The Great Depression Depression & the New Deal – Chapter 25.

The Great DepressionDepression & the New Deal – Chapter 25

The Great Depression

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

THINKING SLIDE

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?

The Great Depression

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

What Caused the Great Depression?

Stock Market CrashOverproduction

◦Companies produce goods faster than consumers could buy them

◦As production slows, workers are laid offPurchases 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

The Dust Bowl

Farmers struggle financially after WWIPrices keep going downTo grow more crops, farmers plow up the

Great PlainsThis area is hit by drought in the 1930’sWind swept over the dry ground creating

huge dust stormsIt is an economic and environmental

disaster

Dust Bowl

Americans Lost Confidence

People lived in fear of the futureBusinesses were afraid to make new

investmentsBread Lines – people stand in line for free

foodPeople slept in subways, parks, empty

warehousesPeople took whatever job they could get

Impact on African Americans and Women

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