Hard Times Focus Question: In what ways did South Carolina’s economy struggle in the 1920’s and early 1930’s?

Even though most of the country made progress and enjoyed good times and prosperity during the 1920’s, many South Carolinians struggled during the 1920’s and 1930’s.

The end of the war was hard on farmers who saw the demand for their crops decrease. They also had to deal with the problems of drought, soil erosion and the boll weevil. Prices for crops fell as supply for crops exceeded demand. By the end of the 1920s, cotton, like rice before it, was no longer a viable crop in the Lowcountry. Farmers turned to other crops such as peaches and livestock. Yum! Lots of cotton for me to eat!

When cotton and crop prices were high, many farmers had borrowed money to buy land, seed, fertilizer, and chemicals, insecticides, to kill pests like the boll weevil. When prices dropped and demand slowed, many farmers were unable to pay their debts. Dust Bowl Farming video clip:

The textile industry expanded during the 1920’s and many mill villages would now have running water, plumbing, and electricity. Textile workers still worked hard and even faster. By the end of the 1920’s there would be overproduction and declining prices for textiles.

Synthetic fibers such as nylon replaced cotton in the fashions of the era and short skirts used less material. International competition also increased as tariffs that had protected the domestic textile industry were reduced.

The agricultural depression sparked a significant migration out of South Carolina. Between 1920 and 1935, 80% of the young men with high school and college degrees left South Carolina! All segments of the economy declined.

Over the course of 3 days in October of 1929, the depression that farmers had been feeling for years now went national. On Black Tuesday, the Stock Market crashed and it would signal the start of the Great Depression. By 1933, over a quarter of the American workforce was unemployed, and thousands of once- successful citizens had lost their fortunes.

By the time the Stock Market crashed, already half of South Carolina’s banks had already failed. Along with many poor whites, many blacks also fled South Carolina in search of more opportunity and to escape segregation and the fear of violence. This population shift of blacks from the South to the North and Midwest was called the great Migration.

Daily Life after World War I— When the soldiers returned home from Europe following World War I, they found that the ambitious idealism of the Progressive Era was gone. Rural farmers grew frustrated as the economy struggled, and many South Carolinians believed that the continued success of the textile industry was destroying the identity of the “Old South.” A reaction to this was a revival of the Ku Klux Klan movement in the early 1920s, which once again wreaked havoc on the African American community.

Economy after World War I — South Carolina was struggling to keep up with the rest of the nation — less than 2% of rural farms had electricity, very few people owned automobiles, and most houses in the backcountry lacked indoor plumbing. Many farmers were still frustrated by the decline in agriculture as cotton prices continued to fall. The most reliable form of employment in the state came from the textile industry. In the 1920s, another market started to form in South Carolina — the tourism industry.

Population Shifts after World War I — When it was time to return home from the fighting of World War I, many South Carolina soldiers decided to restart their lives in other states rather than return to South Carolina ’ s struggling economy. At the same time, over 100,000 African Americans fled the state ’ s rural areas, usually heading to northern states. They had grown tired of the continued racial tensions, which were highlighted by a revival of the Ku Klux Klan movement in the early 1920s.