Page 59 - Historical Fiction.pdf

Poverty
Surviving The Great
Depression How Far
Would You Go?
By Reese Collins
M oney was scarce. Food was nowhere to be found. W ould you steal to four days...The Unem ploym ent in the
get food for your fam ily? W ould you kill? W hat ca n you do to get United States grew from 3% to
m oney today? W ill there be enough food to survive until tom orrow? 25%...Even if you had a job, the am ount
This is what people during the Great Depression had thoughts about of m oney you received was very
every day. little...The U.S. gross dom estic product
was cut in half ($103 billion to $50
The Great Depression was one of Am erica?s greatest
billion)...world trade dropped 65% from
hardships, and is greatly underestim ated. M any people don?t see how 1930 to 1932? in an article called "W hat
people without nearly the technology we have now survived all of
H appened During The Great
those years with no m oney, no job, and no hom e to go to.
Depression". People were becom ing
If you were alive during the Great Depression would you desperate!
m ake the sam e choices as those people alm ost one hundred years The Great Depression was not
ago? Som e people purposely put them selves in jail for a m inor crim e
like one day everything was terrible
so they could be housed and fed. W ithout anyone to turn to, in the and nobody had any m oney. It wasn?t
end you have to think; W hat would you do?
like, bam ! W e?re in the Great
Depression now. Several years built People were on every
Black Thursday up the Great Depression and
nobody really knew what was street looking for a
happening until prices went down
Am adeo shows that ?The Great Depression began on Black way to get money.
Thursday (October 24, 1929)...The stock prices fell 23% over the next along with m oney. People didn?t
really know what to think.
During the Great Depression, m ore and m ore people
becam e unem ployed and were trying to do everything that they
could to get m oney to help support their fam ilies.
People even started to sell them selves to get m oney for
them and their fam ilies according to Levy. On every corner there
were people who were willing to do alm ost anything for m oney, food,
or water. Beggars were doubling by the day.
There were m ore and m ore hom eless people on the streets,
m ost hom es that were once filled with fam ilies and laughter were
then abandoned and the only sound that cam e out of them was the
scurry of m ice as they also were on the search for food. Nobody knew
when this terrible lack of m oney and jobs would com e to an end and
when the new beginning would com e.
Crime
Som e people sold them selves, others begged for m oney.
Som e retreated to a life of crim e which helped contribute to
Am erica?s crim e to sky rocket into people not being safe at night and
people never walking alone, especially with any kind of goods or
m oney.
M any businesses in the Great Depression went out of
People would st and in line for hours for free
coffee and donut s.
How it Ended
In 1932, the people m ade Franklin D. Roosevelt president. ?H e
Depression. W ithin 100 days, he signed the New Deal into law,
prom ised to create federal governm ent program s to end the Great
creating 42 new agencies. They were designed to create jobs, allow
unionization, and provide unem ploym ent insurance.
M any of these program s still exist. They help safeguard the
econom y and prevent another depression.? says Am adeo, in the
article, ?The Great Depression, W hat H appened, W hat Caused It,
Dance Marathons were very popular during H ow It Ended?.
People argue if it was W orld W ar W orld II or the new law
the Great Depression.
that ended the Great Depression. No m atter how it ended Am erica
business because of the recent high rate of crim e. The FBI says that saw an incline in its stock prices and GDP (gross dom estic product).
The Great Depression hit Am erica hard but in the end we overcam e it
?Rival gangs led by the powerful Al ?Scarface? Capone and the
and now we are better than ever.
hot-headed George ?Bugs? M oran turned the city streets into a
virtual war zone with their gangland clashes.
By 1926, m ore than 12,000 m urders were taking place every
year across Am erica? Police were overwhelm ed from all of the cries
for help during this high tim e of crim e. Crim e was not the best way to
go and m any were caught and m ay never see their fam ilies again,
when they joined a life of crim e for them in the first place. M any
people still cam e hom e with nothing because m ost things were
already gone due to others who took the sam e path.
Dancing for Food
Dancing was another way people got food. Dancing for
several days (and in som e cases several weeks) at a tim e where the
victor gets a prize (usually food or cash). ?For as little as a quarter,
spectators could go and watch these com petitions for as long as they
wanted.? according to Pourciaux in "Dancing for your supper during
the great depression". Just like there are fads when there is disco, then
boogie, and others; There was the dance m arathons where there were
a set of rules when one partner could sleep only if the other carried
you and was still m oving.
The U.S. unemployment rate
There were dance m arathons all over the place until m en
were drafted into the arm y for war and wom en lost their dancing dropped drastically during the Great
partners which caused this strange but im pactful faze of Am erican Depression.
history.