The Great Depression

1. The Great Depression

2. 1929-1939 • Stock market crash • Didn’t realize the effect it would have • No money to replenish what was borrowed Many found being broke humiliating.

3. The Roaring 20’s • The new concept of “credit” • People were buying: • Automobiles • Appliances • Clothes • Fun times reigned • Dancing • Flappers • Drinking

4. Why was this bad? • Credit system • People didn’t really have the money they were spending • WWI • The U.S. was a major credit loaner to other nations in need • Many of these nations could not pay us back

5. The Stock Market • People bought stocks on margins • If a stock is $100 you can pay $10 now and the rest later when the stock rose. • Stocks fall • Now the person has less than $100 and no money to pay back.

6. Photograph of a Group of People Outside a Bank During the Great Depression

7. And then…. • With people panicking about their money investors tried to sell their stocks • This leads to a huge decline in stocks. • Stocks were worthless now. • People who bought on “margins” now could not pay. • Investors were average people that were now broke.

8. President Hoover • Herbert Hoover was president at the start. • Philosophy: We’ll make it! • The poor were looking for help and no ideas on how to correct or help were coming.

9. What about the people? • Farmers were already feeling the effects. • Prices of crops went down • Many farms foreclosed • People could not afford luxuries. • Factories shut down • Businesses went out • Banks could not pay out money. • People could not pay their taxes. • Schools shut down due to lack of funds • Many families became homeless and had to live in shanties.

10. Great Depression • 25% of the nation’s workers-one out of four- were unemployed. • No job meant no money to pay the mortgage or buy food and clothes for the family.

11. Many waited in unemployment lines hoping for a job.

12. People in cities would wait in line for bread to bring to their family.

13. Some families were forced to relocate because they had no money.

14. “Hooverville” • Some families were forced to live in shanty towns. • A grouping of shacks and tents in vacant lots • They were referred to as “Hooverville” because of President Hoover’s lack of help during the depression.

15. Out of the Dust: The South and the Dust Bowl

16. A drought in the South lead to dust storms that destroyed crops. “The Dust Bowl”

17. The South Was Buried • Crops turned to dust=No food to be sent out • Homes buried • Fields blown away • South in state of emergency • Dust Bowl the #1 weather crisis of the 20th century

19. Some families tried to make money by selling useful crafts like baskets.

20. *FDR* • When he was inaugurated unemployment had increased by 7 million. • Poor sections (like Harlem) had 50% of the pop. unemployed • Instated the “New Deal” • Yea! Frankie!

21. Farm Security Administration: School in Alabama. (Circa 1935)

22. Alarming Statistics • In some coal mining regions, the percentage of malnourished children reached as high as 90% • Children went without shoes and warm clothes in the winter. • About 3 million children between 7 and 17 had to leave school. • 40% of young people from age 16 to 24 were neither in school nor working.