The Great Depression: A Nation Standing Strong

The Great Depression was the start to a dreadful economic crisis in the American History. On October 4, 1929 a day that goes by the term “Black Tuesday” the Wall Street stock market collapsed, creating massive unemployment and pain throughout America. Many thought that this depression would only be minor, but they were wrong. This turned into a “major depression”(Who Built America? 392). Many lost their jobs and homes and farms, banks, and factories were shut down as well. The Great Depression was the turning point in American History. Although the Depression did create massive unemployment and the drought in the southern states that came not too far after it did destroy land, President Frederick D. Roosevelt came up with some plans to dig those people out of the hole they were in.

The Depression was the onslaught to massive unemployment. Many Americans did not own stock, but were still affected. Unemployment went from a mere “500,000 to more than 4 million between October and December 1929” (Who Built America? 392). This caused a huge scare for Americans. Between 1929 and 1933 many people lost their jobs at a rapid rate and the “gross national product fell by 29%” (Who Built America? 392). All of these events led to the decline of some cities. In an act to try and aid Americans, the Federal Reserve Board kept interest rates low. This showed that the government had started to do things and help impact its country. The Depression put a lot of pressure on the banking system (Who Built America? 393). The banks were directly affected by the economic collapse, causing many to shut down. The Depression was said to have ended in the 1930’s if it weren’t for the collapse of the international economic system as well (Who Built America? 39...

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...RL, Third Pic down) you can see a picture of “migrant workers” standing next to a sign of their community, which they live and work in. This shows how even the youngest children were given work during this crisis.

The Great Depression like the Drought hit America really hard. The depression led to massive unemployment and bank failures, while the drought targeted family’s homes and agriculture, making it harder to raise crops in the Great Plains region for quite sometime. Both these events took a lot out of the American people and forced the President to make tough decisions in how to approach these disasters. Although this had a negative affect on the United States, the pain was soon alleviated with the action taken by President FDR, creating programs to get Americans out of this slump. These events shaped America and influenced a nation to respect its leadership.