Black Blizzards

The kind of lifestyle that many families lived in the Southern Plains was a difficult one. Decades before the Dust Bowl era, plowing and harvesting was not unfamiliar to these lands in the Southern Plains. It was not until the 1930s though, that the environment had changed drastically with the decrease in precipitation and weak roots that could not hold down the topsoil. Also, before the Dust Bowl era, there was less incentive to go out to the Southern Plains and produce crops. Because farmers were encouraged by the government’s federal aid, and promise of getting out of the depression, the population and acreage had increased. Droughts were not new in the Southern Plains, and occurred before the Dust Bowl. Droughts made living there difficult, but during the Dust Bowl it became worse and more difficult to deal with.

Trying to survive during the depression was already a task; most people had families to take care of. The depression struck and left many families nearly empty handed, worried about their future, and desperate to make ends meet. Some families chose to move to the Southern Plains in order to have a better life, or at least survive. The idea was to farm crops, and sell them during the high demand for items such as wheat. But when the Dust Bowl began and became worse, the people were unhappy and the already bad economy suffered more. There was nothing that anyone could do at the time to improve the Southern Plains as most of the control was up to the environment. The environment however could not heal as the Dust Bowl residents continued to plow up the dirt, nature simply needed time to repair. However, many people did not know or understand this during the 1930s. The Dust Bowl ultimately took a toll on the overall hea...

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...rs and jackrabbits were destroying what little crops there were and people were becoming desperate. In an attempt to reduce the loss of crops, killing rabbits was the solution. Another idea involved blowing up dynamite. “Explosions, he claimed, would excite the atmosphere and induce rain. Desperate to end the drought, a group of farmers and businessmen hired Thornton , giving him $300 to buy nitroglycerine and TNT.” This solution was not the best, and did not end the drought. However, trying such absurd methods shows how willing and desperate the people were to fix the problem. But the solution FDR eventually expressed was the idea of changing human behavior, not the weather. The people were trying anything to fix their distress, a problem that arose from overworking the land in hopes of advancing the economy and becoming prosperous during the Great Depression.