Background On December 24th, 1929 the U.S. stock market crashed. How and why it crashed are very confusing, but here is the VERY simple version. The banks broke. Millions of people started taking their money out of banks and hiding it under their mattresses. This made things worse. The Great Depression started with bankers and farmers suffering. Because there was no money in banks, many banks closed which meant other companies could not borrow money from those banks. If companies cannot borrow money, then they cannot pay their employees. If a company cannot pay its employees, then they start firing employees. This is the real problem with the Great Depression. Millions of people were out of work. The unemployment rate, the percentage of people without a job, hit over 25% or 1 in 4 people. This is a VERY, VERY high number. In October 2017, the U.S. unemployment rate was 4.1%. So, if 25% of people did not have jobs in 1932, then they don t have money. When that many people don t have money, it s really bad. Why did the Great Depression Start? Now look at the Great Depression Pictures and answer what was life like for people during the Great Depression? which groups of people were affected? where were people affected? (city? country? U.S.? other countries?) how were people affected?
Annotate each document. Make sure you underline key words or phrases AND question marks on vocabulary words you don t know. Write any questions you have in the left margin, and write the main idea of the document in the right margin. Document A.. Bonus Marchers converged on (came to) Washington [in 1932]. Congress had voted the bonus money (promised to veterans after World War I), but for later most were ex-soldiers who had served the nation [in World War I], frightened men with hungry families. The ragged hordes (large groups) blocked traffic, clung like swarming bees to the steps of the Capitol. They needed their money now. They built a shacktown on the edge of Washington. Many had brought their wives and children. (See Hoovervilles below) Hoovervilles, shanty towns, were built all around the country. They were named after the president of the time, Herbert Hoover and became places where hundreds or thousands of recently homeless people would set up their new homes. 1. Should Americans have hope during the Great Depression? Why or why not? Write
Document B Source: President Herbert Hoover, February 3, 1931 This is not an issue as to whether the people are going hungry or cold in the U.S. It is solely a question of the best method by which hunger and cold can be prevented. It is a question as to whether the American people on the one hand will maintain (continue) the spirit of charity (giving) and of mutual self-help (help each other) through voluntary giving 2. Should Americans have hope during the Great Depression? Why or why not? Write Source: Caroline Bird, The Invisible Scar Document C... Kentucky coal miners suffered perhaps the most. In Harlan County there were whole towns whose people had not a cent of income. They lived on dandelions and blackberries Dysentery bloated the stomachs of starving babies. Children were reported so famished (hungry) they were chewing up their own hands. On her first trip to the mountains, Eleanor Roosevelt saw a little boy trying to hide his pet rabbit. He thinks we are not going to eat it, his sister told her, but we are. In West Virginia, miners mobbed (attacked) company stores demanding food. Mountain people sometimes had to burn their last chairs and tables to keep warm. Local charity could not help in a place where everyone was destitute (poor) A teacher in a mountain school told a little girl who looked sick but said she was hungry to go home and eat something. I can t, the youngster said. It s my sister s turn to eat. 3. Should Americans have hope during the Great Depression? Why or why not? Write
Document D Source: David M. Kennedy, Freedom From Fear, Oxford University Press... Working women at first lost their jobs at a faster rate than men then reentered the workforce more rapidly. In the early years of the Depression, many employers, including the federal government, tried to spread what employment they had to heads of households. That meant firing any married woman identified as a family s secondary wage-earner. But the gender segregation in employment that was already well established before the Depression also worked to women s advantage. Heavy industry suffered the worst unemployment, but few women stoked blast furnaces in the steel mills or drilled rivets on assembly lines or swung hammers in the building trades. The teaching profession, however, in which women were highly concentrated and indeed [were] a hefty (large) majority of employees, suffered pay cuts but only minimal job losses. And the underlying trends of the economy meant that what new jobs did become available in the 1930s, such as telephone switchboard operation and clerical work, were peculiarly (strangely) suited to women.... 4. Should Americans have hope during the Great Depression? Why or why not? Write Document E Source: Howard Zinn, A People s History of the United States, HarperCollins Publishers... most blacks didn t qualify for unemployment insurance, minimum wages, social security, or farm subsidies. Roosevelt, careful not to offend southern white politicians whose political support he needed, did not push a bill against lynching. Blacks and whites were segregated in the armed forces. And black workers were discriminated against in getting jobs. They were the last hired, the first fired 5. Should Americans have hope during the Great Depression? Why or why not? Write
Document F Source: H. W. Felchner, New York City, February, 1932 The Sign reads: Line for 1 Restaurant: 20 Meals for $1*. Donations invited. Help feed the hungry. 1 will feed 20. 1 Restaurant, 107 W. 43 rd St. * By the way, the sign means that a donation of $1 would provide 20 meals NOT that you can bring a dollar and get 20 meals. 6. Should Americans have hope during the Great Depression? Why or why not? Write