How did the Great Depression affect Georgia?

Answer 1

The Great Depression

Causes

"Panic ensued on the morning of October 24-Black Thursday. Nearly thirteen million shares, twice the previous record volume, went up for sale" (Burg 48). These words describe the fate of the stock market that resulted in the collapse of the American economy. Beginning with the Stock Market crash in October of 1929, America, as well as other parts of the world suffered severe blows to their economies. Although the actual number of investors was small, the effect of the stock market crash was devastating. Though the numbers were small within a large population, they were a major source of what was being invested in industry. Another effect of the crash was lowered morale and investing confidence. Immediately, businessmen began to be more hesitant with their spending (Burg 50). With this curbed spending, came a panic that caused many to believe they should take their money out of the banks. Banks began to shut down and those that had borrowed money could not repay their loans (Baker 286). Combined, these factors greatly contributed to the failure of the American economy.

Effects

Twenty-five percent of Americans were unemployed (Baker 286). Everyone, from sharecroppers and planters in the South, to businessmen in large cities was affected. Karl Monroe, a journalist describes the devastation that he witnessed in the breadlines in New York City.

Finally, I stood in the bread line in Twenty-fifth Street…To my surprise, I found in the line all types of men- the majority being skilled craftsmen unable to find work. One of them told me he had been a civil engineer and had earned $8000 a year. Since losing his job almost a year ago, he drifted from bad to worse, occasionally picking up odd jobs, until he had sunk to the bread line. There were also a number of middle aged men who had long since given up the idea of finding work. Having started honestly enough in a sincere effort to get placed, they had met disappointment so consistently that their ambition was broken… Such men never think of the future in terms of more than one of two days. Perhaps more to be pitied than this class is the young family whose ambition has been stifled (252-3).

In these words, Monroe very accurately describes the morale of almost all men during the late 1920s to 1930s. Many families depended on government aid to save them from starving. Also, in many large cities, unemployment agencies, desperate for commission, took advantage of out of work Americans. Often, they would knowingly send men to jobs in which they obviously lacked the skills, so that they could send several men to the same job. Thus, they earned a portion of the wages for many workers because they continuously were being replaced (Monroe 251).

Not only industrialized areas suffered during the Great Depression. Particularly in the South and Midwest, agrarian lifestyles were severely effected. One major contributing factor was that the Mississippi River flooded in 1927, damaging a large portion on the fertile Mississippi River Valley (Baker 283). The flood was devastating to Southern farmers. For example, roughly eight out of ten Arkansans relied on agriculture as their primary source of income. Also, previous to the flood, cotton, Arkansas's main cash crop, suffered a huge decline in price (Baker 280). Therefore, before the stock market crashed, Southern agriculture was already in jeopardy.

Agriculture in the Midwest also suffered. Most of the Great Plains, from Texas to North Dakota, had been turned into a "Dust Bowl." This name referred to the stripped landscape that was a result of windstorms that blew away millions of tons of topsoil. The reason the windstorms made such an impact can be contributed to the over-planting and stripping of lands to plant wheat after World War I. Many farms were abandoned and many families relocated in California (American Journey 830).

Answer 2

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Answer 3

Many owed money and could not make their payments.