HARDSHIP AND SUFFERING
DURING THE GREAT DEPRESSION
Main Idea
 Main idea – During the Great Depression
Americans did what they had to do to survive
 We want to be able to:
 Describe how people struggled to survive during
the Depression
 Explain how the Depression affected men,
women, and children
Depression in the Cities
 Many people in the cities lost their jobs, got
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kicked out of their homes, and ended up in
the streets
Many built and lived in shantytowns – small
towns made of shacks
Many people begged for food or money, or
went through garbage to find things to eat
Soup kitchens provided free or low-cost food
Bread lines provided food from charitable
organizations
Shantytowns or Hoovervilles
Bread Lines and Soup Kitchens
Minorities in the Cities
 Conditions for African
Americans and Latinos
were especially difficult
 Their unemployment rates
was higher, on average,
and they made much less
money
 Racial violence from
unemployed whites
discouraged blacks from
trying to get jobs
 Latinos faced prejudice
and some whites
demanded they be
deported, even if they had
been born in the U.S.
The Depression in Rural Areas
 One advantage that rural
areas had over cities was
that most people were at
least able to grow their
own food
 Thousands of farmers
lost their land because of
their debt
 Many farmers turned to
tenant farming or
sharecropping to try to
stay alive
The Dust Bowl
 Farmers on the Great Plains
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had plowed up much of the
prairie grass on the plains
Farmers then over-farmed
the land
A drought that started in the
early 1930s finally dried up
the land
Winds began, and the winds
picked up the dried topsoil
and carried it away
Some of the topsoil even
reach New York, or ships
miles off of the coastline
This region became known as
the Dust Bowl
Effects on the American Family
 Family was a source of
strength for most
Americans
 While some thought that
the hard times would
destroy the family and
moral values, this largely
didn’t happen
 Many Americans returned
to more traditional values
and emphasized the
importance of family unity
 Families found new ways
to entertain themselves –
board games (Monopoly),
listening to the radio
Men in the Depression
 Men had a hard time
adjusting to
unemployment because
they were used to
supporting their families
 Men would set out on the
streets to look for jobs
 Some men became
“hoboes”, wanderers who
traveled the country in
railroad box cars and who
slept under bridges
 Government offered no
direct relief to people
during the early years of
the Depression
Women in the Depression
 Women took charge of the
households in helping to
get through the tough
times
 Canned foods to preserve
them
 Managed household budgets
 Some women worked
outside the home to get
money for the family, but
still got less than men
 Men sometimes thought
that no woman should
have a job if a man needed
one, so women faced
resentment for working
Children in the Depression
 Many children suffered
from poor diets and a lack
of money for health care
 Lack of milk in diets
 Rise in malnutrition
 Diet-related diseases –
rickets, etc.
 Children suffered from the
lack of education
 Schools shortened school
year or closed
 Children would often go to
work instead
Teenagers in the Depression
 Teenagers looked for
ways out of the
suffering
 Many became
wanderers, like the
hoboes, and hopped on
trains to travel the
country
 Some were eager to
see the country and
look for opportunities
Social and Psychological
Effects
 Many people lost their will to survive – suicide
rate increased by 30 percent between 1928 and
1932
 Three times as many people were admitted to
state mental hospitals
 People accepted new standards of living
 Adults stopped going to doctors or dentists
 Young people forgot about college
 Some put off getting married or having families
The Shaping of a Generation
 For some Americans, achieving financial
security became their only goal in life
 People showed great kindness to people who
were in need, giving food, clothing, or a place
to stay
 Many people developed habits of saving or
thriftiness – they would keep these for life