Politic Science Essays - Great Depression In The United States

Politic Science Thursday October 24 1929 is a Day that was later known as "Black Thursday". "Black Thursday" was the day a small crash occurred at the New York stock exchange. However "Black Thursday" Would turn out to be nothing compared to what awaited America and its economy on the following Tuesday. America was about to enter her darkest days the Great Depression. Sena Peterson my great grandmother was just an eighteen-year-old young lady living on her fathers corn farm in Iowa. Far away from New York and the economic problems on Wall Street. Nevertheless, the depression and the falling prices of her farms product would soon affect her in drastic ways the depression would be a hard time for Americans. Monday October 28, 1929. Was a very dark and gloomy day. Thousands of Black Birds landed on Wall Street. The thousand plus birds began to devour any thing they could find to eat. Nearly half of the birds never took flight again. Many of the birds died of exhaustion. This was an ominous sign of the dark and desperate times ahead. America was about to enter its lowest and darkest point in its short history. My great grandma lived on her farm in Iowa oblivious to the fact that her life would soon be changing in drastic ways. She had know idea of what was going on at Wall Street. She had no idea that she was going to have to move. Her family would soon have to start all over in a new place. Tuesday October 29, 1929. This dark day would soon be remembered as "Black Tuesday". The day Americas economy would crumble. The day some investors lost everything even there will to live and jumped out the windows of high rise buildings. Many people believe that the stock market crash was the cause of the depression but that is not entirely true. Although the two events where closely related. By Americans attitude during the 1920's also known as the jazz age. Americans emphasis on having the newest thing or being at the height of fashion was enough to keep the economy going for most of the 20's but that would no last. During the First World War my great grand mothers expanded to keep up with the demand the war created. To do this they got a loan from the bank to purchase the need supplies; machines and the land needed to expand. After the war ended the demand for corn drastically dropped. Consequently, the farm produced an excess product so the price dropped. My great grandfather now had problems paying the bill and making ends meat but he managed for a while. Nevertheless, the lack of money would soon take its toll. The problem with the way America was heading was that income was distributed very unevenly and the portion going to the rich got larger and larger as the 20's progressed. Corporations started to make bigger and bigger profits yet the profits were not passed on to the workers. In addition, in 1926, The Revenue act was passed and it cut taxes by 2/63 for those who made over 1 million dollars a year. Because of these trends in 1929, the top .1 percent of American families had a total income equal to the bottom 42 percent. That meant that the people who paid attention to the ads couldn't afford the new products they wanted. This is when credit was invented. People liked the idea that they didn't have to pay for the product but they still got to keep it and pay later. Credit only put of they day when consumers accumulated so much debt that they couldn't buy new products. My Great Great grandfather had tried his best to make ends meat but he couldn't make a profit. He could no longer pay back his loan to the bank so they foreclosed on his farm. My great grandmother's family now had no source of income and no where to live for them this was the lowest point of the depression and her life. However, this where about get a lot worse for the Peterson family. Because people could no longer afford to buy things there was an over supply and no demand, so prices began to fall like a rock. So they economy became weak because nobody was making money. This is when stocks began to crash and eventually the whole market crashed. Things began to look a lot worse for the Peterson's my great grandmother's father