The Great Depression in Arkansas:
Causes and effects
Security Bank in Paragould (Greene County); 1910.
(www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net
Floodwaters in Dixie (Woodruff County); 1927. (www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net)
The Great Depression
The stock market crash of 1929
Banks begin to fail...
The Great Depression in Arkansas: Cause and Effect
- Many consider this the start of the Great Depression, although the road to this point began much earlier. When the market crashed, it led to a vicious circle:
The Great Flood of 1927
- Because of the lack of money, banks began to dry up quickly
- By 1933, almost half of the banks in Arkansas had closed their doors
- There was no federal bank insurance, such as the FDIC today, so when the banks closed, they people with deposits lost everything
The cycle starts and ends with.......
People have no money!
When manufacturers shut down production...
Workers lose their jobs and have no money!
When people have no money.........
People don't purchase goods!
Causes:
- Dropping cotton prices in the 1920s
- Flood of 1927
- Stock Market crash of 1929
- Drought of 1930
Effects:
- Devastated agriculture
- Left Arkansas very poor
- Prices dropped and people lost their jobs
- food shortages
- worthless farmland
- Many banks closed down
- At its height, as much as 13% of Arkansas was under water
- Crippled farming and the economy, due to loss of houses, crops, roads, and railroads
- This was devastating for the 80% of Arkansans who lived off of agriculture
- Left the state very poor and ill equipped to deal with any more disasters
When people don't purchase goods.....
Manufacturers produce less goods!
Johnny Cash and the Dyess Colony
Drought of 1930
How would your life have been different if you lived during the Great Depression?
- Further damaged the economy which was still reeling from the flood and the market crash
- Led to food shortages and riots in some areas
- Left much of the farmland worthless and not able to produce crops
- Tenant farmers during the Great Depression barely made enough for food
- Federal Emergency Relief Agency (FERA) purchased land in Arkansas to "resettle" some of the poor farmers
- They were given the opportunity to own the land after a few years of work
- Only 500 families were chosen for the project...one being the family of Johnny Cash
- for more information, visit www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net
Destitute Ozark family, Arkansas
(courtesy Library of Congress)
Out of the things you have now, what do you feel like you could live without?
What would you miss the most?
Johnny Cash "Five Feet High and Risin'"
Written about the Flood of 1937 in Dyess, AR