Black Blizzards

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Recommended: The dust bowl and its effects on the great depression

Imagine huge gusts of wind, tornadoes carrying dust throughout millions of acres and destroying everything in its path. Black blizzards destroying anything that lay in front of it, ranging from minor to major whirlwinds of particles that would reach every crevice of every house, person, and land. The dust would either be black, red, or grey. The Dust Bowl, an event that is known most prominently during the dirty thirty’s (1931-1939) to have brought on hardships, destruction, and sickness on all those within the American Southern Plains . During this time many families were farming on the land and trying to get through the Great Depression. The Dust Bowl enhanced the poverty and problems of families who chose to live and farm on the land in the Southern Plains. Its creation came from overworking the new, fragile, and untouched lands without any knowledge of the potential disaster that would occur. Anyone who lived in the five states knew how devastating a visit from the Dust Bowl would be, and their lifestyles had changed because of it. Families were constantly living in dust, attempting to restore the damage of their crops from the dust storms, and trying to get past the depression. Triggered by a changing environment and farmers of the 1930s, the agricultural disaster known as the Dust Bowl distressed the environment, economy, and made life even more difficult during the Great Depression for the citizens living in the Southern Plains. During the 1930s many families were encouraged to move into the Southern plains and begin farming. This push for more farming and even new methods of farming came from the government’s efforts to get past the depression, produce more crops, and boost the economy. Farming would help these families... ... middle of paper ... ...t. At one point, the land could be of use and now it was only hope that kept some residents there. Farmers needed to remain optimistic, courageous, and have faith that their lives would improve. During the Great Depression it seemed that the only choice many of these farmers had was to continue to plow and harvest. Leaving the Southern Plains meant being unemployed elsewhere, losing their homes, and still facing poverty. To many, staying there in the heart of the Dust Bowl was better than what they could expect anywhere else. Choices were scarce during the depression. The Dust bowl and its residents could be described as, “…a dead land—populated by defeated people who were plagued by drought and depression.” The defeated land caused by the people, would in return make the people feel defeated as the dust storms made living in the Southern Plains nearly unbearable.

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