The New Deal
The Great Depression was a time of pain, economic and physical suffering for the citizens of the United States. Americans were used luxurious lives, but when the stock market crashed in 1929 the country went into an economic slump. Americans went from parties and joy from the 1920’s to hardship and sadness. Millions were unemployed, and many were starving. To solve this problem President Franklin Delano Roosevelt created the New Deal to help the economy. The New Deal was a series of government programs designed to help get the nation out of the economic slump, and to help people get the financial help they needed. Although there were many positive things that came with the New Deal, there were also many negative things. The New
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For example, the AAA or the Agricultural Adjustment Administration hurt African Americans badly. “40 percent of all black workers made their living as sharecroppers and tenant farmers.” (Digital history 1) However, “White landlords could make more money by leaving land untilled than by putting land back into production.” (Digital History 1). So more that 100,000 African Americans were forced off the land, and many were left jobless. Many of the other New Deal programs were also unfair to African Americans. The FHA or the “Federal Housing Authority refused to guarantee mortgages for African Americans that tried to buy homes in white neighborhoods.” (Digital history 1). The CCC or the Civilian Conservation Corps also kept African Americans segregated in camps. Another thing about the New Deal that was unfair was that the Native Americans were given $10 million in loans to help promote economic development for tribes. With that money, Native Americans were able to start trading post, tourist camps, livestock corporations, and fishing businesses. Although many people may see this as a good thing, this was not fair to African Americans because many other races were given financial help, but African Americans were still discriminated. So the New Deal was very unfair to different races, and was showing bias by continuing to discriminate Africans Americans after the New Deal promised help to …show more content…
In the song “No Depression in Heaven” written by the Carter family in 1936, they talk about how they would rather be in Heaven where there are “no orphans crying for bread, no weeping widows, toil, or struggle.” (Carter 1) People are literally starving, and are ready to die because of it. “ I’m going where there’s no depression to the lovely land that's free from care I’ll leave this world of toil and trouble my home’s in heaven, i'm going there” (Carter 1). If people were still hurting that much in 1936, after the New Deal had been in place for three years, then the New Deal clearly did not have the effect that people claimed it was having. Although some people would say that the New Deal was a success because it did provide aid for many Americans, it did not help everyone, because obviously the Carter family should not have been wanting to die if they were receiving government aid. the New Deals were created to help everyone though the struggles of the Great Depression, and if the Carter family was ready to die to escape the hardships and toil, then there were most likely many other families that felt the same way, so the New Deals were not a success because not everyone was provided with the help that they needed to