How did children survive during the Great Depression?

Economically, many children worked both inside and outside the home; girls babysat or cleaned house, boys hustled papers or shined shoes, and both ran errands and picked crops. Yet the scarcity of jobs led record numbers of children to remain in school longer.

How did children live in the Great Depression?

Children often went without nutritious food and had rickets. Children went to school less often or not at all and tried to help their families by working; others who ran away and traveled on trains became known as 'Box Car Children. '

How did the poor survive the Great Depression?

To save money, families neglected medical and dental care. Many families sought to cope by planting gardens, canning food, buying used bread, and using cardboard and cotton for shoe soles. Despite a steep decline in food prices, many families did without milk or meat.

Who got rich during the Great Depression?

Not everyone, however, lost money during the worst economic downturn in American history. Business titans such as William Boeing and Walter Chrysler actually grew their fortunes during the Great Depression.

How did people keep their spirits up during the Great Depression?

During the Great Depression songs provided a way for people to complain of lost jobs and impoverished circumstances. Perhaps the most famous of these is "Brother Can You Spare a Dime?" by E. Y. Harberg, published in 1931. Songs could also be used to raise people's spirits and give them hope for better times.

Children of the Great Depression

What did kids do for fun during the Great Depression?

1930s: The greatest form of entertainment for most children was their own imagination! Kids used whatever was laying around to create their own games and toys. Girls made rag dolls and kids played school yard games like tag and jump rope.

How did the Great Depression affect children?

Many children didn't have enough food to eat, a car to ride in, a big enough house, or enough clothes. Many had to quit school to work in a factory or on a farm. Today, in the United States, children are required to attend school starting with elementary school, then middle school, then high school.

Who didn't go broke during the Great Depression?

During the Great Depression, the Rockefeller and Getty families were able to avoid bankruptcy due to a few key factors. Firstly, they had diversified their investments across various industries, which provided them with some level of protection against the economic downturn.

What were the highest paying jobs in the 1930s?

During the 1930s, some of the highest paying occupations included doctors, lawyers, engineers, and corporate executives.

What jobs thrived during the Great Depression?

Did people sell their kids in the Great Depression?

At first I couldn't understand why parents were selling their children versus finding someone that could take care of them, but they were starving. “Even decent, well-meaning people could make poor choices under pressure.”

What food did they eat in the Great Depression?

How did poor people get food during the Great Depression?

Sometimes there were soup kitchens in larger cities that provided free meals to the poor. Winters were an especially hard time since many families had no money to buy coal to heat their houses. The government created programs to put Americans to work.

Did kids still go to school during the Great Depression?

Many rural schools were already underfunded during the 1920s. During the Depression these schools found it necessary to sometimes cut teachers' salaries, stop purchasing supplies, or to simply close their doors when money ran out. By 1930 over three million children between seven and 17 years of age were out of school.

Why did kids run away during the Great Depression?

Some left to escape poverty or troubled families, others because it seemed a great adventure. At the height of the Great Depression, more than 250,000 teenagers were living on the road in America. Many criss-crossed the country by hopping freight trains, although it was both dangerous and illegal.

Was school mandatory in the 1930s?

Compulsory laws

Thirty states with compulsory schooling laws required attendance until age 14 (or higher). As a result, by 1910, 72 percent of American children attended school. Half the nation's children attended one-room schools. By 1930, every state required students to complete elementary school.

How much was rent in 1930?

Before 1950, most U.S. families rented their homes. Renters in 1931 paid an average of $18 per month to their landlord in rent.

What was the hourly wage during the Great Depression?

The U.S. average hourly starting wage for common (unskilled) adult male labor was 45¢/hour for whites, and 35¢ for Negroes. Includes analysis of color differentials. Source: April 1937 Monthly Labor Review, p.

What year was the worst of the Great Depression?

From 17 April 1930 until 8 July 1932, the market lost 89% of its value. Despite the crash, the worst of the crisis did not reverberate around the world until after 1929. The crisis hit panic levels again in December 1930, with a bank run on the Bank of United States (privately run, no relation to the government).

How did the rich stay rich during the Great Depression?

Those wealthy whose wealth was all in the stock market or was highly leveraged, lost everything. However, not every wealthy person had all their assets in the stock market or leveraged with debt. Many wealthy people owned land and buildings, all debt free. Many had lots of cash.

What person was blamed for the Great Depression?

As the Depression worsened in the 1930s, many blamed President Herbert Hoover…

What happens to your money in the bank during a depression?

When a financial institution is federally insured, money deposited into a bank account will be secure even if the financial institution shuts down. Your money will not be lost. It is usually transferred to another bank with FDIC insurance, or you'll receive a check.

What was family life like during the Great Depression?

Marriages became strained, though many couples could not afford to separate. Divorce rates dropped during the 1930s though abandonments increased. Some men deserted their families out of embarrassment or frustration: This was sometimes called a “poor man's divorce.”

What hardships did children face during the Great Depression?

Parents often sent children out to beg for food at restaurants and stores to save themselves from the disgrace of begging. Many children dropped out of school, and even fewer went to college. By one estimate, as many as 200,000 children moved about the country as vagrants due to familial disintegration.

What age did kids go to work in the Great Depression?

In the census of 1930, two million children aged 10-18 still worked and 700,000 were under the age of 15. Most worked in the agricultural sector during summer vacation (Feld, 4). Federal surveys said children worked twelve hour shifts on tobacco, beet and, cotton plantations, all over the country (Feld, 3).