What was life like in Mississippi in the 1930s?

The Depression hit rural Mississippians especially hard, forcing farm families deeper into poverty, debt, illness, hunger and despair. Foreclosures and tax forfeitures were common; on an April day in 1932, one-fourth of the land area in Mississippi was auctioned for unpaid taxes.

What was 1930 economy like?

For the most part, banks were unregulated and uninsured. The government offered no insurance or compensation for the unemployed, so when people stopped earning, they stopped spending. The consumer economy ground to a halt, and an ordinary recession became the Great Depression, the defining event of the 1930s.

What happened to the economy in the 1930s?

How did the Great Depression affect the American economy? In the United States, where the Depression was generally worst, industrial production between 1929 and 1933 fell by nearly 47 percent, gross domestic product (GDP) declined by 30 percent, and unemployment reached more than 20 percent.

What is the economy of Mississippi?

Mississippi produces more than half of the country’s farm-raised catfish, and it is also a top producer of sweet potatoes, cotton and pulpwood. Other main state industries include advanced manufacturing, trade, transportation and utilities, and education and health services.

What caused the Great Depression of 1930?

It began after the stock market crash of October 1929, which sent Wall Street into a panic and wiped out millions of investors. Over the next several years, consumer spending and investment dropped, causing steep declines in industrial output and employment as failing companies laid off workers.

What was happening socially in the 1930s?

Despite the Great Depression, popular culture flourished in the United States in the 1930s. Next to jazz, blues, gospel, and folk music, swing jazz became immensely popular in the 1930s. Radio, increasingly easily accessibly to most Americans, was the main source of entertainment, information, and political propaganda.

Was there a war in 1930?

The 1930s (pronounced “nineteen-thirties” and commonly abbreviated as “the 30s”) was a decade of the Gregorian calendar that began on January 1, 1930, and ended on December 31, 1939. The decade was defined by a global economic and political crisis that culminated in the Second World War.

What was the economy of Mississippi during the Great Depression?

The Mississippi economy was dominated by agriculture which insulated the state somewhat from the impacts of the Great Depression. However, agricultural income still fell by 64 percent during the 1930s, and at least one quarter of Mississippi’s farmland had to be sold to pay for state taxes.

How was life in Mississippi during the 1930s?

However, agricultural income still fell by 64 percent during the 1930s, and at least one quarter of Mississippi’s farmland had to be sold to pay for state taxes. Industrial jobs were impacted as well, as they fell from 52,000 to 28,000 by 1933, and retail store sales shrank from $413 million to $140 million.

What was the population of Mississippi before the Great Migration?

Until the Great Migration of the 1930s, African Americans were a majority of Mississippi’s population.

What was life like during the Great Depression?

The crisis worsened, and life for the average American during the Great Depression was challenging. Between 1930 and 1933, more than 9,000 banks closed in the U.S., taking with them more than $2.5 billion in deposits.