Hello, I'm Mr. Marchant, and I'll be your history teacher for today.

I'm really looking forward to starting our learning journey together, and my role will be to make sure that you can meet today's learning objective.

Welcome to today's lesson, which is part of our unit on the bust years in the USA, where we're asking ourselves, how did the Great Depression affect the lives of Americans? By the end of today's lesson, you'll be able to explain the consequences of the Great Depression.

There are five key words which will help us navigate our way through today's lesson.

Those are breadline, evicted, mortgage, hobo, and welfare.

A breadline was a long queue formed at charitable soup kitchens during the Great Depression.

If a person is legally forced to leave the property they live in, they have been evicted.

A mortgage is money that you borrow from a bank to buy a home.

During the Great Depression, someone who travelled around the country looking for work was known as a hobo.

And help provided by the state and government organisations to those in need is referred to as welfare.

Today's lesson will be split into three parts, and will begin by asking ourselves, what was the Great Depression? The Great Depression began in 1929 and lasted throughout the 1930s.

The Great Depression was at its worst in the years 1929 to 1932.

It began with the Wall Street crash, but its effects extended to virtually all parts of the American economy.

There were several key characteristics of the Great Depression in the USA, including bankruptcies, high unemployment, reduced living standards, and lower production.

So let's start by thinking about bankruptcies during the Great Depression.

Around 9,000 banks closed between 1930 and 1933 in the USA.

This hurt businesses and ordinary savers because it made it harder for businesses to get loans to help them grow their businesses and secure the things they needed.

Whilst every time a bank failed, the ordinary Americans who kept their money with them lost their savings.

In 1932, 20,000 companies went out of business.

By 1932, 1 in 20 farmers had been evicted from their farms, showing us that bankruptcy didn't only affect the financial industry and the manufacturing sector, but also agriculture as well.

So let's reflect on what we've just heard.

I want you to write the missing value from the following sentence.

In 1932 alone, blank companies were bankrupted and went out of business in the USA.

So what's the missing word? Pause a video here and press play when you're ready to check your answer.

Okay, well done to everybody who said that the missing value was 20,000.

In 1932 alone, 20,000 companies were bankrupted and went out of business in the USA.

So now we can turn our attention to production during the Great Depression.

Output fell as many businesses went bust, and those that survived cut production.

Because demand was falling, it was necessary for businesses to reduce costs which they could achieve by reducing the amount that they produced.

By 1933, all employees of the United States Steel Corporation were only working part-time as part of that company's measures to try and reduce its costs.

Between 1929 and 1932, many statistics can show as clearly that production was falling.

For example, GDP fell from $104 billion to just $59 billion.

In other words, the total value of all goods and services produced in the USA nearly halved between 1929 and 1932.

In that same period, factory production fell by 45%, and some industries suffered even worse than this.

House building fell by 80% between 1929 and 1932.

So let's reflect on what we've just heard, which two reasons accurately explain why there was lower production during the Great Depression? Was it because customer demand for products fell, because reducing production helped cut running costs, because mass production was no longer possible, or because too few workers were available to keep production high? Remember, you're looking for two answers to this question.

So pause the video here and press play when you're ready to see the right answers.

Okay, well done to everybody who said the correct answers were A and B, production fell in the United States as demand for products from customers fell, and also as businesses look for way to try and cut their running costs so they could try and stay in business.

High unemployment was another one of the key features of the Great Depression.

Business failures and production cuts both led to job losses.

13 million people lost their job by 1933.

One in four workers in the USA was unemployed.

In other words, the unemployment rate hit 25%.

Unemployment had an uneven effect, and this is something that we really need to keep in mind.

It was worse in the north than it was in the south.

The north being the area where a lot of the manufacturing businesses of the USA were located.

African Americans and women were also more likely to be fired by businesses than white male workers.

We can see this if we look at some different statistics.

For example, whereas the unemployment rate was 25% for all Americans, if we focus on just African Americans, we can see that the unemployment rate in the USA hit 50%, double the national average.

So let's reflect on what we've just heard.

We have a statement on the screen that reads all groups in the USA were affected by unemployment equally.

Is that statement true or false? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to see the right answer.

Okay, well done to everybody who said that that statement was false, but we need to be able to justify our response.

So two justifications have appeared on the screen.

The first says that unemployment for African Americans was double the national average.

The second says that unemployment for African Americans was half the national average.

So which one of those two justifications is correct? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to see the right answer.

Okay, well done to everybody who said that the correct justification was A, unemployment for African Americans was double the national average.

Whereas 25% of all Americans were unemployed, The African American unemployment rate hit 50% during the Great Depression.

Reduced living standards were another key aspect of the Great Depression.

Job losses and wage cuts made it harder for people to afford necessities, things like food and housing.

By 1932, 250,000 people failed to pay their mortgages and were evicted from their homes.

An estimated 2 million men became hobos and many relied on charity and breadlines.

So let's check we've really understood what we just heard.

I want you to write the missing keyword in the following sentence.

By 1932, around 2 million men across the United States had become blank.

So what's the missing word? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to see the right answer.

Okay, well done to everybody who said the missing keyword was hobos.

By 1932, around 2 million men across the United States had become hobos.

In other words, they constantly travelled from place to place just looking for work.

I want you to study the photo that we can see on the screen.

What does the photo suggest about the extent to which Americans suffered from reduced living standards? You may want to think first about some of the specific details you can see in the image, and then consider what that suggests about living standards.

Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to reflect on your responses.

Okay.

So your answer may have included that we can see in the photo many people waiting in a breadline.

This suggests that extreme poverty became widespread as many people had to rely on charity.

So well done if your own response look something like one of those points that we've just listed off.

And that means we are now in a good position to put all of our knowledge into practise.

I want you to study the four statements that will be shown below.

For each of the statements, you need to support it by providing additional evidence.

So our statements are: Businesses struggle to survive during the Great Depression.

For example.

Some groups in the USA suffered worse during the Great Depression than others.

For example.

Homelessness was a major problem during the Great Depression.

For example.

And finally, many businesses cut production to try and save costs.

For example.

So pause the video here and press play when you're ready to reflect on all of your responses.

Okay, well done for all of your effort on that task.

So I asked you to study each of the statements and support them by providing additional evidence.

Your answers may have included: Businesses struggled to survive during the Great Depression.

For example, 9,000 banks went bust between 1930 and 1933.

Some groups in the USA suffered worse during the Great Depression than others.

For example, African Americans' unemployment was two times higher than the national average.

Homelessness was a major problem during the Great Depression.

For example, 2 million men became hobos, travelling between places as they looked for work.

And many businesses cut production to try and save costs.

For example, by 1933, all employees of the United States Steel Corporation were only working on a part-time basis.

So really well done if your own answers looked something like those models we just seen.

You may well have picked different examples to support each of those statements, in which case you should have been aiming for a similar level of factual detail as we've seen in those models.

So now we're ready to move on to the second part of our lesson for today where we are going to focus on the Great Depression in urban America.

Seattle is a city located in the northeast of the USA.

In 1930, over 365,000 people lived in Seattle, and it was the 20th biggest city in the USA.

Like many of the cities across the USA, the impact of the Great Depression on Seattle was significant.

Unemployment in Seattle and in Washington state where Seattle is located was above the national average during the Great Depression.

By early 1933, unemployment in Washington state stood at 33%, and was even higher in Seattle.

Many unemployed people travelled to Seattle hoping that it would provide more opportunities for finding a job only to be disappointed.

When the Great Depression began, the US government did not provide any social welfare schemes, which could help the millions of people suffering from unemployment and wage cuts, as well as receiving no help from the national government.

Local politicians did little to help the people of Seattle.

In fact, the city government in Seattle actually cut its welfare budget in 1931 and 1932.

At the same time, even more businesses were closing down and a greater number of people were becoming unemployed.

So let's reflect on what we've just heard.

Which statement is correct, unemployment in Seattle was below the national average, unemployment in Seattle was in line with the national average, or unemployment in Seattle was above the national average? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to see the right answer.

Okay, well done to everybody who said that the correct answer was C.

Unemployment in Seattle was above the national average.

The national average for unemployment was 25%.

In Washington state, where Seattle's located, the average was 33%, and it was even higher than that in Seattle itself.

So let's try another question.

This time we have a sentence written out, but it's incorrect.

I want you to change one word in the sentence to correct it.

The sentence reads, "As the effects of the Great Depression worsened in Seattle in 1931 and 1932, the city government increased its spending on welfare support." So which word needs to be changed and how would you change it to correct this sentence? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to see the right answer.

Okay, well done to everybody who said the word that needed to be changed was increased and should have been changed to decreased, or something with a similar meaning like cut.

As the effects of the Great Depression worsened in Seattle in 1931 and 1932, the city government decreased its spending on welfare support.

In other words, when Americans in Seattle needed welfare support from the government the most, they actually saw that the local city government was reducing the amount of support it was willing to offer.

Given that minimal state welfare was provided, many people in Seattle suffered from extreme poverty during the Great Depression.

It is true that charities were active across America's towns and cities, providing food and shelter to those in need.

However, in Seattle, many men complained that the shelter on offer was damp and unhygienic, whilst the food provided to breadlines by the Salvation Army was considered hard to eat and lacking in nutrition.

By 1931, some men in Seattle began to construct a camp of their own on unused areas of land by the city's port.

The men in the camp lived in shacks, built from whatever scrap material was available.

As more men in Seattle and its surrounding areas lost their jobs and homes, the camp grew in size until there were roughly 600 shacks and 1,000 people living there.

This camp in Seattle became known as Hooverville, a sarcastic reference to the president of the USA at the time, Herbert Hoover, who people felt was not doing enough to help them.

A photograph of the Hooverville in Seattle can be seen on the screen.

Many similar camps, which also became known as Hoovervilles, were set up across the USA during the Great Depression.

Despite the poor quality of this housing, Seattle's Hooverville remained in place until 1941.

Jesse Jackson, who became a leading resident of Seattle's Hooverville, described it as the home of the forgotten men.

So let's reflect on what we've just heard.

How many men were estimated to have lived in the Hooverville in Seattle? Was it 10, 100, or 1,000? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to see the right answer.

Okay, well done to everybody who said the correct answer was C.

1,000 men were estimated to have lived in the Hooverville in Seattle, despite the fact that the accommodation there was only built out of scrap materials.

And let's try another question.

This time we have a statement which reads, "The Hooverville in Seattle was described as the home of the forgotten men." Is that statement true or false? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to see the right answer.

Okay, well done to everybody who said that that statement was true, but we need to be able to justify our response.

So two justifications have appeared on the screen.

The first says that no welfare support at all was available to help workers who lost their jobs and homes in Seattle.

The second says that the local government left the men to live in Hooverville rather than increase welfare support.

So which one of those two justifications is true? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to see the right answer.

Okay, well done to everybody who said the correct justification was B.

The local government in Seattle left the men to live in Hooverville rather than increase welfare support.

It's not that there wasn't any welfare support from the local government.

But in 1931 and 1932, this support was cut, showing us that there was minimal help, and that's why some residents of Hooverville described themselves as the forgotten men.

So we're now in a good position to put all of our understanding of the Great Depression in urban America into practise.

I want you to describe two challenges faced by workers living in urban areas during the Great Depression.

Ensure that your answer identifies two different types of challenges.

For example, those that are related to work or to housing, and make sure you include some specific factual details as part of your answer.

Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to reflect on your responses.

Okay, well done for all of your effort on that task.

So I asked you to describe two challenges faced by workers living in urban areas during the Great Depression.

Your answer may have included, one challenge faced by urban workers during the Great Depression was unemployment.

As businesses struggled during the Great Depression, many had to fire workers or went bankrupt, leaving all of their previous workers unemployed.

Industrial and urbanised areas were often affected more significantly by unemployment.

For example, whilst the national unemployment rate was 25% by 1932, in a city such as Seattle, more than 33% of workers were unemployed.

Your answer may also have included, one challenge faced by urban workers during the Great Depression was houselessness.

As urban workers became unemployed, they lost the income necessary to pay their mortgages and were evicted.

Many of these workers were forced to live in shanty towns.

For example, in Seattle, there were more than 600 huts and 1,000 people living in Hooverville, a temporary camp of shanty huts built from scrap materials.

Similar Hoovervilles were constructed in other cities across the USA.

So really well done if your own responses look something like those two model paragraphs which we've just seen.

And now we're ready to move on to the third and final part of our lesson for today where we are gonna focus on the Great Depression in rural America.

The Great Depression affected rural regions as well as urban America.

During the Great Depression, farmers and farm labourers suffered from both financial challenges and environmental challenges.

American farmers had already been struggling before the Great Depression began.

However, after 1929, the problems farmers faced intensified.

As so many Americans lost their jobs or saw their wages cooked, farmers were unable to get good prices for the food they produced, reducing their incomes even further.

Many farmers also struggled as banks demanded repayment of loans they had taken out to purchase equipment like tractors.

The risk of bankruptcy led many farm owners to fire their labourers to reduce costs.

In many cases, farm labourers were African-Americans who were pushed further into poverty by the loss of their jobs.

Despite cutting costs, many farmers were still unable to pay their mortgages.

As a result, by 1932, 1 in 20 farmers had been evicted from their land.

Some unemployed farmers and labourers became hobos travelling the countryside looking for work.

Many Americans migrated to states, such as California, believing there would be work on farms in these locations.

However, this influx of migrants created local tensions.

One California newspaper complained in 1935 that thousands of penniless families from other states have literally overrun California.

Some places in the state, including Los Angeles, even banned the arrival of new migrants to reduce competition with local residents for jobs.

So let's check our understanding of what we've just heard.

Why did many Americans migrate to states like California? Was it because California was not affected by the Great Depression, because California was believed to have a lot of farm work, or because California provided high levels of relief to all residents? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to see the right answer.

Okay, well done to everybody who said the correct answer was big.

Many Americans migrated to states like California because they believe there was a lot of farm work to be found there.

And let's try another question.

This time we have a statement which reads, "Authorities in California encouraged people to migrate there for work." Is that statement true or false? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to see the right answer.

Okay, well done to everybody who said that that statement was false, but we need to be able to justify our response.

So two justifications have appeared on the screen.

The first says that some towns banned the arrival of American migrants to prevent competition for jobs with locals.

The second says that all American migrants were welcome to work on Californian farms, but not foreign migrants.

So which one of those two justifications is correct? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to see the right answer.

Okay, well done to everybody who said the correct answer was A.

Some towns such as Los Angeles ban the arrival of American migrants to prevent competition for jobs with locals.

This shows us there was a lot of tensions caused by the difficulties people faced in rural America during the Great Depression.

Farmers face more than just financial challenges during the Great Depression as natural disasters also made their lives worse.

The American Midwest was the USA's main farming region, but the soil across the region had often been farmed unsustainably.

A series of droughts from 1930 onwards combined with the poor management of the land made the top soil in the Midwest, which is really important to be able to farm, very vulnerable to wind erosion.

Huge dust storms simply blew away dry top soil, making it impossible to farm the land.

20 million acres of land were affected by this problem and became known as the Dust Bowl.

2,500,000 Americans were forced to migrate to escape the problems of the Dust Bowl.

So let's reflect on what we've just heard.

We have a statement that reads, "It was only financial issues which farmers suffered from during the Great Depression." Is that statement true or false? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to see the right answer.

Okay, well done to everybody who said that that statement is false, but we need to be able to justify our response.

So two justifications have appeared on the screen.

The first says that the Dust Bowl meant that millions of farmers suffered because of a natural disaster.

The second says that most farmers who suffered faced financial issues, but a small number also suffered because of natural disasters.

So which one of those two justifications is correct.

Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to see the right answer.

Okay, well done to everybody who said the correct justification was A.

The Dust Bowl meant that millions of farmers suffered because of a natural disaster.

We can tell that our second justification was not correct because the Dust Bowl actually affected 2.

5 million Americans showing that it was not just a small number who suffered because of natural disasters.

So now we're ready to put all of our knowledge into practise.

We have a statement that reads problems in rural and urban America were completely different during the Great Depression.

How far do you agree? I want you to write one paragraph to explain your answer.

As part of your paragraph, you must refer to conditions in both rural and urban America.

So pause the video here and press play when you're ready to reflect on your response.

Okay, well done for all of your effort on that task.

So we had the statement, "Problems in rural and urban America were completely different during the Great Depression." How far do you agree? Your answer may have included, it is not accurate to claim that the problems experienced in rural and urban America were completely different during the Great Depression.

There were some unique issues such as the Dust Bowl, which destroyed 20 million acres of farmland in the rural Midwest.

Nevertheless, many issues affected both rural and urban areas, such as houselessness.

In rural areas, the Dust Bowl and farm evictions forced millions of farmers off their land.

Similarly, in urban areas, thousands of people were evicted from their homes after failing to pay their mortgages.

Many of these people moved into camps known as Hoovervilles.

In Seattle, more than 1000 men lived in a single Hooverville.

It's really well done if your own response look something like that model which we've just studied, and that means we've now reached the end of today's lesson which puts us in a good position to summarise our learning.

We've seen that the Great Depression created widespread unemployment as one in four workers in the USA were out of work by 1932.

Living standards fell during the Great Depression as many Americans lost their homes and were forced to rely on charity for shelter and food.

In many cities, houseless people moved into camps built from scrap material known as Hoovervilles.

1 in 20 farmers had been evicted by 1932 due to financial troubles.

And the Dust Bowl increased rural hardship, forcing millions of Americans in the Midwest to abandon their farms and homes.

So really well done for all of your work throughout today's lesson.

We've had lots to think about, but you've managed it really well and it's been a pleasure to help guide you through our resources.

I look forward to seeing you again in future as we think further about the bust years in the USA and continue to ask ourselves, how did the Great Depression affect the lives of Americans?.