Dust Bowl Dbq

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Dust is deadly. During the 1930’s, many citizens were exposed to dust pneumonia. Black blizzards lasted throughout the Dirty Thirties. Around seven thousand people died. Intense dust storms ruined prairies. This event is known as the Dust Bowl. Right before the dust bowl began, the Great Plains became a hotspot for farming. Many people started to seek out places to plant their crops and settled in the Plains. According to Bonnifield, when people started to farm in this area, “They really didn’t know what they were doing.”(Source 1). The farmers contributed to the Great Plow-Up by planting wheat. “The grass, which had been there for centuries, was the organic material that knitted the soil together.” Without the grass acting as a cover for the soil, “trouble was bound to come.” (Source 1). The soil started to turn into black blizzards. “From 1932 through 1940, powerful storms ravaged the farming and grazing lands throughout the area of the Great Plains known as the dust bowl.” (Source 3). These events …show more content…

Not only did it affect the stock market, but it affected the lives of the young and the old. “You couldn’t see. You couldn’t breathe. You couldn’t go outside for days.” (Source 2). Since they had outhouses back then, they had to use buckets because they could not go outside. “Children died of ‘dust pneumonia’, their lings assaulted by the fine particles. Relentless storms took an enormous psychological and physical toll on people.” The dust bowl killed around seven thousand people. They learned how to deal with the dust. “We live with the dust, eat it, sleep with it, watch it strip us of possessions and the hope of possessions.” (Source 1). Many citizens became unemployed during the great depression. “…more than 11,000 of the nation’s 25,000 banks had failed and unemployment was at a record high 25 percent.” (Source 2). Eventually the stock market crashed. The government started to focus on how to stop this

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