Teacher’s Guide
Ploughed Under:
The Plight
of the Farmer
The Great
Depression
Grades 5-12
PUTV
CREDITS
P r og ram Production
Sunburst Visual Media
Teacher’s Guide
Jennifer Lewis, Ed.S.
P r int Material Design
Desktop Productions
© 2004 AIM Education, Inc.
Ploughed Under: The Plight of the Farmer: The Great Depression
© AIM Education, Inc.
Table of
Contents
Guide Information ..........................................................................4
Fast Facts ......................................................................................6
Before Viewing Activities ................................................................8
During Viewing Activities ..............................................................12
After Viewing Activities ................................................................16
After Viewing Quizzes ..................................................................20
Additional Resources ....................................................................22
Answer Keys ................................................................................29
Script ..........................................................................................37
program running time: approximately 26 minutes
We highly recommend that teachers preview programs before
showing them in the classroom.
Ploughed Under: The Plight of the Farmer: The Great Depression
© AIM Education, Inc.
About This Guide
Guide
Information
Providing students with visual media is an excellent way to take them out of the classroom and into
the real world. Our programs offer real-world footage, dynamic graphics, engaging
dramatizations, and first-person testimonials that keep students interested and help them visualize
difficult concepts. More importantly, they reinforce critical learning objectives shaped by state and
national educational standards. However, the learning doesn’t begin and end when the program
does. You can make the learning experience even more effective by using the materials provided
in this Teacher’s Guide.
This guide is divided into the following sections:
• Fast Facts are designed to give your students a quick overview of the
information presented within the video.
• Before Viewing Activities help identify what students already know
about the subject, what they are curious about, and what they hope to learn.
• During Viewing Activities may be used during viewing to enhance
students’ understanding of the video.
• After Viewing Activities help students summarize and draw conclusions
from the information that was presented.
• After Viewing Quizzes test students’ retention of the information presented
in the program and activity sheets.
• Additional Resources are designed to help you extend the information
presented in the program into other areas of your curriculum.
• Answer Keys are provided for relevant activities or reproducible pages.
• Script content is provided in an unabridged version for future reference.
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Program Overview
Guide
Information
Ploughed Under: The Plight of the Farmer
This guide details the lives of Midwestern farm families who struggled through the Great
Depression. Falling prices, drought, the Dust Bowl, and foreclosures were all hardships these
people were forced to endure. Many farm families packed up and migrated west in search
of better lives. However, life in the west often proved to be as difficult as in the Midwest.
This video relies heavily on primary sources to communicate to students the severity of the
suffering Depression farm families faced. Personal stories, period photographs, and
historian interviews aid in the development of important concepts. After viewing the video,
students will understand the plight of Midwestern farmers during the Great Depression.
Viewing Objectives
After viewing the video and utilizing the activities found in the Teacher’s Guide,
students will be able to understand how American life changed during the 1930s.
Students in grades 5 - 12 will be able to:
• Explain the effects of the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl on
American farm owners, tenants, and sharecroppers
Students in grades 7 - 12 will be able to:
• Analyze the impact of the Great Depression on industry and workers
and explain the response of local and state officials in combating the
resulting economic and social crises
• Analyze the impact of the Great Depression on the American family and
on ethnic and racial minorities
Students in grades 9 - 12 will be able to:
• Explain the cultural life of the Depression years in art, literature, and
music and evaluate the government’s role in promoting artistic
expression
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Ploughed Under: The Plight of the Farmer: The Great Depression
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Fast Facts
Fast Facts
• Because of the Industrial Revolution, machinery replaced manpower on many farms, and the
railroad enabled farmers to transport their goods to nearby cities and distant countries.
• Progress came with a price. Modern improvements allowed more goods to be produced, which
caused prices to fall.
• Once-prosperous farms began to struggle. When farms defaulted on their loans, the banks were
quick to seize their property.
• With prices dropping, sales slowing, and farms failing, the agricultural problem grew into a
national crisis.
• Despite the problems, farmers continued to plow and plant their fields, unaware that they were
depleting the soil. Eventually, the once rich soil became too poor to support crops. The fields
began to erode.
• Drought was nothing new for farmers. But the drought of the 1930s was unusual. All of the loose
dirt, combined with heavy winds, created a blizzard of dust.
• By 1935, the dustbowl had forced nearly 20% of farmers to sell their farms. In all, 2.5 million
people left their homes behind them and set out to find a new life.
• Migrant workers from Oklahoma and surrounding states left home with hopes of finding work in
other areas. Many went to California.
• Desperate to make money, the migrant workers would work for less than the local workers. And
with so many migrant workers willing to work for low wages, the local workers found themselves
out of work. They looked at the migrants as enemies.
• Without money and material comforts, migrant workers came to rely on something else for
survival: each other. They shared their food, their friendship, and their stories. And they made
their camps feel more like homes — the best homes they could find during the Great Depression.
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Ploughed Under: The Plight of the Farmer: The Great Depression
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Vocabulary
DEFAULT
Fast Facts
– to fail to pay money at the time when it is due
DEPRESSION – a time of severe decline in the economy, distinguished by falling prices and
unemployment
DUST BOWL
– an area afflicted with drought and dust storms
EROSION
– the process by which material is worn away from the surface of the Earth
EXPORTS
– goods sent out of the country for sale or trade
MIGRANT
– person who travels from one place to another in search of work
OKIES
– migrant farm workers from Oklahoma searching for work in the west
PANHANDLE – a narrow piece of land jutting out from a larger area of land
PLOUGH
– to overcome with burden
PRIMITIVE
– basic
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Ploughed Under: The Plight of the Farmer: The Great Depression
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Before Viewing
Activity 1
Name
What Do You Already Know?
Most likely, you already know something about the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl. Before
viewing the video, fill in the first two sections, showing what you already know and what you
want to learn. After the video, fill in the last two sections, telling what you learned from
watching the video and questions the video caused you to ask.
What I already KNOW ______________________________________________________
What I WANT to know __________________________________________________
What I LEARNED from the video ________________________________________
QUESTIONS I now have ________________________________________________
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Ploughed Under: The Plight of the Farmer: The Great Depression
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Before Viewing
Activity 2
Name
Think—Pair —Share
The following activity will help you form questions you have about the plight of the farmer and the
Great Depression.
Supplies needed: index cards, pencil or pen
THINK: Your teacher will give you five index cards.
Think of five questions you have about the
plight of the farmer and the Great
Depression.
PAIR:
When your teacher says “GO,” walk around the room with your five cards. Find
someone who has one of the same questions you do. Take a few minutes to brainstorm
the answer. Write your ideas on the back of the index card.
SHARE: When your teacher says “STOP,” listen carefully. Each pair will share the question and
brainstormed answer they discussed.
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Ploughed Under: The Plight of the Farmer: The Great Depression
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Before Viewing
Activity 3
Name
Before Viewing Discussion
Questions
Read each question below and answer it in the space provided. Keep these questions and your
answers convenient as you view the video. After the video, revise your answers to reflect what
you have learned
1. How did the machines that were developed during the Industrial Revolution hurt farmers?
__
2. How did the Great Depression affect Great Plains farmers? ____________________________
3. How did farmers damage the land on the Great Plains?________________________________
4. What is a dust storm? ____________________________________________________________
5. What hardships did migrant families traveling west to California face? __________________
6. Why did local workers in California resent the Okies? ________________________________
7. What was the purpose of migrant camps? __________________________________________
8. What did migrant farm workers rely on for survival? __________________________________
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Ploughed Under: The Plight of the Farmer: The Great Depression
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Before Viewing
Activity 4
Name
Is It True or False?
Read the statements below. Decide whether you think they are true or false. Put an X in the
appropriate box in the “Before Viewing” column. After viewing the video, revisit your
original answers. Decide whether you think the statements are true or false. Put an X in the
appropriate box in the “After Viewing” column.
Before Viewing
After Viewing
true false
true false
Around the turn of the century, about
two-thirds of Americans lived on farms.
Modern improvements in farm technology led to higher
prices because farmers had to pay for the equipment.
The onset of the Great Depression was in 1929,
causing more problems for farmers.
Farmers new to the Great Plains contributed
to the Dust Bowl by overplowing the land.
Since drought and dust storms were new problems for farmers, they
did not know how to handle them.
Swarms of grasshoppers came during the
Dust Bowl, eating everything green in sight.
Many farmers moved their families to
Florida in search of a better life.
Local farm workers resented migrants because
the competition for work drove wages lower.
Most land owners needed workers who would
stay year-round to harvest their crops.
Many families traveled up to 500 miles
in one year in search of work.
The best migrant camps were those run by the government.
The best resource needy migrant workers had was each other.
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Ploughed Under: The Plight of the Farmer: The Great Depression
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During Viewing
Activity 1
Name
A Series of Unfortunate Events
The terrible plight of Great Plains farmers was complicated by a chain of inopportune events,
each caused by the problem before it. As you watch the video, fill in the boxes to show the
cause-and-effect relationships that hurt farmers. The first one has been done for you.
Modern improvements in technology caused farm prices to fall.
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Ploughed Under: The Plight of the Farmer: The Great Depression
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During Viewing
Activity 2
Name
Webbing
During the Dust Bowl farmers faced many different types of problems. In the web below, record
examples of each type of problem as you view the video.
Problems Caused
by
the Great
Depression
Problems
for the Migrant
Workers
Problems
Farmers
Faced
Environmental
Problems during
the Dust Bowl
Problems
during the
Migration
West
Ploughed Under: The Plight of the Farmer: The Great Depression
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During Viewing
Activity 3
Name
Complete the Statement
Each of these statements comes directly from the video. As you watch, provide the missing
information in the blank.
1. Modern improvements allowed more goods to be produced, which caused prices to
_________________________.
2. When farmers _________________________ on their loans, the banks were quick to seize
their property.
3. As American struggled with poverty, they were unable to afford fresh farm goods — causing
prices to _________________________.
4. Eventually, the once rich soil became too poor to support crops. The fields, rutted and rocky,
began to _________________________.
5. But the drought of the 1930s was unusual. All the loose dirt, combined with heavy winds,
created a ________________________.
6. People moving in search of work were called _________________________ workers, and
they were part of a great migration to greener pastures.
7. Once they set off, the families bounced and rocked along _______________________,
stopping to cook meals of dried pork and boiled potatoes.
8. With so many migrant workers willing to work for low wages, the local workers found
themselves out of work. They looked at the migrants as _________________________ rather
than as the victims they were.
9. There wasn’t a _________________________ until 1937 so employers could afford to hire
them for as cheap as possible.
10. The most abundant work was on farms that had not yet been _________________________.
11. During the off-season, the migrant workers would live in impoverished
_________________________ on the outskirts of the cities.
12. Without money and material comforts, migrant workers came to rely on something else for
survival: _________________________.
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Ploughed Under: The Plight of the Farmer: The Great Depression
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Name
During Viewing
Activity 4
Listen Up!
The ten words listed below may be unfamiliar to you. Listen for each of the words as you watch
the video. When you hear one of the words, write down what you think it means based on how
it is used in the video.
1. plough ________________________________________________________________________
2. exports ________________________________________________________________________
3. default ________________________________________________________________________
4. depression ____________________________________________________________________
5. erosion ________________________________________________________________________
6. dust bowl ______________________________________________________________________
7. panhandle ____________________________________________________________________
8. migrant________________________________________________________________________
9. primitive ______________________________________________________________________
10. Oakies ______________________________________________________________________
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After Viewing
Activity 1
Name
Vocabulary Crossword Puzzle
1
2
3
4
5
7
6
8
9
10
Across
1. to fail to pay money at the time when it is due
6. basic
8. a narrow piece of land jutting out from a larger area of land
9. person who travels from one place to another in search of work
10. an area afflicted with drought and dust storms
Down
2. the process by which material is worn away from the surface of the Earth
3. to overcome with burden
4. a time of severe decline in the economy, distinguished by falling prices and unemployment
5. migrant farm workers from Oklahoma searching for work in the west
7. goods sent out of the country for sale or trade
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Ploughed Under: The Plight of the Farmer: The Great Depression
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After Viewing
Activity 2
Name
Use Your Senses
Imagine being part of a farm family on the Great Plains during the Dust Bowl. Fill out the Y-chart
below to describe what you see, hear, and feel during a dust storm. Then in the lines below, use
your ideas to write a poem about your experience with the dust storms.
what I SEE
what I HEAR
what I FEEL
________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________
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Name
After Viewing
Activity 3
A Dust Bowl Newspaper
In the space below, write a piece that may have been found in a Great Plains newspaper from
May of 1934 when the worst of the dust storms occurred. You may choose to write an article,
an editorial, a weather report, a political cartoon, an advertisement, an obituary, or any other
type of newspaper feature. Be creative and be sure the article uses facts learned from the video.
When you are done, trade papers with a classmate and edit the features. Finally, work with a
small group of students to combine articles and put together a newspaper.
________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________
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After Viewing
Activity 4
Name
What Would You Do?
Great Plains farmers were faced with a major decision during the Dust Bowl. Should they stay on
their farms and try to cultivate the land? Or should they pack up and move elsewhere? Pretend
you are a farmer during the Dust Bowl. Use the following chart to weigh your options and make a
decision.
What is the decision that needs to be made?
Option 1: Stay on the farm and continue
farming.
Option 2: Pack up belongings and move to
California.
Pros:
Pros:
Cons:
Cons:
Which option do you choose? Why?
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After Viewing
Activity Quiz
Name
Quick Quiz
Circle the correct answer.
1. The Dust Bowl most affected farmers in
which region of the United States?
A. southeast
B. midwest
C. northeast
D. northwest
2. What happened when farmers defaulted
on their loans?
A. Their property taxes increased.
B. They had to pay heavy fines.
C. The government took a share of their
crops.
D. Banks seized their property.
B. They looked different than the
Californians.
C. They competed with locals for jobs.
D. They were paid more than the
locals.
5. Where did most migrant workers live?
A. low-income housing in major cities
B. government-run camps
C. apartments on the outskirts of cities
D. tents on the farms where they
worked
3. For many families, what was the deciding
factor that caused them to give up farming?
A. the swarms of grasshoppers
B. rising prices for farm goods
C. flash floods
D. complicated new technology
4. Why did Okies face discrimination in the
west?
A. They would only take certain jobs.
Fill in the blanks with the appropriate answer.
6. Around the turn of the century, about _________________________ of Americans lived on
farms.
7. Progress and technology caused prices of farm goods to _________________________.
8. In order for the dry, eroded land to grow crops again, farmers needed
_________________________.
9. The road Okies traveled to get to California was _________________________.
10. Migrant workers who had so little relied on _________________________ for survival.
Ploughed Under: The Plight of the Farmer: The Great Depression
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After Viewing
Vocabulary Quiz
Name
Vocabulary Fill in the Blank Quiz
Write each vocabulary word next to its correct definition.
WORD
BANK:
DEFAULT
DEPRESSION
DUST BOWL
EROSION
EXPORTS
MIGRANT
OKIES
PANHANDLE
PLOUGH
PRIMITIVE
1. ____________________: a narrow piece of land jutting out from a larger area of land
2. ____________________: an area afflicted with drought and dust storms
3. ____________________: person who travels from one place to another in search of work
4. ____________________: to fail to pay money at the time when it is due
5. ____________________: basic
6. ____________________: goods sent out of the country for sale or trade
7. ____________________: the process by which material is worn away from the surface of the
Earth
8. ____________________: a time of severe decline in the economy, distinguished by falling
prices and unemployment
9. ____________________: to overcome with burden
10. ____________________: migrant farm workers from Oklahoma searching for work in the
west
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Interdisciplinary Ideas 1
Additional
Resources
Math
• Visit the website http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/historyonline/us34.cfm?. This page contains
a variety of statistics related to the Great Depression, including information on stock prices,
family income, and unemployment rate. The site also has discussion questions related to the
facts and figures.
• Have students prepare a series of graphs and tables showing agricultural prices before, during,
and after the Great Depression.
Social Studies
• As a class project, have students record the oral history of someone who remembers living
through the Dust Bowl. Have students work in groups to prepare a list of questions to take to the
interview. Students can take notes by hand or tape record conversations.
• Have students research people related to the study of the Dust Bowl: Woody Guthrie, Dorothea
Lange, Walker Evans, Eleanor Roosevelt, or Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
• Using a map of the United States, students may locate and color the areas most affected by the
Dust Bowl. Or have students trace the route of farm families who left the Midwest and traveled
to California.
• Using a Venn diagram, compare and contrast the Great Depression to the recession in the
1990s.
Science
• Invite a soil conservationist to speak to the class. This person may talk to the students about how
the Dust Bowl farmers could have prevented some of their problems. They may also talk about
how farmers conserve soil today.
• A meteorologist would also be a speaker beneficial to this study. This type of scientist may
discuss weather patterns that cause drought.
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Interdisciplinary Ideas 2
Additional
Resources
Language Arts
• Have students create a 1930s scrapbook. They may wish to use Rose’s Journal: The Story of a
Girl in the Great Depression as an example. Students may create their scrapbook from the
point of view of someone in a farm family.
• The radio was a means of information and entertainment for many people in the 1930s.
Students may work cooperatively to write a radio play about the Dust Bowl. Encourage students
to be creative in presenting noises. For example, to represent the masses of crickets, students
may run their fingers along the teeth of a comb.
• Watch The Grapes of Wrath. Compare and contrast the movie and the book.
• Have students write a letter to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt or First Lady Eleanor
Roosevelt from the point of view of one of the following people: a farmer from the Dust Bowl
region, a child whose farm family is moving to California, a mother whose child is dying of
dust pneumonia, a local worker at risk of losing his job due to the influx of migrant workers, or
a Route 66 gas station owner.
• Reading historical fiction is an engaging way for students to learn more about the Dust Bowl.
Have students select one book that focuses on the time period and write a book review of it.
• Using vocabulary learned during this video, students may write a conversation between two
Dust Bowl farmers.
• In her book Something Permanent, Cynthia Rylant wrote poems to accompany photographs
taken during the Great Depression. Read this book aloud to students. Then, using the Internet,
have students find a powerful photograph from the Dust Bowl and write a poem modeled after
Rylant’s.
• As a culminating activity, students may create a multi-media presentation using Hyperstudio or
Power Point. Slides should relate to information learned about the
Dust Bowl.
The Arts
• Play a recording of Woody Guthrie’s Dust Bowl music. Have students respond to the music
orally or through artwork.
• As part of the New Deal, the Works Progress Administration created murals for public
buildings. Using a large piece of butcher paper, students can create a mural depicting life on a
farm during the Dust Bowl.
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Classroom Discussion Prompts
Additional
Resources
1. How did the Great Depression affect farm families and city families differently?
2. Did farmers of the 1930s continue to believe in the United States system of capitalism as they
did before the Great Depression? Why or why not?
3. If your family were farmers during the Dust Bowl, would you have wanted to stay on your
farmland or go to California? Why? What would be the pros and cons to leaving and staying?
4. What could farmers have done to prevent the Dust Bowl from developing?
5. What would have been the long-term consequences of the Great Depression if the government
had not gotten involved and helped farmers the way they did?
6. Why were farm families willing to take the risk of leaving their farms and moving west to
search for work?
7. In your opinion, what would have been the hardest part of living on a farm during the Dust
Bowl?
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Suggested Reading List
Additional
Resources
Coombs, Karen Mueller. Children of the Dust Days. Carolrhoda Books, 2000. This slim book
details the Dust Bowl in three informative chapters. Striking period photographs are a
wonderful addition to the text. The end of the book provides resources such as additional
reading, vocabulary words, and a timeline.
Hesse, Karen. Out of the Dust. Scholastic, 1997. This beautiful Newbery Award book is a
novel is verse and tells the story of Billie Jo, who endures disaster and tragedy on her
family’s farm during the Dust Bowl. The language in this book is truly powerful; Hesse’s
poems are written to reflect the hardships of the times. Weaving fact with a compelling
story, students will learn a lot from this book.
Hunt, Irene. No Promises in the Wind. Berkley Books, 1970. Historical fiction writer Hunt’s
coming-of-age story tells of fifteen-year-old Josh Grondowski’s life during the Great
Depression. The story makes readers empathetic to the plight of people living during the
Great Depression. The novel’s setting and themes provide many opportunities for
discussion.
McArthur, Debra. The Dust Bowl and the Depression in American History. Enslow Publishers,
2002. This book is an excellent resource for upper grades students studying the Dust
Bowl. It focuses on the plight of farmers during the Depression and even devotes two
chapters to what the government tried to do to help them. Additional reading lists at the
end of the book offer many suggestions for further research.
Moss, Marissa. Rose’s Journal: The Story of a Girl in the Great Depression. Harcourt, 2001.
Rose’s Journal is the fictional account of the life of a young girl during the Depression.
The creative format will attract young readers. Pink lined pages are designed to look like
a journal, with handwriting, sketches in the margins, and real black-and-white
photographs.
Raven, Margot Theis. Illustrated by Roger Essley. Angels in the Dust. Bridgewater Books, 1997.
This picture book tells the story of a girl named Annie who makes the best of tough times
during the dustbowl. Despite many tragedies, including drought, the death of her mother,
and a fire that burned down her house, Annie works to make life better for her family
and those around her and in the end is repaid for her kindness and generosity. In the
author’s note, Raven explains that the inspiration for this book came from a family friend
who lived through the Dust Bowl.
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Suggested Reading List
Additional
Resources
Stanley, Jerry. Children of the Dust Bowl: The True Story of the School at Weedpatch Camp.
Crown Publishers, 1992. This well-written nonfiction book reads as a fast-paced novel. It
details the true story of a school built by and for children who migrated from Oklahoma
to California. The resourcefulness and dedication to education of the people involved in
this school is inspiring.
Steinbeck, John. The Grapes of Wrath. Alfred A. Knopf, 1939. Steinbeck’s novel is an
American classic and winner of the Pulitzer Prize in 1940. It follows the Joad family as
they leave their Oklahoma farm and travel to California during the Great Depression.
This book is most appropriate for older students.
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Internet Sites
Additional
Resources
Below is a list of sites that you may use to find more information about the Dust Bowl and the
Great Depression. Due to routine web maintenance, not all of the links will be accurate at the
time of access. If the link is not available, try to conduct a search on that topic from the main
site or from a search engine.
Surviving the Dustbowl
This extremely informative website is designed to accompany the PBS film “Surviving the
Dustbowl.” It contains a timeline with dustbowl events from 1931 to 1939, maps, and
interviews with people who lived during the Dustbowl. There is also a teacher’s guide with
lesson ideas.
www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/dustbowl/
American Cultural History 1930 - 1939
This thorough website provides a plethora of information about the 1930s. The site focuses on
pop culture of the 30s, including art, books, fashion, and people. In addition, there is a section
specifically about the Great Depression and the Dustbowl.
kclibrary.nhmccd.edu/decade30.html
American from the Great Depression to WWII
This site contains thousands of photographs documenting life during the Great Depression. Using
the search option, students can find many photographs recording the Dustbowl. Students can be
inspired to write about the fascinating photos on this site.
memory.loc.gov/ammem/fsahtml/fahome.html
From the Dust Bowl to the Sahel
For students with scientific minds, this NASA site describes in technical detail the causes of dust
storms. There are photographs and information about other dust storms around the world,
including Sahel in Africa. The site also contains links to other sites with related information.
earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Study/DustBowl/
The Great Depression and The New Deal
This site provides an overview of the Great Depression. Features of this site include a glossary
of important terms; causes of the Great Depression and problems it caused; and a comparison
of Hoover’s and Roosevelt’s policies. One interesting feature is the chart listing successes and
failures of New Deal programs.
www.bergen.org/AAST/Projects/depression/
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Internet Sites
Additional
Resources
Woody Guthrie’s Dust Bowl Ballads
This site contains Woody Guthrie’s songs about the Dust Bowl. Guthrie wrote and performed
thirteen songs about everyday life during this time period. Links are provided to lyrics for each
song.
www.geocities.com/Nashville/3448/dbball/html
The Dust Bowl
This is a site maintained by the Library of Congress. The many features of this website include
photos, “Song of the Okies” radio script, and song lyrics. It is a wonderful resource for students
researching the Dust Bowl.
lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/ndlpedu/features/timeline/depwwii/dustbowl/dustbowl.html
The Grapes of Wrath
John Steinbeck’s novel The Grapes of Wrath details one family’s life as Okies traveling to
California in search of a better life. This website is a companion for students reading the novel.
It contains chapter summaries, lists of main characters, a map of places mentioned, and links to
more information on things referred to in the novel.
www.ac.wwu.edu/~stephan/Steinbeck/grapes.html
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Answer Key - Before Viewing Activity Sheet 4
Is It True or False?
Read the statements below. Decide whether you think they are true or false. Put an X in the
appropriate box in the “Before Viewing” column. After viewing the video, revisit your
original answers. Decide whether you think the statements are true or false. Put an X in the
appropriate box in the “After Viewing” column.
Before Viewing
After Viewing
true false
true false
Around the turn of the century, about
two-thirds of Americans lived on farms.
✔
Modern improvements in farm technology led to higher
prices because farmers had to pay for the equipment.
✔
The onset of the Great Depression was in 1929,
causing more problems for farmers.
✔
Farmers new to the Great Plains contributed
to the Dust Bowl by overplowing the land.
✔
Since drought and dust storms were new problems for farmers, they
did not know how to handle them.
Swarms of grasshoppers came during the
Dust Bowl, eating everything green in sight.
✔
✔
Many farmers moved their families to
Florida in search of a better life.
Local farm workers resented migrants because
the competition for work drove wages lower.
✔
✔
Most land owners needed workers who would
stay year-round to harvest their crops.
✔
Many families traveled up to 500 miles
in one year in search of work.
✔
The best migrant camps were those run by the government.
✔
The best resource needy migrant workers had was each other.
✔
Ploughed Under: The Plight of the Farmer: The Great Depression
29
© AIM Education, Inc.
Answer Key - During Viewing Activity Sheet 1
A Series of Unfortunate Events
The terrible plight of Great Plains farmers was complicated by a chain of inopportune events,
each caused by the problem before it. As you watch the video, fill in the boxes to show the
cause-and-effect relationships that hurt farmers. The first one has been done for you.
Answers may vary. One possibility is given below.
Modern improvements in technology caused farm prices to fall.
Farmers could not make enough money to pay back farm loans, so
banks repossessed small farms.
Trying to make ends meet, farmers continued to plow and plant
fields, unaware that they were depleting the soil.
Loose dirt and heavy winds created a blizzard of dust, making it
impossible to grow anything.
Farmers were forced to sell their farms and many moved to
California.
Migrant farm workers competed with local workers for jobs.
30
Ploughed Under: The Plight of the Farmer: The Great Depression
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Answer Key - During Viewing Activity Sheet 2
Webbing
During the Dust Bowl farmers faced many different types of problems. In the web below, record
examples of each type of problem as you view the video.
slowing sales
failing farms
Problems
Caused by
the Great
Depression
no work available
discrimination
dropping prices
Problems
for the Migrant
Workers
sickness and
death due
to poor conditions
Problems
Farmers
Faced
drought
Environmental
Problems during
the Dust Bowl
swarms of
grasshoppers
Problems
during the
Migration
West
leaving
behind valued
belongings
dust storms
not having
enough money to
complete journey
primitive shelter
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Ploughed Under: The Plight of the Farmer: The Great Depression
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Answer Key - During Viewing Activity Sheet 3
Complete the Statement
Each of these statements comes directly from the video. As you watch, provide the missing
information in the blank.
1. Modern improvements allowed more goods to be produced, which caused prices to
fall
_________________________.
defaulted
2. When farmers _________________________
on their loans, the banks were quick to seize
their property.
3. As American struggled with poverty, they were unable to afford fresh farm goods — causing
drop further
prices to _________________________.
4. Eventually, the once rich soil became too poor to support crops. The fields, rutted and rocky,
erode
began to _________________________.
5. But the drought of the 1930s was unusual. All the loose dirt, combined with heavy winds,
blizzard of dust
created a ________________________.
migrant
6. People moving in search of work were called _________________________
workers, and
they were part of a great migration to greener pastures.
Route 66
7. Once they set off, the families bounced and rocked along _______________________,
stopping to cook meals of dried pork and boiled potatoes.
8. With so many migrant workers willing to work for low wages, the local workers found
enemies
themselves out of work. They looked at the migrants as _________________________
rather
than as the victims they were.
minimum wage
9. There wasn’t a _________________________
until 1937 so employers could afford to hire
them for as cheap as possible.
mechanized
10. The most abundant work was on farms that had not yet been _________________________.
11. During the off-season, the migrant workers would live in impoverished
camps
_________________________
on the outskirts of the cities.
12. Without money and material comforts, migrant workers came to rely on something else for
each other
survival: _________________________.
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Answer Key - During Viewing Activity Sheet 4
Listen Up!
The ten words listed below may be unfamiliar to you. Listen for each of the words as you watch
the video. When you hear one of the words, write down what you think it means based on how
it is used in the video.
1. plough ________________________________________________________________________
to overcome with burden
goods sent out of the country for sale or trade
2. exports ________________________________________________________________________
to fail to pay money at the time when it is due
3. default ________________________________________________________________________
a time of severe decline in the economy, distinguished by falling
4. depression ____________________________________________________________________
prices and unemployment
the process by which material is worn away from the surface of the
5. erosion ________________________________________________________________________
Earth
an area afflicted with drought and dust storms
6. dust bowl ______________________________________________________________________
a narrow piece of land jutting out from a larger area of land
7. panhandle ____________________________________________________________________
person who travels from one place to another in search of work
8. migrant________________________________________________________________________
basic
9. primitive ______________________________________________________________________
migrant farm workers from Oklahoma searching for work in the
10. Oakies ______________________________________________________________________
west
33
Ploughed Under: The Plight of the Farmer: The Great Depression
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Answer Key - After Viewing Activity Sheet 1
Vocabulary Crossword Puzzle
1
3
4
6
D
2
E
F
A
U
P
R
D
L
O
E
O
T
E
U
I
K
X
G
O
I
P
R
I
M
A
T
I
V
7
R
8
E
S
S
A
N
H
A
N
O
9
M
I
G
I
O
P
R
5
D
L
L
T
O
E
S
A
N
T
T
B
O W
T
10
D
U
S
L
N
Across
1. to fail to pay money at the time when it is due
6. basic
8. a narrow piece of land jutting out from a larger area of land
9. person who travels from one place to another in search of work
10. an area afflicted with drought and dust storms
Down
2. the process by which material is worn away from the surface of the Earth
3. to overcome with burden
4. a time of severe decline in the economy, distinguished by falling prices and unemployment
5. migrant farm workers from Oklahoma searching for work in the west
7. goods sent out of the country for sale or trade
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Answer Key - After Viewing Activity Quiz
Quick Quiz
Circle the correct answer.
1. The Dust Bowl most affected farmers in
which region of the United States?
A. southeast
B. midwest
C. northeast
D. northwest
2. What happened when farmers defaulted
on their loans?
A. Their property taxes increased.
B. They had to pay heavy fines.
C. The government took a share of their
crops.
D. Banks seized their property.
4. Why did Okies face discrimination in the
west?
A. They would only take certain jobs.
B. They looked different than the
Californians.
C. They competed with locals for jobs.
D. They were paid more than the
locals.
5. Where did most migrant workers live?
A. low-income housing in major cities
B. government-run camps
C. apartments on the outskirts of cities
D. tents on the farms where they
worked
3. For many families, what was the deciding
factor that caused them to give up farming?
A. the swarms of grasshoppers
B. rising prices for farm goods
C. flash floods
D. complicated new technology
Fill in the blanks with the appropriate answer.
one-third
6. Around the turn of the century, about _________________________
of Americans lived on
farms.
fall
7. Progress and technology caused prices of farm goods to _________________________.
8. In order for the dry, eroded land to grow crops again, farmers needed
rain
_________________________.
Route 66
9. The road Okies traveled to get to California was _________________________.
each other
10. Migrant workers who had so little relied on _________________________
for survival.
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Answer Key - After Viewing Vocabulary Quiz
Vocabulary Fill in the Blank Quiz
Write each vocabulary word next to its correct definition.
WORD
BANK:
DEFAULT
DEPRESSION
DUST BOWL
EROSION
EXPORTS
MIGRANT
OKIES
PANHANDLE
PLOUGH
PRIMITIVE
panhandle
1. ____________________:
a narrow piece of land jutting out from a larger area of land
dust bowl
2. ____________________:
an area afflicted with drought and dust storms
migrant
3. ____________________:
person who travels from one place to another in search of work
default
4. ____________________:
to fail to pay money at the time when it is due
primitive
5. ____________________:
basic
exports
6. ____________________:
goods sent out of the country for sale or trade
erosion
7. ____________________:
the process by which material is worn away from the surface of the
Earth
depression
8. ____________________:
a time of severe decline in the economy, distinguished by falling
prices and unemployment
plough
9. ____________________:
to overcome with burden
Okies
10. ____________________:
migrant farm workers from Oklahoma searching for work in the
west
36
Ploughed Under: The Plight of the Farmer: The Great Depression
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Script
CAST
Character
Josh Thompson ..........................................................Narrator
GD Whitmore ..........................................................Interviewee
Richard Hardt..........................................................Interviewee
Philip Vandermeer ................................................Interviewee
Chris Smith ..............................................................Interviewee
Jo Porter ..................................................................Interviewee
SCENE O NE
Josh Thompson
The year is 1934. The place: a farm in Texas. The people: a family — an ordinary farm family.
They’ve lived on this farm some two generations…through good times, and bad. But now, they’ve hit the
worst of times. They’re leaving, forced off their farm — out of their home.
Their names have long been forgotten — but their story hasn’t. This is the story of that family — and
thousands of others. It’s the story of the dustbowl — a time when farmers were ploughed under the very
land that they had once sown.
SCENE TWO
Josh Thompson
Around the turn of the century, about one-third of Americans lived on farms. They worked the land like
their ancestors before them. Many small farms only grew enough food to support a family or a
community.
Families worked long days, and no one in the family was exempt.
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Script
GD Whitmore
I lived in Arkansas, I was about 8 years of age so I started to work, working in the field about 8 and in
fact by 10 years of age I was really working in the field plowing at that time so we had to, we all had a
job, we all had a job.
Oh yes, everybody worked on the farm and you know my mother she, at the time it came to chop the
cotton she would put, you know an old cook stove, old wood cook stove she would put those beans,
some of that old hog meat, cabbage on the stove leave she’d come down to the field and work till about
11:30 then she’d go home and fix the meal and we’d all come in at that time at 12:00 we’d eat and
then 1:00 we had to go back to the field. You know sunup to sundown.
Josh Thompson
They needed every hour of daylight, and then some.
Richard Hardt
Well mostly when we had the dairy you’d get up about 3:30 in the morning and go get the cows and
bring them in we had 65 head and then you milked them out in the weather you didn’t, whether it rained
or anything there was no shelter for them and then of course running the separator and then cleaning up
and hoeing a few weeds and things and that was about it.
Josh Thompson
But these small, family farms were beginning to fade from the American landscape.
The roar of the Industrial Revolution had reached the farms. Machinery was steadily replacing
manpower...and the railroad enabled farmers to transport their goods to nearby cities and distant
countries.
With an eye on growing more and selling more, big farms began to buy up little farms. Progress was
transforming what had been a way of life for generations... into a business.
This progress came with a price. Modern improvements allowed more goods to be produced, which
caused prices to fall. And falling prices meant problems for farmers — big and small. But another crisis
postponed the looming problem: World War I.
Philip Vandermeer
When World War I breaks out in Europe a number of European farmers go off to be soldiers and so
there’s a demand for agricultural products from the United States. That increases when we get involved in
the war in 1917…
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Script
Josh Thompson
Throughout the First World War, American farmers borrowed money to acquire more land, and more
machinery to farm that land. Tractors enabled wealthy landowners to farm more land with fewer farm
hands.
With profits soaring, landowners were in their heyday. But, they had overlooked one very important fact:
sooner or later, the war would end. And when it did, American exports would be far less valuable.
Philip Vandermeer
After the war what happens is soldiers go back to farming and so the market for American agricultural
products plummets and the prices for agricultural goods fall by 50% within a year and a half or two.
That is twice as much as the decline in other prices.
Josh Thompson
This sudden nosedive in prices had dire consequences: farmers could not make enough money to pay
their bank loans.
Once-prosperous farms began to struggle. Many families feared that they would lose their farms
altogether. And with good reason: when farmers defaulted on their loans, the banks were quick to seize
their property.
And with the onset of the Great Depression in 1929, things only grew worse.
Chris Smith
Farmers have a tough life anyway, you know, they, you know if you think about gambling they’re the
ultimate gamblers I mean they’ve got to gamble on rain, weather conditions, they’ve got to borrow
money to buy seed in the spring and hope they get a good harvest and the price holds up for the fall
and so it continued to get worse in the 1930’s.
Josh Thompson
As Americans struggled with poverty, they were unable to afford fresh farm goods — causing prices to
drop further.
With prices dropping, sales slowing, and farms failing, the agricultural problem grew into a national
crisis.
And for farmers in the plains states, things were only going to go from bad…to worse.
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Script
SCENE THREE
Josh Thompson
By the 1930s, agriculture in America was in crisis.
Wealthy landowners were rapidly buying up land, banks were repossessing small farms, and tractors
were replacing workers. And, farmers were producing more than people could afford to buy.
Yet, for those people in the Great Plains, this was merely the calm before the storm.
Farmers had been farming in the Great Plains for only about two decades — not long enough to fully
understand the risks inherent in the area.
These states received little rainfall and the only thing that protected the land from wind and erosion was
the grass that covered it. Plowing the land left it bare and vulnerable.
Still, farmers continued to plow and plant their fields, unaware that they were depleting the soil, unaware
that they were leaving the Earth dry and exposed.
Eventually, the once rich soil became too poor to support crops. The fields, rutted and rocky, began to
erode.
Chris Smith
There was too much land put under cultivation because of the need for wheat and other agricultural
products in the World War I period and in the 1920’s this land continued under cultivation and a series
of weather factors, drought actually began to cause dust bowl conditions.
Josh Thompson
35 million acres of land that not long ago boasted golden fields of corn and grain…turned to dust. And
another 225 million acres were losing topsoil…fast.
Ranchers were no better off. The overgrazing of cattle and sheep had stripped the land of grass —
leaving it loose, barren, rocky.
And the one thing that was needed to correct the situation, was the one thing that never came: rain.
Philip Vandermeer
The great depression coincides with a period of really bad weather — dry, droughts in the summer in
particular — and so as a consequence farm prices have really fallen, basically across the board. It hurts
cotton in the South, it hurts wheat and corn in the Midwest, but really all products are affected by this.
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Script
Josh Thompson
Drought was nothing new for farmers. But the drought of the 1930s was unusual. All of the loose dirt,
combined with heavy winds, created a blizzard of dust.
The wind carried the topsoil across farms, state lines, even across the country. Over two short days in
May of 1934, the wind carried 350 million tons of soil from west to east…and with it the lifework of
countless farmers.
The dust so darkened cities on the East Coast that they burned streetlamps in the middle of the day. And
it is rumored that Chicago got four pounds of dust for every person in the city.
By 1934, the drought had charred the Great Plains, baking Kansas, Oklahoma, and the panhandle of
Texas. The days of dry, windy weather…stretched into weeks…the weeks into months…the months into
years. Still, the drought continued.
And then came the grasshoppers.
JO PORTER
When the crickets came during the dustbowl, Mormon Crickets they were big fat ugly black grasshoppers
I had never seen any like them in my life and I had lived there all my life. They came, they were an
invader for sure there would be strips of them 6 and 7 feet wide just marching along like an army a great
long line of them as far as you could see I don’t know where they were hatching at, where they came from
or anything but they would walk right across the road. Cars would run over them and they would just fill
in the space and go right on across just as they never were interrupted they absolutely stripped every leaf
off, blade of grass off the trees they even, they were covering the fence posts I don’t know whether they
were eating them or not but they would absolutely take anything green that was there so you just had this
miles of gray and dust moving all the time.
Josh Thompson
For many families, the grasshoppers were the last straw. Farm families looked at their land in
exasperation.
Hopeless and distraught, many farmers felt forced to abandon their farms, sell their belongings, and try
to make a new start elsewhere.
By 1935, the dustbowl had forced nearly 20% of farmers to sell their farms. In all, 2.5 million people left
their homes behind them, and set out to find a new life.
They began what was to become one of the defining experiences of the Great Depression: driving out of
the dust in hope of finding clearer horizons.
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Script
SCENE FOUR
Josh Thompson
Throughout the Great Depression, many people remained close to home. They remained in familiar
surroundings, or returned to their family homes, to save money and wait things out.
Still, there was one site…a signature of the Great Depression: people moving in search of work. They
were called migrant workers, and they were part of a great migration to greener pastures.
About 300 - 400,000 were from Oklahoma and the surrounding states. They came from all walks of life,
but Dustbowl farmers were foremost among them.
Some people went to nearby states to stay with their families or friends. Others set their sites on more
distant horizons.
Thousands headed for the Sunshine State, lured by dreams of picking grapes and oranges in shady
groves along the Pacific coast…or by hopes of getting work in Los Angeles…or simply by the urging of
family members who had settled there years before.
For dispossessed farmers, the trip was often a painful one.
Their journeys began by sorting through their belongings and deciding which things they could take with
them — a tough decision considering that most of the families had only one small car or truck that
sometimes held parents, children, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins — as well as their pots and
pans and enough food to feed them for the entire trip.
Once they set off, the families bounced and rocked along Route 66, stopping to cook meals of dried
pork and boiled potatoes.
At night, they would pull off and pitch primitive camps — usually just a few blankets strung together or
an old, patched army tent.
They arose early and washed in ditches near the road. Then, they were off again, driving as far as their
cars would carry them.
Some never reached California, felled by a flat tire or oil leak. They might spend days waiting for help,
or simply decide that California was too distant a dream and settle in the nearest town.
But those who did reach California saw breathtaking panoramas: lush valleys and long stretches of
farmland. Their hopes were buoyed…then dashed.
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Script
The land…they would soon discover…was already owned. And the owners didn’t need steady work —
they needed seasonal work. Often, they didn’t even need very many workers, at all.
These newcomers — called Okies or Arkies or Texies, depending where they came from — were rarely
welcomed. In fact, they were met with resentment.
Chris Smith
The reason they weren’t received too well was that they were willing to take work and undercut the
workers that were in a certain area.
Josh Thompson
Desperate to make money, the migrant workers would work for less than the local workers. And with so
many migrant workers willing to work for low wages, the local workers found themselves out of work.
They looked at the migrants as enemies — rather than the victims that they were.
Chris Smith
Well migrant workers had simply been displaced from their communities. I think we tend to think of them
all coming from the dust bowl because of John Steinbeck’s great novel The Grapes of Wrath but people
were displaced from factory towns in Pennsylvania and various other areas and they simply were
looking for jobs and since there was no work and the unemployment rates were so high in the area that
they came from rumors would spread that a factory in another area of the country was hiring and
hundreds would show up for what would amount to 20 jobs or something like this.
Josh Thompson
And the work that they did manage to find was difficult, demanding, and dangerous.
Chris Smith
Well they got the lowest paid work, there wasn’t a minimum wage until 1937 so employers could afford
to hire them for as cheap as possible in terms of factory work if there was factory work, or you know
unloading docks, or unloading barges, or trucks or things of this nature.
Josh Thompson
The most abundant work was on farms that had not yet been mechanized.
Chris Smith
They harvested crops, they helped with the planting, there was a whole group that followed the harvest...
Josh Thompson
Entire families worked in the fields: fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters. Children worked right
alongside their parents. Even grandparents took work, if they could find it.
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Script
As many as 2 million men, women and children moved from farm to farm…cutting cane, digging
potatoes, and picking peaches, apples, oranges, grapes, peas, and cotton.
Sometimes they were paid a daily rate, maybe a dollar if they were lucky,
Other times they’d be paid for the amount of fruit picked — maybe a nickel a bushel.
In either case, the pay was low…far less than what a family needed for basic survival.
When one job would end, they took to the road again, looking for another. Some families traveled more
than 500 miles in a single year.
Sickness and death followed the workers wherever they went; one year, nearly fifty babies died in one
country alone — during just one picking season. Children in Tulare County, California, were dying at the
rate of two a day.
Where they went depended upon the season. They were needed during planting seasons and harvesting
seasons. They were not needed in between these seasons — and so, spent long stretches of time waiting
for work.
The seasonal shifts in the amount of workers needed were severe. While 150,000 workers might be
needed in September, only 50,000 may be needed the very next March. So, after a long winter of
waiting for work, 100,000 people would be bitterly disappointed.
During the off-seasons, the migrant workers would live in impoverished camps on the outskirts of cities.
The children would attend local schools, but were often ridiculed by other schoolchildren for their tattered
clothes or regional dialects.
Rarely accepted into the communities, they formed their own “camp communities.”
The best camps were those run by the government. These camps were generally cleaner and better
organized than the ditch camps. The Tulare Migrant Camp, in Visalia California, was one such camp.
Without money and material comforts, migrant workers came to rely on something else for survival: each
other. They shared their food, their friendship, and their stories. And made their camps feel more like
homes — the best homes they could find during the Great Depression.
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CONCLUSION
Josh Thompson
As the years passed, and as the depression passed with it, many of the Dustbowl farmers succeeded in
making new lives for themselves.
Some found permanent work in the lush California fields. Others found work in Los Angeles or San
Francisco. And some even returned to the Great Plains states that they had loved so much.
Despite their difficult journeys, many made new lives for themselves…some on farms…and others in
industry. And wherever their paths lead them, they left traces of themselves, like footprints in the dust.
And, as they moved from place to place, seeking work, and food, and friends, their journey became
part of the American journey…their dream part of the American dream. And their stories are still passed
on today, living histories of life during the Great Depression.
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