KEY
Effects/Impacts of the Great Depression
The Great Depression affected all Americans. When people defaulted on their loans to banks, the banks ran
out of money. Banks closed their doors after the stock market crashed. Many people lost their life savings.
This left people with little or no money, Americans could not afford to pay for goods (houses, cars, etc) and
services (landscaping, automobile maintenance, etc).
1. What was the effect on Americans when many banks close at the same time?
RESPONSE: When banks closed Americans lost their life savings. This left people with little/no money
to buy goods and services or pay their loans. In turn, many businesses failed because people stopped
buying their goods and/or services.
When people did not have money to spend, many businesses failed. Businesses also had to lay off
employees (workers) because they could not afford to pay them their wages. The unemployment rate reached
as high as 25% which means 1 out of every 4 individuals looking for a job could not find one. This high
unemployment rate resulted in large numbers of hungry, homeless people.
2. What was the effect of a high unemployment rate?
RESPONSE: 25% of Americans could not find a job. When a person doesn’t have a job they make no money.
Money allows people to buy goods and services. Many Americans had to make tough choices on how and where
to spend what little money they had at the time. For example, I might be able to pay for my rent or mortgage but
that leaves little money for anything else (food, car, water, etc).
Another group of Americans was also suffering. For a number of years American farmers had been struggling
to make a living. When the Great Depression started, farmers incomes fell to even lower levels. During World
War I, American farmers had worked hard to produce enough extra corn and livestock to feed American
soldiers as well as our allies in Great Britain and France. After the war, there was a surplus as farmer
continued to grow crops. This caused the price of farm goods to go down. Many farmers defaulted on their
farm loans and lost everything.
3. What was the effect of of the Great Depression on American farmer?
RESPONSE: A surplus led to overproduction of crops. To many crops on the market led to a decrease
in price of farm goods (wheat, soy, etc). This caused farmers incomes to remain low or even drop
lower. In return, many farmers could not afford to pay all their farm loans leading to defaults.
To make matters worse, a severe drought hit the Great Plains in the 1930’s. The dry soil was picked up by the
constant wind. This resulted in huge, suffocating dust storms that covered everything in sight with dirt. As the
drought, continued, the farmers who lived in the “Dust Bowl” were often forced to sell off their farms, become
migrant workers, or accept government aid in order to feed their families.
4. Why were the Great Plains called the “Dust Bowl” during the 1930’s?
RESPONSE: Over farming, a severe drought, and wind on the Great Plains led to huge dust storms.
The dust storms and drought caused many farmers land to be less productive and living conditions
became very harsh at times. Many farmers became migrant workers or received help from the
government.
Click on each word to read a passage, or each picture to watch a video and learn more about events from the
Great Depression. Make sure you have LCPS GO Open in another tab.
Match each word below to the picture that best represents its meaning.
Black Tuesday
Dust Bowl
Fireside Chat
Hooverville
New Deal
Soup Kitchen
____HOOVERVILLE______
______NEW DEAL____
____DUST BOWL___
____FIRESIDE CHAT____
____SOUP KITCHEN_____
___BLACK TUESDAY___