The Great Depression: Life During the Depression and The Government’s Response

US History: Spiconardi

Hard Times for Americans

• Hardships Americans Faced– Unemployment

• Unemployment rate sky rockets from 3% in 1929 to 25% in 1933

Hard Times for Americans

• Family Life– Many fathers left families to find

work elsewhere– Children couldn’t go to school

• Why? – School boards didn’t have money to

keep schools open

– Marriage rate decreases– Fewer children per family

• Why? – Parents couldn’t afford to feed large

families

Hard Times for Americans• Shanty towns• Many Americans lost their homes so they built shanty

towns– Shanty towns slum settlements constructed by impoverished

people out of scrap materials

• The shanty towns were referred to as Hoovervilles – President Herbert Hoover was blamed for not helping suffering

Americans enough

Hooverville in Seattle

Hard Times for Americans

• Deterioration of Health– Many Americans suffered from malnutrition

• Undernourished people fall more easily to disease

Americans on line at soup kitchen

Americans making a back run to withdraw their savings

Man in Manhattan lying down on a pier

“Migrant Mother” – mother of seven children struggling through the Great Depression in

California

Men line up for free bread from the Grocers’ Association.

A man trying to sell his car after losing his money in the Stock Market

An unemployed man tries to sell apples on the street to earn money

Why are there so many apples that have been eaten on the ground?

What does the cartoon show about life during the Great Depression?

Explain why this locality’s chamber of commerce posted this bill

Explain the juxtaposition between the advertisement and the food line

Men in Chicago advertising themselves for a job. How do they market themselves?

Unemployment march in New Jersey

Children picketing a construction company

Homework

• Choose one of the following three photos. Place yourself in that photograph and either write a diary entry or create a back story.– 1-page– Typed or neatly written in blue or black ink– Proper heading (no writing in the top margin)