Great Depression example essay topic

477 words
American Culture in the 1930's American culture in this decade was faced with many challenges. Americans had the Great depression, the Dust Bowl, Coal mining, and crime to overcome without losing what little they owned and worked for in their lives. The depression was the worst thing people experienced. During the Great Depression there was no money to buy food or pay people to work. Most workers of any kind were laid off because the business owners were out of money. The depression caused farmers to sell the food for less than usual because people could not afford to buy it at the regular price.

The decrease in price had the farmers selling more of their product for less price and that made the farmer produce less and less each year of the depression. Another thing that affected the farming industry was the drought that led to the Dust Bowl. This drought had forced the farmers to lose a lot of the produce. The dust bowl was the biggest this county has ever seen. Homes were covered in dirt after the dust bowl had passed and people were trapped in their homes for months until someone could dig them out. Farmers and ranchers were finding cattle buried in sand that couldn't get out and had eventually starved to death.

The cattle industry lost a lot of their livestock and the watering holes were covered and unusable. Coal mining was another big industry in the 1930's, Many coal miners were laid off during the depression. The unemployed miners started to mine coal on company land to get just enough to heat their homes with. After a while the money they had was gone and they started to mine more coal illegally to trade for food or other necessities.

This went on until the companies big bosses found out and punished the illegal miners or until there was enough money to hire them back. Not all was bad during the depression. In some cities people would arrange weekly get togethers. Some would have annual parades with carnivals and competitions for the people to take their minds off of the economy.

Others would hold picnics for all the people to enjoy after church. Another popular sport was horse racing. Recently there was a movie called Sea biscuit that is about a popular horse in the 1930's that found fame and helped a man survive the depression. Many people survived this decade and have become smarter people because of it all. The events that happened taught Americans how to survive with the low economic standings and the hardships of living. If we " re lucky we will learn all of these things without all the hardships.