What were the effects of the Depression on the

American People?

What does this question include?

• Banks run out of money

• Unemployment

• Homelessness

• Farmers

• Help from Charities

Banks run out of money

After the Wall St Crash people lost confidence in the banks and withdrew their money. In many instances banks had to close as they simply ran out of money. In an attempt to recover some of the money the Banks decided to call in the money they had loaned out. This had severe consequences for many American people.

A Bank in New York just after the Crash

Homelessness

Many people had to sell their homes and possessions to pay off the bank loans and the hire purchase schemes. This created the problem of homelessness. In1932 alone, 250,000 people lost their homes.

The homeless ended up on streets, in parks and some got arrested so they could be in police cells. Many ended up on wastelands where they built shelters from whatever they could find. They called these collection of shelters ‘Hoovervilles’ as an insult to President Hoover.

A ‘Hooverville’ in Washington

Unemployment

Homelessness and the plight of the American people was made dramatically worse due to the increase in Unemployment. Before the Wall St Crash the rate of unemployment stood at 3%, by 1932 it increased to 25%.

In areas like Chicago 50% of people were out of work. Some Americans took to the road to find work wherever they could. These people became known as ‘Hobos’ as travelled from town to town.

Unemployed queue for news of jobs.

Farmers

Farmers sold less produce. Prices fell so much that it was not profitable to even harvest the crops. Fields of wheat lay rotting as farmers went bankrupt. Some farmers were evicted as they could not keep up with mortgage payments.

Other problems like dust bowls in the states of the south created extreme conditions for farming. Strong winds and little rain created desert-like fields. The results were often sand storms and little produce.

storm conditions created havoc for farmers

Fields of wheat lay rotting

Help from Charities

Unlike nowadays, there was no social security system to help the poor. The unemployed needed help. Some towns ran their own relief programmes but many had to rely on charities to provide food.

Charities like the Salvation army (and wealthy people like Al Capone) set up ‘Soup Kitchens’ to feed the poor. These provided cheap food and bread. Queues called ‘Bread Lines’ became a familiar sight in the USA.

A ‘Bread Line’ in Chicago

What were the effects of the Depression on the

American People?