Chapter 14 Section 2

1. Chapter 14 Section 2 Hardship and Suffering During the Depression

2. Employment • Many people found themselves out of jobs for years; women, African American men, Mexican American men were discriminated against in the workplace and became targets of hostility

3. Housing • Many unemployed people lost their homes; many homeless lived in the streets or in shanty towns; many farmers lost their farms.

4. Farming • Farmland already exhausted through overproduction was hit with drought and winds, turning the plains into a dust bowl; dramatic decrease in farm prices and income; many farmers lost ownership of their farms and were forced to become tenant farmers or farm laborers.

5. Race Relations • Intense competition for jobs sparked existing racial resentments into open hostility and violence; in 1933, 24 African Americans were lynched, thousands of Mexican Americans left the U.S. voluntarily or were deported.

6. Family Life • The Depression strengthened family ties, but also increased family tensions; some men abandoned their families, discouraged by their inability to provide for them; women also faced greater pressures to provide for themselves and their families.

7. Physical Health • Poor and homeless people scavenged or begged for food or turned to soup kitchens and bread lines; poor diet and lack of health care increased rates of serious health problems; malnutrition and starvation grew more common.

8. Emotional Health • Many people became demoralized; suicide and admissions to mental hospitals increased dramatically; people were forced to accept compromises that would affect the rest of their lives; some people came to want financial security more than anything else in life.