The Dust Bowl and the Great Depression

The dust bowl was believe to have started because of climate change and the poor farming techniques that were being used during the time of the civil war (history.com). the dust bowl was a period of hardship for many people living on the southern plains. there was no way to escape the disasters unless a family up and moved, but during this time the economics of the country was also turned upside down. therefore, the options for families to up and move were slim. therefore, the dust bowl was a time period where families faced greater hardships due to the weather and was also a time of economic depression, which was caused by the crash of the stock market. The Dust Bowl got its name after dust began to form in the sky and it was a dust storm like a snow storm and it covered houses and caused a depression and people could not grow vegetables or crops and animals began to die off. The clouds that appeared on the horizon that sunday was the worst (Ganzel). When another storm came along it destroyed more and more of families goods and they had to move off the land they were living on. During the 1930's hundreds of thousands left the plains for the west coast because they could not afford the damage of their goods (Ganzel). many people migrated from oklahoma so other places called them okies oklahomans were more likely to move to California, Oregon, and Washington (Ganzel). Many people left the states that was having the Dust Bowl and Great Depression and migrated to California to look for jobs and new homes(Ganzel). The Okies that migrated west to california because it states that they once advertised for more than migrant workers and found themselves overwhelmed by up to 7,000 new migrants a month, more migrants than they needed (Ganzel). The Dust Bowl was a time when people had to make a decision to stay where they were, or to up and leave everything that they had. Understand, that up and moving is the 1920's was far harder than it would be in today's society. There just was not a lot of options for people, and then the promise of finding a job once they did move was not a guarantee either. However, during the dust, bowl families migrated; almost 2.5 million people left the dust bowl states including Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, Nebraska, Kansas, and Oklahoma. over 440,000 people left to migrate it was the largest migration in American history(Ganzel). People traveled west looking for jobs during the dust bowl to try and support there families that were poor and had no food. Oklahomans were faced with discrimination, menial labor, and pitiable wages until they reached California many Oklahomans lived on the side of the road in ditches because they had little or no money at all (history.com). Okies soon became a word people used to refer to any poor person no matter where the person was from, but no two Hoovervilles were alike the camps were all different in size. many people went to a bigger place like washington d.c, new york city. st. louis, missouri was home to the largest-longest hoovervilles. when it was possible many hoovervilles tried making a vegetable garden to try and get food to feed their families and they would stay by rivers and ponds to try and get water to drink and bathe in. During the great depression and the dust bowl herbert hoover was the president. while he was the president many suffering Americans looked for the government for help and support, but the stock market failed president Hoover was blamed. little shanty towns popped up all around big cities where poor people had to stay, and they got the name Hoovervilles (history.com). When Herbert Hoover was president people would use is name in many different ways, when people had no blankets they would find newspapers and call them Hoover Blankets, people would pull their pockets out to show there was no money in them and that was called Hover flags hoovervilles would even put cardboard on the bottom of their shoes when their soles wore out of them and they claimed it was called Hoover leather and there vehicles would be pulled by horses because no one could afford gas and they claimed it was called Hoover wagons(history.com). when the election came back around herbert hoover was defeated by franklin roosevelt. president roosevelt wanted to make america get out of the depression and then the hoovervilles were soon torn down. The great depression was the worst time of the 1929-29140's (history.com). it was the most severe and enduring economic collapse of the 20th century, the crash of the supply and demands of good in service along with a meteoric rise in unemployment.

Cite this page