Great Depression

The longest, deepest, and most pervasive depression in American

history that lasted for ten long years is called the Great Depression. From the years 1929 to 1939, the economy in America was in a major crisis. The depression led to over 25 percent unemployment in the United States with one out of four people looking for work at any given time. The unemployment rate of the United States had a devastating impact on Americans and greatly impacted American history during the Great Depression.

The economy began to take a downhill slide in the summer of 1819 as this erased the economic growth of the previous quarter century. " It is widely accepted that the unemployment rate peaked above 25 percent in 1933 and remained above 14 percent into the 1940s (Kutler 2003)". Many people could not feed their families in the cities and moved to the country side. Many area farmers in the Appalachian area, such as my grandparents, lived scarcely and did not spend any money unless there was a true emergency. They canned and put up vegetables that they had grown in their gardens and sewed quilts in order keep from any unnecessary expenses.

Many surveys found unemployment rates among blacks to be around 30 to 50 percent higher than whites during the depression. People would lay off black workers to make room for the white workers in need of employment.

Another factor of the preponderance of black workers in industries that experienced the great reductions in employment was the migration of blacks to northern industrial automobile factories. The ideal of hard work was reinforced during the depression and those who lived through it would place great value in work after the depression.

The personal effects of the depression were that mental problems arose during these times and family violence as well. The country was very