THE GREAT DEPRESSION

Causes of the Great Depression.
In early 1929, the stock market was doing well and the economy was booming. However on October 12 1929 the stock market crashed due to people and banks over investing, leading people to try withdraw all of their money from the bank. RobertKarlson

Causes of the Great Depression Cont.
As many people tried to withdraw their money, banks lost almost all of their money at the stocks, so they had no money to give to the people. The Dust Bowl also caused many people to lose their crops and land due to a large drought and dust storms. This coupled with the banks failing to assure people that the market was alright, and by not doing that caused many businesses to fail. -Robert Karlson

​One of the biggest details of the Great Depression is probably that the stock market crashed. After nearly a decade of optimism and prosperity, the United States was thrown into despair on Black Tuesday, October 29, 1929, the day the stock market crashed and the official beginning of the Great Depression. As stock prices plummeted with no hope of recovery, panic struck. Masses and masses of people tried to sell their stock, but no one was buying. The stock market, which had appeared to be the surest way to become rich, quickly became the path to bankruptcy. Also with the massive loss of money throughout the country, many of the banks nation wide ended up closing. -Brandon Stromback

Another contributing factor to the depression (as in how it got the name), is the infamous Dust Bowl. Essentially it's a term for the massive drought throughout the country. Many areas would go weeks without rainfall and wells would dry up, causing farmland to go dry and crops to wither away. Also the biggest reason it got its name is because of the major dust storms that rolled through the farmlands. The air pressure would be severely unbalanced causing massive gusts of wind to blow through the Great Plains. And due to the lack of rain, there was an abundance of dust. With the wind picking up the dust/ dirt, it would fly around in clouds, causing "dust storms" which often carried on for days at a time. -Brandon Stromback

Poverty was a big issue in the Great Depression. People were trying to sell their things to get enough money for food. Although, people who where buying their items couldn't afford to buy them at a high price, they often paid a lot less for an item that was worth a lot more. Once people sold all their things they had in other way to get food if they didn't have their jobs anymore. Often times people would live together or in huts if they could no longer afford the houses. At the peak of the Great Depression the unemployment rate was at about 25%. The unemployment rate was quickly followed by a hug amount of homelessness. Million of people were evicted and took to living in shacks. -Kaylee Omland

EFFECTS ON THE POPULATION

• People would "ride the rails" and go to other cities to find work and better living conditions.
• The scarcity of food throughout the Depression led to a high crime rate.
• People who lost their homes often lived in what were called "Hoovervilles" which were basically very beat up houses or shacks in shanty towns.
• Some people would hunt game out of season, or even eat rats for food.
• Survivors of the Great Depression would remain frugal throughout their lives, wary of banks, and may hoard food.

CONNECTIONS

• "Riding the rails" is similar to how in the story, Dill rode alone on the train to kind of find a better life in Maycomb . "Dill caught the 9 o'clock from Meridian and got off at Maycomb Junction" (187)
• When people would hunt for food out of season that connects to how Bob Ewell would do the same thing. "Mr. Bob Ewell, Burris's father, was permitted to hunt and trap out of season" (41)
• The living conditions during the depression or "Hoovervilles" is similar the the living conditions and physical appearance of the Ewell house.
• Sources: Greatdepressioncauses.com and history.1900s.about.com

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