1. The Beginning of the Great Depression for Georgia
Georgia began to suffer from a depression long before the rest of the United States.
WHY?

2. Destruction of King Cotton
The Boll Weevil
The beetle hatch in the yellow flower of the cotton plant. As the flower becomes a boll (the place where the fibers are formed), the larvae feeds on the growing white, fluffy cotton, making useless.
Appeared in 1915 and quickly spread across Georgia.
By 1923, cotton production had dropped from bales from 2.8 million bales in 1914 to only 600,000
Drought
In , a major drought hit Georgia.
The drought ruined most of Georgia’s other crops.
Between 1920 and 1925 over 375,000 farm workers left Georgia and the number of working farms fell from 310k to 249k.
Banks that had lent farmers money took huge losses and many farm related business closed.

3. Sample Slide with Image
Image retrieved from
1) Describe what you see in this picture.
2) When and where do you think this picture was taken?
Explain your answer.
The Dust Bowl

4. The Dust Bowl
Image retrieved from

5. Dust Storms
Image retrieved from

6. Displacement and Migration
Migrant family in San Francisco, 1935
Left image source:
Right image source:
Farmer leveling dust hills in Texas, 1938

7. The Great Depression Hits the Country
1929 – 1939

8. What caused the Great Depression?
It wasn’t just one factor, but many:
Stock market speculation
Over borrowing
Personal Debt
Bank failure
Reduction in purchasing
Laissez-faire attitude
Overproduction of agriculture
High Tariffs
Stock market crash

9. Over-borrowing
People borrowed more money than they could afford to pay back.
This hurt the banks that loaned the money and the businesses waiting for their payments.
Many businesses that did not get repaid had to lay off workers.
Cause
Effect
Effect

10. Stock market Crash of 1929
The stock market is a place where “shares” of corporations are sold.
Stock Market Speculation
This is speculating (betting) that share prices would go up, so banks and individuals purchased more stocks than they had money to buy.
Stock prices began to decline in September and early October 1929, and on October 18 the fall began. Panic set in, and on October 24, Black Tuesday, a record 12,894,650 shares were traded. --Stock holders lost over $40 billion dollars and businesses were never able to recover.
Cause
Effect

11. Bank Failures aka: The Bank Run
During the 1920’s and 1930’s, banks did not have insurance protecting deposits.
If enough bank customers tried to withdraw their money, the bank would eventually run out. This is called a bank failure.
After the stock market crash, banks began to fail, as a result:
Many people lost their life savings.
In 1931 alone, 31 banks failed in Georgia.
The banks that stayed in business were hesitant about giving loans, which slowed the purchasing power.
Cause
Effect
Effect
Effect

12. Bank Closings during The Great Depression
Year
Number of Bank Closings
1920
1921
1922
1923
1924
1925
1926
1927
1928
1929
1930
1931
1932
1933
168
505
367
646
775
618
976
669
499
659
1,352
2,294
1,456
4,004

13. Laissez-faire Attitude
Laissez-faire is a policy or attitude of letting things take their own course, without interfering.
The people and government officials believed the economy would work itself out without government help.
Hoover continued to tell the people...”prosperity is just around the corner.”
So, the government did not take action and nothing improved
Cause
Effect

14. Reduction in Purchasing (multiplier effect in reverse)
Due to the stock market crash and other fears, the average consumer stopped purchasing goods.
People stopped buying goods, so companies lowered production rates causing many to lose their jobs.
The unemployment rate reached 25%, further reducing the purchasing power of the average consumer.
Cause
Effect
Effect

15. Overproduction (Supply and Demand)
Agriculture
Before major droughts hit the Midwest, many farmers overproduced.
In the 1920’s, Midwest farmers produced record number of agriculture products leading to a dramatic drop in the price of these products.
This limited the profit for farmers.
In the 1930’s a major drought hit the Midwest
Thousands of farmers had to leave their land and added to the millions of Americans already out of work.
Cause
Effect
Effect

16. Overproduction Industry
While agriculture struggled, industry soared in the decade before the Wall Street Crash. In the ‘boom’ period before the ‘bust’, a lot of people were buying things like cars, household appliances and consumer products.
Importantly, however, these purchases were often made on credit.
And as production continued a fast pace, the market quickly dried up; too many products were being produced with too few people buying them.
When people were unable to pay back the loan, companies lost money which lead to more layoffs.
Cause
Effect

17. How did WWI contribute to the Great Depression? (back of organizer)
Farmers expanded their production to aid the war effort during WWI.
They also mechanized their techniques, a process which both improved their output but also cost a lot of money, putting farmers into debt.
In addition, land prices for many farmers dropped by as much as 40 percent – as a result, the agricultural system began to fail throughout the 20s, leaving large sections of the population with little money or no work.
Thus, as demand dropped with increasing supply, the price of products fell, in turn leaving the over-expanded farmers short-changed and farms often foreclosed.
This saw unemployment rise and food production fall by the end of the 1920s.

19. Many waited in unemployment lines hoping for a job.

20. People in cities would wait in line for bread to bring to their family.

21. Some families were forced to relocate because they had no money.

22. Herbert Hoover
President Hoover bore much of the blame in the minds of the American people for The Great Depression. The stock market crashed less than eight months into his presidency.
Most experts, including Hoover, thought the crash was part of a passing recession, so he failed to recognize the severity of the situation or leverage the power of the federal government to squarely address it
.As the Depression became worse, however, many called for increased federal intervention and spending. But Hoover refused to involve the federal government in forcing fixed prices, controlling businesses, or manipulating the value of the currency, all of which he felt were steps towards socialism.
He gave indirect aid to banks and local public works projects, but he refused to use federal money for direct aid to citizens, believing it would weaken public morale. Instead, he focused on volunteerism to raise money.
During his reelection campaign, Hoover tried to convince Americans that the measures they were calling for might seem to help in the short term, but would be damaging in the long run.
He was soundly defeated by Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1932.

23. “Hooverville” Some families were forced to live in shanty towns
A grouping of shacks and tents in vacant lots
They were referred to as “Hooverville” because of President Hoover’s perceived lack of help during the depression.

24. America Needs a New Deal
Intro to FDR
Read pages

25. *FDR* When he was inaugurated unemployment had increased by 7 million.
Poor sections (like Harlem) had 50% of the pop. unemployed
Instituted the “New Deal”
Read page
Video
Speech

26. FDR
1. Answers will vary.
2. FDR suffered from polio and his legs were paralyzed.
His inaugural address and natural optimism won the people’s confidence trusting he would try new ways to end the depression.
He gathered a group of advisers called the brain trust to help him learn how to deal with the problems of the depression.
With Roosevelt’s urging, Congress passed a series of laws called the New Deal that were established to bring econ mic recovery, reform defects in the economy, and improve society.
The day after his inauguration, Roosevelt closed all of the banks until each could be investigated for soundness.
Sound banks were reopened and others were lent from the government to reopen.
Due to the number of programs implemented by Congress, the began to known by their initials making Roosevelt’s administration known by “government by alphabet.”
The New Deal did not end unemployment or bring the depression to a halt, but it paved the way for recovery.
10. What do you believe is meant by Roosevelt’s most famous line.. “we have nothing to fear, but fear itself?”

27. Let’s Make a Deal
You and your group will travel to FOUR centers to learn about FOUR of FDR’s Agencies:
CCC
REA
SSA
AAA
At each center, you will read an article on the agency and various primary documents. For each agency, you will need to know the following:
What was action of the agency?
How was it supposed to be used to improve the economy?
How would your rate the agency? Use evidence from the documents to justify the rating.

28. Which New Deal Program?
Julian is a young man of 18. He lives on a farm as part of a large family. His family needs financial help. Julian likes to be outside and enjoys being in or around the forests more than in the fields. He is willing to leave home and send his money back to his parents each month. Which program might best fit Julian’s needs and interests?
Walter has worked all his life. He is now quite old and last year he fell off a tractor and can no longer do any type work. He is worried about his remaining years and how he and his elderly wife will pay their bills. Walter should look into the benefits of which program?
Thank goodness President Roosevelt comes to Georgia often. He has seen how hard it is for rural Georgians to live without electrical power. Laura’s farmhouse now has electricity thanks to which program?
Ethel received a letter today from her son who is in a nearby state living in a camp with his fellow workers. They are helping the government build roads and fire prevention stations. In which program does her son participate?
Farmer King is selling more of the milk from his cows and the produce from his garden. His major customer is now the federal government. They buy his products hoping to help him get his farm income back up to the point it was during WWI. Farmer King say, “Thank goodness for the ___________________ program.