Transcript Hardship and Suffering During the Great Depression

HARDSHIP AND SUFFERING DURING THE GREAT DEPRESSION
p. 472-477
Objectives
• Describe how people stuggled to survive during the Depression
• Explain how the Depression affected men, women, and children
THE DEPRESSION DEVASTATES PEOPLE’S LIVES
The Depression in the Cities
African-Americans & Latinos
Shantytowns
Unemployment – higher
• Neighborhood in which people live in makeshift
shacks
Pay – lower
Soup Kitchens
• A place where free or low cost food is served to the
needy
Bread Lines
• A line of people waiting for free food
Unemployment leads to more racially
fueled violence
• 33 reported lynchings in 1933
• Calls for Latinos to be deported, even if they were
born in the United States
THE DEPRESSION DEVASTATES PEOPLE’S LIVES
The Depression in Rural Areas
The Dust Bowl
Falling prices and rising debt
Dust Bowl
• 1929-1932
• ~400,000 farms were lost due to
foreclosure
• Many have to turn to tenant
farming
• The region that was made worthless for farming
by drought and dust storms during the 1930s
Plowing the western grass lands
• Overproduction
• Topsoil displaced
• People begin to migrate west towards California
EFFECTS ON THE AMERICAN FAMILY
Men in the Streets
Hobos
• Migratory worker
Direct relief
Tramps
• The giving of money or food by the
government directly to needy people
• Work only when they are forced
New York City
Bum
• $2.39 per week – highest in the country
• $43.65 – 2014
• Do not work at all
EFFECTS ON THE AMERICAN FAMILY
Women Struggle to Survive
Children Suffer Hardships
Carefully management of the household
Poor diets and lack of health care
• Canned food
• Sewed
• Pulled resources
• Milk consumption declined across the country
Working outside the home
School closures
• Resentment towards married women getting work
over men
• 1930s, married women were not hired as school
teachers
• Less tax revenue
• Shorter year
• 1933 – 26,000 school closed
• 300,000 student out of school
• Malnutrition reports raised
• Rickets
EFFECTS ON THE AMERICAN FAMILY
Children Suffer Hardships (cont.)
“Hoover tourist”
Social and Psychological Effects
Suicide
• Between 1928-1932 rose 30%
• 3x as many people were admitted to state mental hospitals
• Sons of the poor who traveled the United
States in search of work & adventure
Doctor visits stopped
1929 – 1939
Give up on college
• 24,647 trespassers were killed
• 27,171 were injured on railroad property
Put off marriage, large families
Financial security became the primary focus
1. Why did people in cities live in shacks and wait in
bread lines?
2. How did competition for jobs impact race relations
during the Great Depression?
3. Why did many families leave their land during the
Great Depression?
4. How did the Depression affect men and their
families?
5. How did the Depression affect women and children?
6. From what long-lasting psychological consequences
did Depression survivors suffer?