Hardship and Suffering During the Depression

As you read about how people coped with hard times, use the headings below to summarize the Great Depression’s effects on various aspects of American life.

Employment - People lost their jobs, the overall unemployment rate was 25% and people were losing their steady incomes and in turn were losing their lives. They lost their homes, and most of them couldn't afford food. Huge lines for the soup kitchen would be a common sight, everyone was hungry and barely anyone had enough money to buy their own.


Housing - People were sleeping in sewer pipes or parks, wrapping themselves in newspapers in a sad attempt to keep warm. A few built houses out of scrap materials. This is how shantytowns came to be. 


Farming - Many farmers lost their land due to foreclosure, and turned to tenant farming which barely scraped out a living for them. However one upside to being a farmer was the ability to produce food, rather than needing to buy it.



Race relations - White Americans were upset at Latinos and Africans because they were under the impression that these people were stealing all of the jobs in America. Conditions were worse for Africans and Latinos than for white americans, and most of the time the white americans would get the jobs, causing the African/Latino unemployment rate to be a lot higher than white american unemployment.


Family life - Family lives began to crumble. Women would go out in search of work, and men would be out of jobs. Sometimes when the men were out of jobs, they would wander the streets for days on end in search of work. They might even have gotten so upset that they would abandon their families. Some couples put off marrying and raising families in order to save money.



Physical health - People began to stop going to see the dentist and doctor, to pay less and save money. Also, suicide rates tripled during the depression


Emotional health - people began to feel very demoralized by their inability to work and lost their will to survive. Some people had to give up their dreams, and became very thrifty.


Explain or define each of the following:

 Dust bowl - The dust bowl was the region that was the hardest hit by the drought - parts of Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, new mexico, and Colorado. 


Shantytown - A little town consisting of shacks


Direct Relief - cash payments or food provided from the government to the poor.