Dust Bowl Thesis

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Pages: 3

Dismay struck the farmers of South Central United States as the Dust Bowl and Great Depression fell upon them, forcing the farmers off of their land, and eventually west to the “promised land”, California. Coming from a life of their own farm, they were hesitant and anxious to move to an unknown life out west.
The Great Depression was a cataclysm for the United States economy. It began in 1929 and economy didn’t revive until 1939. Several factors such as the stock market collapsing and the lack of power that the middle class held on the market lead to such dismay (UH - Digital History).
Several hardships arose from The Great Depression. People were losing their jobs, leaving them no choice but to move in hope of new jobs or to succumb to
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The land was painted an orange-brown, trees were laying horizontal instead of vertical, and homes were destroyed or what was left matched the color of the ground. Farms were destroyed leaving people with one choice, to leave. With hope lost and dreams destroyed, they instantly jumped on a promise, a promise of a new life.
Okies Migrate
As The Great Depression and Dust Bowl combo lead people west in hope of jobs, the term Okies arose. Okies were anyone, not just people from Oklahoma, that went out west because they were promised jobs on a farm doing labor such as harvesting various crops. The mass migration started around the 1930s as The Dust Bowl had just began.
Several risks were involved in moving. They put a lot of trust into the thought that this wasn’t just a scam and they weren’t going to be used as slaves or that there were even jobs at all. Another risk is that they would he to look for a place to live, if they would earn enough to sustain a life, and how they will eat before they get paid.
Overall, The Great Depression and The Dust Bowl are awful enough on their own, but together, they inflicted a lot of destructive force, both on the land and on their lives. They were lead into an unknown life with hope and a lot of