The+Great+Depression

The Great Depression written by: Sarah O, Brynne M, and Hannah M  media type="file" key="Great Depression.m4a" width="330" height="330"

The Great Depression was a worldwide ten year economic slump between the years of 1929 and 1939. On October 29, 1929, the stock prices at the New York Stock Exchange plummeted, beginning the Great Depression. During this time period, in the United States alone, unemployment was betwee n 12 and 15 million workers, or 25-30 percent of the entire work force. In order to make this easier for you to understand, the unemployment rate as of February 2012 is approximately 8%.

With the crash of the stock market, many people lost everything they had. Rumors that there was no money made people lose confidence in the government and in the economy. As more and more people began to panic that there was no money, hordes of people attempted to withdraw their money from the banks. The banks at that time did not have the funds to give to the panicked masses, and were forced to close down, along with thous ands of people's life savings. This left many elderly people without a means for income, and thousands more fell below the poverty line.

The Great Depression had a great impact on the social structure of the United States. People who were originally well of because they had invested in the stock market suddenly found that they had nothing. Also, families that originally were barely making ends meet were now faced with even more challenges as thousands of people were being laid off or fired due to companies’ inability to make a profit. Due to the lack of work, many people took to the rails, illegally hopping aboard moving trains trying to get towards the states where they might be able to find work as a fruit picker. Along with the obvious risk of missing the train and getting run over, the people that hopped aboard the trains also had to watch out for the train inspectors, who would, if they found a person on the train would force that person to get off the train or get shot.



Another way that the Great depression impacted the social structure of the United States was by forcing children to find jobs to help support their families. Children as young as seven years old would work more than ten hours a day in factories for pennies. Even with the added income of their children's work, some families still did not have the means to support themselves. Families like this would often times leave a child with a family that could raise the child.

Some children did not want to have to get jobs, so they ran away and hopped aboard trains with the hope that the train that they were on would take them to a better place. In the cases of almost all of these children, the trains not only took them to worse places, but also far away from their families. The children that were on the rails banded together, and tried to help one another survive. Collectively, the children that li ved on train became known as Boxcar Children. After the Great Depression ended, some of the Boxcar Children were able to find their families again, but many were unable to find them.

Works cited: http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/depression/about.htm En.wikipedia.org Frumforum.com Us.history.wisc.edu <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">thegreatdepressionfacts.org <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestory.com