Effect of the Great Depression on Regular Americans

Warm-up How does losing your job make life more difficult for you?

Vocabulary Dust Bowl- the term for the extreme dust storms and drought in the 1930s that prevented farming in the mid-western part of the United States.

Simulation You will receive a sheet of paper that is either titled African American, Farmer, Railroad worker or Teacher. You will pretend to be that person during the 1930s Read the blurb about the person and look at their budget. Then create a new budget for the person in the 1930s. Answer the reflection questions once you finish the budget.

Railroad workers Railroad Workers faced major job cuts during the Depression. Railroads were used far less because fewer people were traveling and there were fewer things to ship around the country. As a result many railroad workers lost their jobs or had their wages cut severely

Farmers Farmers faced dropping prices and lower- demand for their products. Farmers also had to contend with the Dust Bowl-which was a series of large dust storms in the mid-west that forced many farmers to leave their land because they were unable to grow anything.

Dust Bowl

African Americans African Americans were the first to be fired from most jobs. In addition the Dust Bowl hurt many sharecroppers. There was still high levels of discrimination so it was really hard for African Americans to get another job once they had been fired.

Teachers Many teachers had their salaries cut because the people paying their paycheck were losing money. They also faced more students in the classroom because many children lost their jobs as well

Grapes of Wrath Excerpts “A day went by and the wind increased, steady, unbroken by gusts. The dust from the roads fluffed up and spread out and fell on the weeds beside the fields, and fell into the fields a little way. Now the wind grew strong and hard and it worked at the rain crust in the corn fields. Little by little the sky was darkened by the mixing dust, and the wind felt over the earth, loosened the dust, and carried it away. The wind grew stronger. The rain crust broke and the dust lifted up out of the fields and drove gray plumes into the air like sluggish smoke...The air and the sky darkened and through them the sun shone redly, and there was a raw sting in the air. During a night the wind raced faster over the land, dug cunningly among the rootlets of the corn, and corn fought the wind with its weakened leaves until the roots were freed by the prying wind and then each stalk settled wearily sideways toward the earth and pointed the direction of the wind.” -John Steinbeck

Grapes of Wrath continued Houses were shut tight, and cloth wedged around doors and windows, but the dust came in so thinly that it could not be seen in the air, and it settled like pollen on the chairs and tables, on the dishes." - John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath, Chapter 1 “In the roads where the teams moved, where the wheel milled the ground and the hooves of the horses beat the ground, the dirt crust broke an dust formed. Every moving things lifted the dust into the air: a walking man lifted a thin layer as high as his waist, and a wagon lifted the dust as high as the fence tops, and an automobile boiled a cloud behind it. The dust was long in settling back again. “ John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath, Chapter 1

Garden City, Kansas 5:15

Garden City, Kansas 5:30

Exit Slip You will write an editorial looking at the 4 groups of Americans we studied today. You will explain why life was difficult for each group during the Great Depression then make an argument for which group had it the toughest. It must be at least 1 paragraph