THE GREAT DEPRESSION
Grade 7
Social Studies
Unit: 11 Lesson: 01
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CAUSES: THE GREAT DEPRESSION
 The Stock Market is a place people buy (invest) money in
companies in hopes that they will earn more money.
 October 29, 1929 – known as Black Friday – the stock
market “crashed” (stopped working to make people money).
 Banks failed and people lost all their money.
 Drought (no rain) conditions in the central U.S. caused
agriculture to fail.
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EFFECTS: THE GREAT DEPRESSION
 $26 billion that had been invested in
the Stock Market was lost!
 25% of people in the U.S. were
eventually unemployed.
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EFFECTS: THE GREAT DEPRESSION
 In 1930 Texans did not feel the impact right away.
 Many Texans had farms or worked on farms, so
they could grow food and not go hungry.
 The oil industry was still flourishing.
 Construction was still growing.
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EFFECTS: THE GREAT DEPRESSION
 However, in 1931, oil prices fell.
 As the depression worsened across the United
States in 1931 and 1932, Texans eventually had to
recognize that the Great Depression was a
worldwide economic crisis.
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EFFECTS: THE GREAT DEPRESSION
 Banks closed and people
lost all their money, and
some families found
themselves homeless.
 Cotton prices dropped
to 5 or 6 cents a
pound.
 People lost their farms
and their jobs.
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HELP: THE GREAT DEPRESSION
 Private charities were
set up to help the
poor.
 In major cities, soup
kitchens and bread
lines began to spring
up where the
homeless and
starving could be fed.
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HELP: THE GREAT DEPRESSION
 Civilian Conservation Corps, (CCC)
 Government funded work relief program for young
men
 Built recreational parks and worked in forest and
soil conservation projects
 Workers were given food, shelter, and $30 a month.
 Workers lived in barracks much like a military camp.
 $25 had to be sent home to their families.
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HELP: THE GREAT DEPRESSION
 Public Works Administration
(PWA)
 Government funded work relief
program for unemployed men
 Hired to build canals, tunnels,
bridges, highways, streets, sewage
systems, as well as hospitals,
schools, and universities
 Housing was built for people in
poverty.
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Fort Peck Dam, MT – a PWA
project in 1936
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HELP: THE GREAT DEPRESSION
 Works Progress Administration (WPA)
 Government agency that hired workers to build
public buildings and roads
 Employed artists, writers, actors and directors in
large arts, drama, media, and literacy projects
 600,000 people in Texas were helped by the WPA.
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THE GREAT DEPRESSION
 When World War II began, the effects of The
Great Depression began to decline.
 Millions of workers were hired to work in the
factories that built war materials such as
airplanes, guns, tanks, and ammunition.
 Due to 17 million people being employed in the
war effort, the economy began to improve.
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