Overview of the Great Depression
What Caused the Great Depression to Occur?
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The Great Stock Market Crash of 1929 marked the start of the Great Depression. Before the Stock Market Crash, banks were already failing and over 60% of people lived below the poverty line. The Crash of the Stock Market was really just the tipping point of the Great Depression. After this, America's economy plummeted and the poverty rate skyrocketed.
The picture above displays the crash of the stock market in 1929, based on the Dow Jones scale. Created by Charles Dow, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) is one of many stock market indexes and averages 30 major stocks (Williamson 1).
What Were Some Effects of the Great Depression?
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American's suffered greatly from the Depression. Parents did not have adequate jobs to support their children. In fact, in "New York City, the Health Department reported in 1932 that 20.5 percent of the schoolchildren it examined were undernourished" (Cohen 41). Children could clearly not receive the necessary health care they needed because their parents could hardly provide food for them to eat. Furthermore, the income rate of families dropped more than 35% during the four years of Hoover's presidency ("The Great Depression" 1).
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American's suffered greatly from the Depression. Parents did not have adequate jobs to support their children. In fact, in "New York City, the Health Department reported in 1932 that 20.5 percent of the schoolchildren it examined were undernourished" (Cohen 41). Children could clearly not receive the necessary health care they needed because their parents could hardly provide food for them to eat. Furthermore, the income rate of families dropped more than 35% during the four years of Hoover's presidency ("The Great Depression" 1).
How did the roles in families change?
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In addition, the roles of family members drastically changed. Women, who were usually accustomed to sitting at home and taking care of the baby, now found themselves working and providing some source of income for their family. Females started working as clerks, textile workers, and even domestic servants ("The Great Depression" 1). Their role became much more prominent. Many men, on the other hand, became angry that they could not fully provide for their family. A great amount of husbands even left their families just to save themselves embarrassment. Shockingly, a "1940 survey revealed that 1.5 million married women had been abandoned by their husbands" during the Great Depression ("The Great Depression" 1).
In this video from the Georgetown County Library, women who lived during the Great Depression describe what jobs they obtained in an effort to increase their household income. The women also recall the hardships they faced during the Great Depression.
Were Depression Rates Affected by the Great Depression?
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Depression rates greatly increased throughout the Great Depression. During this time period, the "suicide rates increased from 14 to 17 per 100,000" (The George Washington University 3). While this may not seem like a huge increase, one must think of it on a larger scale. According the the United States Census Beauru, 123,202,624 people were U.S. residents in 1930 (Census History Staff 1). That means that the suicide rates went from 17,248 people in the United States to 20,944 people. These quotes result in there being an increase of 3,696 people who committed suicide during the Great Depression. People were committing suicide because they felt that not living would be more peaceful than the miserable state they were currently living in. While highly unfortunate, this statistic is important to showing just how bad the poverty was during the time period.
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Depression rates greatly increased throughout the Great Depression. During this time period, the "suicide rates increased from 14 to 17 per 100,000" (The George Washington University 3). While this may not seem like a huge increase, one must think of it on a larger scale. According the the United States Census Beauru, 123,202,624 people were U.S. residents in 1930 (Census History Staff 1). That means that the suicide rates went from 17,248 people in the United States to 20,944 people. These quotes result in there being an increase of 3,696 people who committed suicide during the Great Depression. People were committing suicide because they felt that not living would be more peaceful than the miserable state they were currently living in. While highly unfortunate, this statistic is important to showing just how bad the poverty was during the time period.
This graph shows the suicide deaths per 100,000 people for different age groups. There is a clear spike in the early 1930s when the Great Depression occurred.