1. Social Studies Grade 4 Unit: 10 Lesson: 02
The Great Depression
Social Studies
Grade 4
Unit: 10 Lesson: 02
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2. Causes: The Great Depression
The Stock Market is an everyday term we use to talk about a place where stocks and bonds are bought and sold. People invest money in companies in hopes that they will earn more money. If a company does poorly, people lose money. If a company does well, people gain money. (It is like purchasing a little “piece” of a company.)
October 29, 1929 – known as Black Friday – the stock market “crashed” (stopped working to help people gain money).
Banks failed and people lost all their money.
Drought (no rain) conditions in the central U.S. caused agriculture to fail.
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3. Effects: The Great Depression
$26 billion that had been invested in the Stock Market was lost!
25% of people in the U.S. were eventually unemployed.
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4. Effects: The Great Depression
In 1930 Texans did not feel the impact right away.
Many Texans had farms or worked on farms, so they could grow food and not go hungry.
The oil industry was still flourishing.
Construction was still growing.
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5. Effects: The Great Depression
However, in 1931, oil prices fell.
As the depression worsened across the United States in 1931 and 1932, Texans eventually had to recognize that the Great Depression was a worldwide economic crisis.
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6. Effects: The Great Depression
Banks closed, people lost all their money, and some families found themselves homeless.
Cotton prices dropped to 5 cents a pound.
People lost their farms and their jobs.
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7. Help: The Great Depression
Private charities were set up to help the poor.
In major cities, soup kitchens and bread lines began to spring up where the homeless and starving could be fed.
Source:
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8. Help: The Great Depression
Civilian Conservation Corps, (CCC)
Government funded work relief program for young men
Built recreational parks and worked in forest and soil conservation projects
Workers were given food, shelter, and $30 a month.
Workers lived in barracks much like a military camp.
$25 had to be sent home to their families.
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9. help: The Great Depression
Public Works Administration (PWA)
Government funded work relief program for unemployed men
Hired to build canals, tunnels, bridges, highways, streets, sewage systems, as well as hospitals, schools, and universities
Housing was built for people in poverty.
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10. Help: The Great Depression
Works Progress Administration (WPA)
Government agency that hired workers to build public buildings and roads
Employed artists, writers, actors and directors in large arts, drama, media, and literacy projects
600,000 people in Texas were helped by the WPA.
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11. The Great Depression
When World War II began, the effects of The Great Depression began to decline.
Millions of workers were hired to work in the factories that built war materials such as airplanes, guns, tanks, and ammunition.
Due to 17 million people being employed in the war effort, the economy began to improve.
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