Great Depression research essay

Nick Allgeier
Ms. McDevitt
English II Pre-Ap (5)
14 April 2014
To Kill a Mockingbird Research Project
The Great Depression was the monumental catastrophe during the decade preceding World War II that left millions of people worldwide impoverished and hungry due to a massive economic downturn. The South was especially hit hard because of their reliance on cash-crop agriculture and viable farmland. As a result of this of this, the overall quality of life during the Great Depression in the South heavily decreased due to the low agricultural production rate. The low prices and production of agricultural products in the south robbed many families of making a living forcing them to leave to the city or even move out of state. Many of these detrimental agricultural issues were due to the boll weevil and intertilling which ravaged viable farmland during the 1930’s in the South. It got to such a point where “The majority were poor whites who lived on an annual per capita of less than 200$.” (Zainaldin). In addition to this, “…there was a good amount of pressure on farmers to plant every inch of their land with cotton.” (Zainaldin). Making things even worse, the removal of the natural farmland in the deep South took out one of the most effective barriers to erosion. So, with farmlands ravaged and crops at detrimentally low prices, a vast majority of families in the South were left impoverished and hungry. The Great Depression devastated the South during the 1930’s leaving many families and people without jobs or a stable income. This made living extremely challenging and eating a meal very tough. The economic downturn during the Great Depression left a trail of poverty across the especially hit hard south that would for the next number of years lower crop prices, profits and personal income all of which negatively impacted the residents in the Southern areas.

Work Cited Page
Zainaldin, Jamil. “Georgia's Economy in the 1920s.” Georgia encyclopedia. 4 April 2014. <http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/history-archaeology/great-depression>

Nick Allgeier
Ms. McDevitt
English II Pre-AP (5)
14 April 2014
To Kill a Mockingbird Research project Outline
I. The Great Depression in the South negatively affected economic productivity, overall quality of life and agricultural production.
II. Economic productivity was heavily decreased by the Great Depression. A. Georgia’s land, economy, and farmers were already wearing out when the Great Depression began. 1. Many people in the South had abandoned their farms and moved out of state or to the city. a. By the mid-1920s, the boll weevil had torn up cotton fields in Georgia and made making a living in the South a challenge. i. The average income for a white family in Georgia was an annual per capita income of less than 200$. ii. By 1935 only about 12% of blacks owned land they worked. B. The reason the South was hit so hard during The Great Depression stemmed from their long dependence on cash-crop agriculture. 1. Cash crop production place a huge amount of pressure on farmers during The Great Depression. 2. Processes such as intertilling and the drainage of topsoil left much of the land unable to be farmed. a. To make things worse, the removal of some natural state forests eliminated the most effective erosion barriers.
III. During the Great Depression

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