HARDSHIP AND SUFFERING DURING THE GREAT DEPRESSION

1
HARDSHIP AND SUFFERING DURING THE GREAT DEPRESSION
2
MAIN IDEA

• During the Great Depression Americans did what
  they had to do to survive

3
The Depression Devastates Peoples lives

• Shantytowns--towns that are deprived of
  resources, where a large number of poor people
  created shelters
• Lack of running water
• Rose up outside most cities
• AKA (also known as) Hoovervilles
• Names after Herbert Hoover, blamed for the
  Depression

4
Depression contd Life in Hooverwille

• --no running water
• --poor sanitation
• --draft (poor ventilation)
• --gtleads to illness
• --emotional distress for men used to being able
  to take care of the family
• --gtresults depression, abandonment of family

5
Depression contd

• Soup Kitchens a place where people feed poor
  people who can not get food these kitchens would
  primarily serve soup
• Bread Lines people wait on line for hours to
  get a piece of bread

6
Depression contd

• Conditions for African Americans and Latinos were
  especially difficult
• Relief programs largely discriminated against
  African Americans. However, some Black
  organizations such as church groups and the NAACP
  were able to give private help.

7
Depression in Rural Areas

• People could not afford to buy the goods produced
  by the farmers so farmers suffered
• With falling prices and rising debt, though,
  thousand of farmers lost their land

8
Dust Bowl

• Plowing had removed the thick protective layer of
  prairie grasses
• Drought occurred (lack of rain)
• What remains is dust windy conditions move this
  dirt could created a storm
• Occurring in or around Topka KS, Oklahoma, Texas,
  Colorado, New Mex.

9
Effects on the American Family

• --Death
• --abandonment of families parents may leave
  children in the orphan
• --Families entertained at home and played board
  games and listened the radio

10
What was done?

• During the early years of the Great Depression,
  there was no system of direct relief--cash
  payments or food provided by the government to
  the poor
• Hoover s administration did not do anything
• Some cities and charity services offered it
  those who needed it but the benefits were meager
• NYC offered 2.39 per family/week

11
Women Struggle to Survive

• Women starving too embarrassed to go on bread
  lines
• Going for weeks without food

12
Children Suffer Hardships

• Clinics and hospitals reported a dramatic rise in
  malnutrition
• Children are no longer in schools

13
Unemployment

• Unemployment over25
• Average income and spending decreases
• Farm bankrupcies upto 6000 in 1933.

14
Social and Psychological Effects

• People lost their will survive
• More people were admitted to state mental
  hospitals
• People developed habits of thriftiness that would
  see them through dark days.
• Overall, devastating on the psychology and
  society.

15
Questions

• What is a speculator?
• person who trades in the market with a
  higher-than-average profit potential. Speculators
  take large risk in hopes to make large gain
• How did the stock market crash of 1929 affect
  people?
• People desperate to make money
• People could not get loans or maintain homes as
  the banks were losing money and closing