Though most Americans are aware of the Great Depression of 1929, which may well be "the most serious problem facing our free enterprise economic system", few know of the many Americans who lost their homes, life savings and jobs. Americans faced vast problems during the eleven years of depression’s span. The paper primarily focuses on what life was like for farmers during the time of the Depression. By the 1930's, thirteen million workers lost their jobs, which is 25 percent of all workers. The blacks and unskilled workers were always the first to be fired. Farmers had no money and weren't capable of paying their mortgages. Americans traveled throughout the country looking for a place to work to support themselves and their family. Farmers plight during the Great Depression and drought. When the rains failed to come, the grass began to disappear. As the farmers watched their plants turn brown and the dirt slowly turn to dust they began to fear what was to come. In the water-cut gullies the earth dusted down in dry little streams. As the sharp sun struck day after day, the leaves of the young corn became less stiff and erect; then it was June and the sun shone more fiercely. The brown lines on the corn leaves widened and moved in on the central ribs. The weeds frayed and edged back toward their roots. The air was thin and the sky more pale; and every day the earth paled. The farmers were terrified that the government feed loans wouldn't be available to keep the livestock from dying. In many cases, the Red Cross was making allowances for feed to keep live livestock. The small farmers of fruit trees and vegetable plants depended on others who ran canneries to bottle and can their produce. The people they depended upon were the same people that hired scientists to experiment on the fruits and vegetables to come up with better tasting and yielding produce. Thus the small farmers were dependent on these same rich landowners for almost everything. They couldn't harvest their produce on their own so they sold it to the rich landowners and thus made very little money on their produce. The farmers found themselves in debt caused by the purchase of land, tools, animals and other items bought on credit. The Great Depression was the end result of World War I. It affected the rich and poor alike, factory workers and farmers, bankers and stockbrokers. In short, it affected everyone; no one was left untouched. But of all the people hurt, farmers were the worst off. The Great Depression is known to be the worst economic disaster in U. S. history.




















THE GREAT DEPRESSION The year of 1929 began a time period of horror in America. It was the beginning of the great depression. A time in which many lost their jobs,became homeless,and went hungry. Many people had to live off the nutrition of weeds or some worked fifty - five hours and only earned seventy - five cents. The cause of the depression was the stock market crash of 1929 known to investors as Black Tuesday. Black Tuesday is said to be the most shocking financial event in the history of the united states. Not only did the stock market prices drop drastically but the business world was brought down with it. Inflation also rose because of the crash. The crash that occurred on October of 1929 caused Americans to lose Thirty billion dollars,and the American dollar value was 90% less than it was prior to October of 1929. Wholesale and retail food prices dropped 40% and farm prices dropped over 60%. About four million families were left unemployed and on relief support only receiving fifteen dollars a month. Because of the crash the government was required to set new regulations regarding stock market trade. The reason for this was to attempt to prevent another stock market crash from happening in the future. The depression brought about many problems not only did people have to worry about unemployment they also had to worry about crime. Many Americans tried to get easy money by taking part in robberies,kidnappings,and murders. In 1935 criminals out numbered carpenters four to one, grocers six to one, and doctors twenty to one. In the mid west, crooks with shot guns and Tommy Gun were a common thing. In large cities the criminals were making money off of extortion,prositution and auto theft.