The Impact of the
Great Depression Fasttrack to America's Past |
Originating Page |
1.
Many banks
and businesses failed The photo below shows a crowd outside a large bank in New York City that closed in 1930. The people were demanding the money they had deposited in their savings and checking accounts. The bank did not have enough to pay them all at once. Banks loan out most of the money they take in as deposits. If too many people come at the same time to get their money out, the banks can run out of cash. Many other banks around the country were also failing as worried customers rushed in and tried to get back their money. |
2.
Many
people lost their jobs
As banks and businesses began failing, workers lost their jobs and their income. The owners of bankrupt banks and businesses also lost the income they had been making from those companies as owners. In 1933, the unemployment rate hit 25 percent. That means one out of every four workers in the country could not find a job. It was a truly desperate situation. The photo below from 1933 shows a group of unemployed women. They wanted the government to do more to help people without jobs. |
3.
Many
people became
homeless and hungry As people lost jobs, many of them could no longer pay rent or make payments on home loans. A large number of unemployed people became homeless and often went hungry. Some ended up living with other out-of-work families in areas called shanty towns. (A shanty is a poor, roughly built house.) The shanty town in the photos below was just outside Circleville, Ohio. They could be found outside many other cities as well. |
4.
Farmers'
incomes
fell to low levels
Tractors and other machinery helped farmers plant larger areas of land and produce much bigger crops. That overproduction, however, tended to reduce the price farmers could get for their crops. The low prices farmers got for their crops made it hard for many farmers to pay back loans for farm equipment and to buy supplies. Thousands of farms actually went bankrupt. The photo below shows men using a tractor to plow an enormous field on a farm in New Mexico. |
Copyright Notice
Copyright 2009, 2020 by David Burns. All rights reserved. |