKE DURING THE GREAT DEPRESSION

WHAT WAS LIFE LIKE DURING THE GREAT DEPRESSION ?

THE CRASH: “Black Tuesday” Oct. 29, 1929, the Stock Market crashed.

OVER 16 MILLION SHARES SOLD IN MASSIVE SELLING FRENZY. LOSSES EXCEEDED $26 BILLION.

THE STOCK MARKET CRASH OF 1929 WAS ONLY A SYMPTOMNOT THE CAUSE OF THE GREAT DEPRESSION.

THE GREAT DEPRESSION WAS A WORLDWIDE EVENT. BY 1929, THE WORLD SUFFERED A MAJOR RISE IN UNEMPLOYMENT.

THE GREAT DEPRESSION WAS NOT THE COUNTRY’S FIRST DEPRESSION, THOUGH IT PROVED TO BE THE LONGEST AND MOST SEVERE.

MANY DID NOT REALIZE HOW SEVERE THE DOWNTURN WAS UNTIL 1932, WHEN THE ECONOMY HAD TECHNICALLY “HIT BOTTOM. ”

BUT THE HUMAN MISERY CONTINUED LONG INTO THE LATE 1930 S…

IN EARLY 1930, THERE WERE 60 BANK FAILURES PER MONTH. EVENTUALLY, 9, 000 BANKS CLOSED THEIR DOORS BETWEEN 1930 AND 1933.

SIMPLY PUT, WHEN A BANK FAILS, A LARGE AMOUNT OF MONEY DISAPPEARS FROM THE ECONOMY. THERE WAS NO INSURANCE FOR DEPOSITORS AT THIS TIME, SO MANY LOST THEIR SAVINGS.

AS BANKS CLOSED THEIR DOORS AND MORE PEOPLE LOST THEIR SAVINGS, FEAR GRIPPED DEPOSITORS ACROSS THE NATION.

THE RESULTS

BUSINESS ALSO LOST ITS MONEY AND COULD NOT FINANCE ITS ACTIVITIES… MORE BUSINESSES WENT BANKRUPT AND CLOSED THEIR DOORS, LEAVING MORE PEOPLE UNEMPLOYED…

…CAUSING UNEMPLOYMENT TO REACH EVEN HIGHER LEVELS.

Unemployment

THE DEPRESSION COULD HAVE BEEN LESS SEVERE HAD POLICY MAKERS NOT MADE CERTAIN MISTAKES…

LEADERS IN GOVERNMENT AND BUSINESS RELIED ON POOR ADVICE FROM ECONOMIC & POLITICAL EXPERTS. . .

“The sole function of the government is to bring about a condition of affairs favorable to the beneficial development of private enterprise. ” Herbert Hoover (1930)

Loss of homes “Hoovervilles” Here were all these people living in old rusted-out car bodies. . One family. . . [was] living in a piano box. This wasn't just a little section, this was maybe 10 miles wide and 10 miles long. People living in whatever they could junk together. . "

Christmas Day Breadlines in New York City, 1931

THE DUST BOWL The Dust Bowl was created by a drought that occurred in the South West Plains. The drought caused crop failure and sent storms of dust all over the land. These dust storms lasted for five years. Millions of acres of farmland had been converted into what we now call the Dust Bowl

Dustbowls A traveler noticed a nice new hat by the side of the road, and he stopped to pick it up. Under the hat was a man, buried up to his neck in the dust! As he dug the poor fellow out, the traveler asked if he wanted a ride into town. "No, I'll get there myself, " the man replied, "I'm on a horse. " (Excerpt from THE DUST BOWL by Tricia Andryszewski, p. 33. )

One of the westward highways migrants drove, 1938

Former Missouri farmers, now migrant workers in California, 1936

Children of migrant workers, California, 1937

Migrant pea pickers, and all their worldly possessions, 1936

Man in Maryville migrant camp, figuring his year’s earnings, 1935

Oklahoman family vehicle, stranded by side of the road in California, 1936

Squatters along a highway camp (Hooverville) near Bakersfield, 1935

Migrant family outfit on U. S. 99 between Bakersfield, California, and the Ridge, 1939

Migratory family in auto camp, California, 1936

Migrant laborers, Brawley, Imperial Valley, California

Motherless children, cotton pickers, California, 1935

Drought refugees in migrant camp, California

Eighteen year-old mother from Oklahoma, now a California migrant, 1937

Destitute family of pea pickers; mother of seven, California, 1936