This article is a continuation of a series on FSA photographs by Marion Post Wolcott documenting the lives of Americans during the Great Depression and New Deal policies established to provide relief to the country’s most impoverished farmers. Discussion questions for educators relating to agricultural migrant workers during this time and also today follow at the end. Show Imagine millions of Americans losing their jobs, wages, homes, or farms almost simultaneously, including hundreds of thousands forced by desperation to pack up their cars or jump on a train, abandon their homes and community roots, and steer hopefully toward a better life elsewhere. This massive human migration is one of the hallmarks of the Great Depression. A multitude of worldwide pressures contributed to the country’s economic disaster. Both a global and national recession triggered the stock market crash of 1929, bank closures, plummeting wages, and nearly 25 percent unemployment of the nation’s workforce. By 1933, almost 45 percent of farms faced foreclosure. Many Americans lost their life savings and were left destitute. Farmers in the Great Plains squeezed their soil dry, already depleted from decades of intensive farming, to compensate for market price drops in crops through mechanization, cultivation of more land, and overextended investments. On the brink of survival, they were struck by a long drought which generated dust storms across the parched plains, destroying farms, leaving over half a million Americans homeless, and causing a migration of nearly three million people out of the American Midwest. Joining the farmers escaping the Dust Bowl and unemployed workers from the city were millions of tenant farmers and sharecroppers in the largely rural South where more than 80 percent of Black Americans lived and faced deep poverty, Jim Crow laws, and slavery’s legacy. Americans of diverse races and classes, many accustomed to modern conveniences such as electricity and indoor plumbing and others stuck in impoverished cycles, headed toward the milder climates of states such as California and Florida to seek farm work, long growing seasons, a variety of crops, and staggered harvests. As they converged on relatively productive land, often they still were faced with a struggle to find opportunities amid overburdened infrastructure. Labor exceeded jobs, which further reduced wages. Traveling from crop to crop, they lived in shantytowns, squalid camps, and primitive shelters—conditions that exacerbated discriminatory attitudes toward migrant workers, and added to social frictions and the trauma of dislocation. Child of Migrant Family in Front of Shack, Florida, 1939, by Marion Post Wolcott; photo courtesy Carey MoncasterA New Deal for the American People The Farm Security Administration, in particular, resettled poor migrants on productive land, building entire communities, cooperatives, schools, and residential camps with running water and sanitary conditions. Agricultural workers were helped to buy equipment, sell crops, manage debt, and purchase farms. It also provided safe spaces away from discrimination where migrants could engage in cultural and recreational activities and rekindle a sense of stability. The New Deal signified a new relationship between the American people and their government by taking on a larger role and many new responsibilities for the welfare of the American people. The government’s involvement in such affairs was unprecedented. Agencies such as the CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps), FDIC (Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation), SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission), and Social Security Administration were established in this era. Critics complained that the programs went too far, or not far enough, to protect the wellbeing of American citizens. As New Deal programs changed the political, social, and economic landscape of the United States, the government attempted to provide relief in ways that didn’t compromise the values, pride, and work ethic of the American people. Many of these themes remain a common thread in domestic political discourse today. Between 1935 and 1944, they [the FSA photographers] took over 175,000 images of life during this time of despair, relocation, and recovery, enabling Americans not only to imagine but also clearly visualize this profound period of American history. Farm Security Administration (FSA) Photography The scourge of the Depression continued until 1941 when the United States entered World War II, the national economy ramped up with the defense industry, and Americans enlisted in the military. As a result of New Deal programs, many of the migrant workers put down roots in their new communities. Discussion Questions
Read MoreBlogs Capturing U.S. History and Humanity: The Photographs of Marion Post WolcottSPICE will feature a selection of Marion Post Wolcott’s photographs in an ongoing series along with organizing questions for educators. Capturing U.S. History and Humanity: The Photographs of Marion Post WolcottBlogs The Silva Family’s Bracero Legacy and Stanford University: Abuelito and Abuelita’s JourneyIsa Silva, grandson of a bracero from Jalisco, will enter Stanford next fall as a recruit for the Stanford Men’s Basketball team. How did the Great Depression affect farmers quizlet?most farmers could grow food for their families. With falling prices and rising debt, though, thousands of farmers lost their land. Between 1929 and 1932, about 400,000 farms were lost through foreclosure—the process by which a mortgage holder takes back property if an occupant has not made payments.
What were 3 economic effects of the Great Depression?The U.S. economy shrank by a third from the beginning of the Great Depression to the bottom four years later. Real GDP fell 29% from 1929 to 1933. The unemployment rate reached a peak of 25% in 1933. Consumer prices fell 25%; wholesale prices plummeted 32%.
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