Hello, I'm Mr. Marchin, 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 the American people? By the end of today's lesson, you'll be able to evaluate the effects of the Great Depression on different groups in American society.

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

Those are mortgage and sharecropper.

A mortgage is money that you borrow from the bank to buy a home, and a sharecropper was a farmer who rented a small area of land from a landowner; they had to give a share of the crops they grew to their landlord.

Today's lesson will be split into two parts, and we'll begin by focusing on the difficulties during the Great Depression.

Life became more difficult for most Americans during the Great Depression.

There were several key difficulties faced by Americans as a result of the Great Depression, including: business failures, unemployment, poverty, and houselessness.

We'll focus on each of these difficulties in turn.

So let's start by thinking about business failures.

Over 100,000 businesses shut down between 1929 and 1931 in the USA.

20,000 companies went out of business in 1932 alone.

Banks were particularly badly affected.

659 banks closed in 1929 and 9,000 banks closed between 1930 and 1933, including some of the very biggest banks in the USA.

By 1932, 1 in 20 farmers had been evicted from their farms. Now, this gives us a really good indication of the fact that business failures occurred across the American economy.

Agriculture, manufacturing, and the financial industry were all hit really badly by the Great Depression.

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

We have a statement on the screen, which reads: The Great Depression only harmed American factories and industry.

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 there were widespread bank and farm closures as well as industrial business bankruptcies.

The second says that many American banks also failed, although American farms actually started to grow again.

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, there were widespread bank and farm closures as well as industrial business bankruptcies.

This gives us a very clear impression that the Great Depression was something which affected virtually all sectors of the American economy.

So now we can turn our attention to unemployment.

Business failures led to widespread job losses across the USA.

If we track American unemployment from 1929 to 1933, as our table on the screen shows us, we can really clearly see the increase in unemployment.

Whereas just 1.

5 million Americans had been without a job in 1929, representing an unemployment rate of 3%.

This more than doubles in just one year, growing to 4.

3 million Americans by 1930.

And by 1933, that figure had tripled as 12.

8 million Americans were out of work, meaning that 25% of all workers were without a job.

Unemployment affected urban and rural areas of America, although it did tend to be a bit worse in urban areas.

By 1932, 12,000 people were losing their jobs each day.

So let's make sure we have a secure understanding of what we've just had.

How did unemployment change in the USA between 1929 and 1933? Was it that unemployment rose each year in the USA from 1929 to 1933, unemployment rose from 1929 until 1931 but began to fall in 1932 and '33, or unemployment fell each year in the USA from 1929 to 1933? 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, unemployment rose each year in the USA from 1929 to 1933.

Whereas unemployment had stood at just 3% in 1929, that figure had risen to 25% by 1933.

In other words, a quarter of all American workers were without a job.

Poverty was another key difficulty which Americans faced during the Great Depression.

Job losses and wage cuts made it harder for people to afford necessities.

There was often no government relief available to Americans, so many people had to rely on charity instead.

In 1932, the charity YMCA was giving away 12,000 free meals per day in just one small district of New York.

Breadlines became very common for this reason as many Americans travelled and waited in lines at soup kitchens to receive some food.

A photo of a breadline can be seen on the screen, and this became an increasingly common site across America during the Great Depression.

So I wanna make sure that we really understood what we were just discussing.

So we have a sentence on the screen that says, as millions of Americans fell into poverty, most relied on relief from governments to help meet their basic needs.

Now, I want you to change one word to correct that sentence.

So pause video here, change one of the words, and press play when you're ready to reflect on your response.

Okay, well done to everybody who changed the word governments to charities.

As millions of Americans fell into poverty, most relied on relief from charities to help meet their basic needs.

These charities included groups such as the YMCA or Salvation Army, who often provided things such as shelter or food to people who were in need.

Houselessness was another key issue experienced by many Americans during the Great Depression.

Many unemployed Americans could not afford their mortgages, so 250,000 people failed to pay their mortgages in 1952 and, as a result, were evicted from their homes.

Hobos and Hoovervilles were both signs of rising houselessness across the USA.

An estimated 2 million men became hobos during the Great Depression.

They travelled the country looking for work, so were constantly moving from place to place.

Sometimes these hobos would walk between towns, but they also travelled illegally by jumping onto freight trains, hoping that this would allow them to cover a greater distance in their quest to find some work.

So I wanna make sure we have a secure understanding of the difficulty we were just discussing.

Study the photo on the screen taken by photojournalist Dorothea Lange.

Lange spent many of the Great Depression years travelling across the United States and taking pictures of sites which represented some of the difficulties of the Great Depression.

So how does the photo on the screen demonstrate difficulties created by the Great Depression? I want you to think about what key details you can see in the image and how they relate to the broader issues people were experiencing at this time.

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

Okay, so well done for all the thought you put into that task.

So I asked, how does the photo demonstrate difficulties created by the Great Depression? Your answer may have included: that people became houseless, and some became hobos; that work was so scarce that people travelled long distances to find it; or that people were desperate and took risks, including law-breaking by riding on trains and other moving vehicles illegally to travel between places.

Another way that houselessness could be seen and witnessed across the USA was with the rise of Hoovervilles.

Some houseless people built camps, which became known as Hoovervilles.

These were often built from scrap materials.

Whatever was available in an area.

They lacked proper sanitary facilities because these were not built to be permanent; they were built to provide immediate shelter for people in desperate need.

They were named after President Hoover.

Now, this was a satirical joke criticising the president for the lack of help coming from the government.

1,000 men lived in the Hooverville in Seattle, a photo of which can be seen on the screen.

This Hooverville in Seattle lasted for 10 years, from 1931 until 1941, and many of the residents called it "the home of the forgotten men," again, referencing that idea that they were not receiving the help which they desperately needed during the Great Depression.

So let's make sure we have a secure understanding of what we've just heard.

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

Residents living in the, blank, in Seattle called it "the home of the forgotten men." So what's our missing word? Pause the video here and press play when you are ready to see the right answer.

Okay, well done to everybody who said that the missing word was Hooverville.

Residents living in the Hooverville in Seattle called it the "home of the forgotten men." Hoovervilles, which appeared all across the USA, not just in Seattle, were temporary camps built out of scrap material by people who had nowhere else to live, the houseless.

So we are now ready to put all of our knowledge of the difficulties during the Great Depression into practise.

We're gonna split task A into two parts.

Firstly, I want you to study the extract.

It's adapted from an interview with Ralph Fasanella, who lived in New York during the Great Depression.

In the extract, Ralph says, "There were no jobs during the Depression, no jobs at all.

We all looked for anything we could get.

In winter, we prayed for snow because you could get paid $4 a day for clearing snow from the streets.

We all wanted those snow jobs." What does the extract tell historians about the difficulties people faced during the Great Depression? Include a quotation from the extract in your answer.

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

Okay, well done for all your hard work on that task.

So I asked you, what did our extract tell historians about the difficulties people faced during the Great Depression? Your answer may have included: The extract tells historians that unemployment was a major problem during the Great Depression.

For example, in the extract, Ralph Fasanella recalls that during the Great Depression, there were no jobs, and that in the winter, people would pray for snow just so that they could get a job shovelling snow.

This shows many people were unemployed during the Great Depression and struggle to find secure jobs so were willing to take on any kind of work that they could, even if it was hard physical labour.

So, well done if your own answer look something like that model we've just seen.

So now we are ready to move on to the second part of task A.

Now, I want you to explain one way in which the lives of Americans were impacted by the Great Depression.

Write one paragraph to explain your answer and consider some of the major difficulties we've already discussed which the Great Depression created.

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

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

So I asked you to explain one way in which the lives of Americans were impacted by the Great Depression, and your answer may have included: one way the Great Depression impacted Americans was by causing a rise in houselessness.

2 million Americans became hobos, travelling from town to town in search of work, whilst thousands of others lived in camps which became known as Hoovervilles.

The rise in houselessness occurred as a result of so many Americans becoming unemployed.

Without an income, many people could no longer afford their mortgages, leading to them being and becoming houseless.

Alternatively, your answer may have included: One way the Great Depression impacted Americans was by pushing many Americans into poverty.

By 1932, 1 in 4 workers had become unemployed and, without an income, it became hard for people to afford basic necessities such as food.

As a result, millions of Americans depended on charity during the Great Depression.

A YMCA soup kitchen serving just one single district of New York was giving away 12,000 free meals per day by 1932.

This demonstrates that increased poverty was a widespread impact to the Great Depression on American lives.

So really well done if your own answer looks something like either of those two responses, which we've just looked at.

Alternatively, you may have focused more on another difficulty, such as unemployment or business failures, as part of your own answer.

So we are now ready to move on to the second and final part of our lesson for today where we are going to focus on the experiences of the Great Depression.

Many Americans suffered from hardship during the Great Depression.

However, experiences of the Great Depression in the USA still varied greatly between people from different backgrounds.

So we are going to think about the specific experiences of different groups during the Great Depression.

Let's start by considering the very rich.

Some of the richest Americans did lose money during the depression.

However, they often experienced much less hardship than poorer groups.

They had already paid off their mortgages, so they weren't at risk of losing their houses.

And much of their wealth was made up by property, which was more secure than money savings, because when banks failed, people lost the savings they kept there, whereas if you own property, the value of it would remain even if banks and businesses were failing.

These forms of wealth made it easier for the very wealthy to survive as businesses and banks closed.

Opportunities to gain great wealth in the 1930s still existed.

Cinema remained popular as an inexpensive entertainment, and this meant that in the Depression years, many people involved in Hollywood and the cinema industry was still able to increase their own wealth.

For example, Mae West, whose image is shown on the screen, became the highest paid Hollywood star by the mid 1930s.

She earned $300,000 for each role that she played, showing just how well some people were still able to do during the Great Depression.

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

We have a statement on the screen that reads: All Americans became poorer 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 was false.

But we need to be able to justify our response.

So two justifications have appeared on the screen.

The first says that the majority of Americans became poorer, but some groups, such as Hollywood stars, grew richer.

The second says that the majority of Americans saw no change in their wealth, but some groups, such as Hollywood stars, grew richer.

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 majority of Americans became poorer, but some groups, such as Hollywood stars like Mae West, did grow richer.

In fact, by the mid 1930s, Mae West, who was the best paid Hollywood star, was earning $300,000 for every role that she played.

So now we can turn our attention to the experiences of women.

Female workers suffered from unemployment less than males.

Industries employing most women, such as nursing and teaching, were not as badly hit by the Depression as other areas of the economy like manufacturing.

Overall female employment actually rose during the Great Depression.

Most women did not gain much wealth, though.

Women were commonly underpaid in their jobs, they were frequently paid less than men for completing the same work, and furthermore, many women had husbands who lost their jobs, so even if they continued to be employed, their family or their household income was reduced by the fact that their husbands often lost their jobs.

So let's think about what we've just heard.

What happened to female employment during the Great Depression? Did the number of women in work declined, was it that the number of women in work remained the same, or the number of women in work increased? 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, the number of women in work actually increased during the Great Depression.

So that's opposite to the overall national trend of growing unemployment.

So now we can think about African Americans.

African Americans suffered from high levels of unemployment during the Great Depression.

African American unemployment stood at 50%, meaning that it was double the national average.

Discrimination against African Americans increased their experience of unemployment as they were often fired before any white workers.

Many farm workers and sharecroppers were African Americans, and this also led to African Americans experiencing significant hardship during the Great Depression, especially because many were evicted from their homes when farms failed.

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

Which two reasons led to most African Americans suffering from greater hardship than the national average during the bust years? Was it that many African Americans were sharecroppers and suffered from the widespread failure of farms, that most shareholders and business owners were African Americans, that struggling companies frequently fired African American workers first, or that the government offered relief to white Americans but not to African Americans? Remember, I'm looking for two answers to this question.

So pause a video here and press play when you're ready to check your answers.

Okay, well done to everybody who said that the correct answers were A and C.

Many African Americans were sharecroppers and suffered from the widespread failure of farms, being evicted as farms failed, and struggling companies frequently fired African American workers first, increasing their experience of unemployment.

In fact, African American unemployment stood at 50% during the Great Depression, which was double the national average.

And finally, we can think about the experience of Mexican Americans and immigrants during the Great Depression.

Prejudice against Mexican Americans and immigrants became more widespread.

Mexicans were accused of stealing jobs from white workers.

People became more anxious as they lost their own jobs, and they looked for other people to blame for their hardships.

This was something that Mexican Americans and Mexican immigrants suffered terribly from.

Companies, including Ford, fired thousands of Mexican Americans under public and, sometimes, even government pressure.

Authorities deported thousands of people of Mexican heritage.

Government officials justified this by saying that it was essential for reducing unemployment of Americans, but that process disrupted and completely changed the lives of thousands of people who were moved out of the United States by force, and of their families who were sometimes split up and left behind.

So let's make sure we have a secure understanding of what we've just heard.

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

Our sentence reads: During the Great Depression, companies like Ford hired thousands of Mexican American workers.

So think about which word seems like it's incorrect, and what would you change it to in 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 that the incorrect word was hired.

In fact, it should say fired.

During the Great Depression, companies like Ford fired thousands of Mexican American workers.

These companies were under pressure from the public and even from the government to prioritise employment for white Americans rather than for groups considered to be immigrants or to be alien to the country.

So we are now in a good position to put all of our knowledge and understanding of the experiences of the Great Depression into practise.

We have a statement that reads: Americans suffered equally from hardships during the Great Depression.

So how far do you agree? I want you to write two paragraphs to explain your answer.

Use your knowledge from across today's lesson to support 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 we had the statement: Americans suffered equally from hardships during the Great Depression, and I asked, how far did you agree with that? Your answer may have included: It is not accurate to claim that all Americans suffered equally from hardship during the Great Depression as a small number of Americans enjoyed growing wealth.

For example, the actor Mae West became the highest earning actor in Hollywood, earning $300,000 for each of her film roles by the mid 1930s.

This is important because it demonstrates that, even though the majority of Americans experienced unemployment or a fall in their income during the Great Depression, some groups, such as Hollywood stars, continued to do well financially.

Your answer may also have included: It is not accurate to claim that all Americans suffered equally from hardship during the Great Depression as some groups faced greater difficulties than was common for the majority.

For example, Mexican immigrants and Mexican Americans faced increased discrimination and were accused of making unemployment for white workers worse.

Major companies like Ford fired thousands of Mexican American employees and the government even deported Mexican immigrants and some Mexican Americans to try and reduce unemployment.

This meant that many people of Mexican heritage not only experienced job losses but were treated unfairly by employers and the government during the Great Depression just because of their race.

So really well done if your own paragraphs look something similar to those two models, which we've just seen.

One of which focused on the fact that hardships couldn't have been equal because some groups did quite well, and the other which focused on the idea of hardships couldn't have been equal because some groups suffered even more than was common for the majority.

So 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 Americans faced increased hardship during the Great Depression as business failures, unemployment, poverty, and houselessness all rose.

Increased hardship was the most common experience but the Great Depression had a varied impact on different groups of Americans.

Very rich Americans often retained more of their wealth than poorer Americans because they owned lots of property and even gold.

African Americans and people of Mexican heritage generally experience greater hardship than the average American.

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

It's been a pleasure to help guide you for our resources and to reflect on our inquiry question focused on the bust years in the USA and how Americans experienced the Great Depression and how their lives were changed by it.