The Great Depression
Depression & the New Deal – Chapter 25
The stock market crash of 1929 was a
shock to President Hoover
 Before 1929, less than 4% of American
workers did not have jobs
 One year later, 9% of the workforce was
unemployed

The Great Depression

Sales decreased – American businesses
laid off workers
◦ Letting workers go because a company cannot
afford to pay them
◦ Ex: Ford cut its workforce by 44%
By 1931 unemployment equaled 16%
 Hoover encourages people to be patient &
believed the depression would end with
time

The Great Depression

Think back to the
Roaring Twenties Unit
◦ What did Hoover feel
the role of government
in business was?
◦ Knowing this, how do
you think he reacts to
the depression
originally?
THINKING SLIDE

Hoover’s plan:
◦ Let state and local governments help people
◦ Let charities and private groups help people
Hoover believes America is strong
because Americans take responsibility for
their own lives
 People blame Hoover for the depression

The Great Depression
Unable to make loan payments to banks,
people lose their homes
 Hoovervilles

◦ People build cardboard homes or tar paper
shacks with no lights, heat, water
The Great Depression
Stock Market Crash
 Overproduction

◦ Companies produce goods faster than
consumers could buy them
◦ As production slows, workers are laid off

Purchases on credit
◦ When people lost their jobs they could not
repay loans
◦ Banks go out of business
What Caused the Great Depression?

Many countries were still in debt to the
U.S. from WWI
◦ High tariffs were placed on American goods
What Caused the Great Depression?






Farmers struggle financially after WWI
Prices keep going down
To grow more crops, farmers plow up the
Great Plains
This area is hit by drought in the 1930’s
Wind swept over the dry ground creating
huge dust storms
It is an economic and environmental
disaster
The Dust Bowl
Dust Bowl





People lived in fear of the future
Businesses were afraid to make new
investments
Bread Lines – people stand in line for free
food
People slept in subways, parks, empty
warehouses
People took whatever job they could get
Americans Lost Confidence

Black workers lose their jobs to
unemployed white workers
◦ “Last hired first fired”
Sharecroppers lose their jobs as white
farm owners income declines
 Northern factories close and women and
blacks lose their jobs
 Married women are fired so that
unemployed married men could work

Impact on African Americans and
Women