ipl-logo

Children During The Great Depression A Research Paper

1093 Words5 Pages

Lily Wiseman Ms. Moore English Honors - Period 3 28 March 2023 Negative Effects of the Workforce on Children During the Great Depression: A Research Paper Over 2 million kids ages 10-18 joined the workforce during the Great Depression (Woytinsky 95). During the Stock Market crash of the 1930s, the competition for jobs was at an all-time high. When parents were not bringing in enough money to support the family, kids had to join the workforce to help. Some may think that this switch in children’s roles was beneficial for them because it made them more well-behaved and mature when in reality, these children were exhausted and just wanted their childhood back. When kids realized the wages from part-time work were not enough, and they needed more …show more content…

Finally, having their whole childhood revolved around work, the kids never got to enjoy the time they had as kids. Ann Marie, a young girl who worked on her family farm during the Great Depression, suggests “Maybe next year we won’t have to work so hard” (Ruth 7-8). These children suffered for 11 years working as hard as they could just so that they could have food on the table, and many times it was not enough. They matured much too quickly, which eventually led to many problems in their futures, such as addictions to drugs or alcohol. In the book Children of the Great Depression by Russell Freedman, a nine-year-old wrote to First Lady Elenor Roosevelt “I’m always sorry because I’m still very young and can’t help out” (Freedman 4). After his mother found out that their family could not keep their business open, the child started to feel bad that he was too young to help out. He wrote this hoping that it would help in some way. The pressure to join the workforce even affected the kids who were too young to work. Overall, joining the workforce had many negative effects on the children of this era such as a lack of education, health problems, and a loss of their

Show More
Related
259 Words | 2 Pages

Upton Sinclair once said “The remedy [The Great Depression] is to give the workers access to the means of production, and let them produce for themselves, not for others... the American way.” These wise words of Upton Sinclair are true now and they were true then. “The Great Depression (1929-1939) was the deepest and longest economic downturn in the history of the western industrialized world” (staff, history.com, par 1). The Great Depression was truly one of the hardest times in the U.S.A. history because of inflation and we are still in recession from this tragedy.

Read More
1742 Words | 7 Pages

In the book "Hard Times" Stud Terkel, summarized a woman's feelings. She described, "The Depression affected people in two different ways. The great majority reacted by thinking money is the most important thing in the world. Get yours. And get it for your children.

Read More
725 Words | 3 Pages

(The New Deal, 5). The lack of a sure income got so stressful that many parents put their young children to work. These children were no older than six or seven years old. The Great Depression was turning into the Great

Read More
381 Words | 2 Pages

The Great Depression was a time of little hope and small dreams. Much of what happened forced young children out of their world out of their world into the adult world. I’ve also had to step up into the vast realm of the adult world. During the Great Depression many kids had to step up and begin acting like adults.

Read More
1097 Words | 5 Pages

Family Life in the Midst of the Great Depression The Great Depression has greatly changed the way the world works as a whole, but how did it affect family life? Numerous families were broken apart during this time because of the lack of money and resources, making it very hard to live. During the Great Depression, families were mainly affected by changes in family roles, differences in food and play, and issues with marriages and abandonment. From Bible times to the start of the Great Depression, men led the family by making money, while women kept the home tidy. This stereotype was greatly changed in 1929 when men lost their jobs and women stepped into a higher role, causing the number of married women to greatly increase.

Read More
529 Words | 3 Pages

The New Deal is made up of several programs, financial solutions, and policies led by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933 to provide alleviation to millions of Americans during the Great Depression. There were downfalls when it came to not stopping discrimination towards black people; however, it was a success when it came to helping undernourished children by providing hot meals and giving farmers and homeowners mortgage distress. A success in the New Deal was when qualified women workers prepared warm food for underprivileged/undernourished children through the WPA’s school lunch program. WPA, Works Progress Administration, were helping these children, “One million undernourished children benefited from the Works Progress Administration’s school lunch program. In the past year

Read More
387 Words | 2 Pages

The Depression Era The generation of the depression era can be dated back to the early 1930s around the same time as The Great Depression, hence the generation name. According to the Library of Congress (2017), there were approximately 5 million labor unions until around 1933, which dropped to abround 3 million and most of the members were affiliated with the American Federation of Labor (AFL). At the time, it was not looking promising for labor unions, as they had not succeded with the labor union movement in the past five decades due to the lack of support from laborers. What they were not expecting, was the support they were lacking, plus more, soon after.

Read More
476 Words | 2 Pages

Everyday life during the Great Depression was hard for most everyone. “The Great Depression transformed American social and political institutions and the ways individual people thought about themselves and their relationship to the country and the world.” Says my source. Though no two people had the same understanding of the Depression, everyone felt challenged and changed by the experience. This was an important time in history, that caused tragedy and growth.

Read More
768 Words | 4 Pages

Life for Americans during the Great Depression became a hard day-to-day struggle that many families had to undergo with much resilience or with much help in order to survive. Firstly, many people struggled to provide for their families and stay employed. According to Lapansky-Werner, Roberts, Levy and Taylor (2010), unemployment and poverty threatened workers everywhere all over the nation during the Great Depression. As unemployment rates rose, those who still had jobs

Read More
942 Words | 4 Pages

Over the year in American history class we learned a lot of things the U.S. went through over the years, from when they became a country to present day. Although all of their challenges were pretty tough one stood out the most. THE GREAT DEPRESSION was the greatest test that the U.S. had to overcome and surpass! The pressure everyone went through during that period was just so surreal! America has proven its strength as a nation and we as a nation should be proud to be part of a great nation that some people overseas are just dying to be a part of (America).

Read More
284 Words | 2 Pages

Dear Ms. Roosevelt, I am writing to you today to discuss the challenges I face as a result of hunger during the Great Depression. As you know, the Great Depression was a period of economic hardship that lasted from 1929 to 1939. During this time, millions of Americans were left without jobs, homes, and food. This has had a lasting impact on many people, including myself.

Read More
728 Words | 3 Pages

The production and living standards of the entire planet dramatically decreased during just a brief amount of time. In the early 1930s, up to one-fourth of the labor force in industrialized nations were unemployed. Although things started to get better by the middle of the 1930s, full recovery did not happen until the end of the decade that followed. During the 1930s, the welfare state and labor unions both experienced significant growth. Between 1930 and 1940, union membership in the US more than doubled.

Read More
359 Words | 2 Pages

This is what led to the rising percentage of unemployed people, and the drop of 8.7 million employed people in 1929. By 1933, when the Great Depression was at its peak, 13-15 million Americans had been laid off. Along with this, almost half of the country’s

Read More
1375 Words | 6 Pages

In the United States alone, 78 percent of people were considered to be in poverty in 1932 compared to 66 percent in 1914. Even though prices dropped by 25 percent during the depression, the unemployment rate around the world jumped from 3 to 23 percent in three years. In 1931, industrial production declined by more than 45 percent in The United States; 40 percent in Germany; 29 percent in France; and 14 percent in Britain from 1929. For an average American family from 1929 to 1932, household income dropped from $2,300 to $1,500 and the average weekly earning for a factory worker went from $25 to $17. (“Gross Hours and Earnings of Production Workers in Manufacturing - Page 38 | Toc | FRASER | St. Louis Fed”) and (“Great Depression

Read More
468 Words | 2 Pages

During the period of (1859-1932), child labor was a major issue for children starting off at a certain age. According to the passage, there is a certain age requirement that children follow to forcefully work for one’s home. Southern state laws have a way of maneuvering working children no matter the condition or how long they will be working. States such as Georgia, children begin to work at age six and seven years in the cotton mills each night to make shoes, stockings, knitted underwear, and braid straw for hats that people purchase for an everyday use. On the other hand in Pennsylvania children age’s eight, nine, and ten work in coal-breakers risking their own lives working from day to night with no break.

Read More

More about Children During The Great Depression A Research Paper

Open Document