Surviving the dust bowl, many people left since the living conditions were so harsh. Some people tried to stay but in the end they had to leave since they lost their land in bank foreclosures. By 1940 about 2.5 million people have moved to the flatland; of those 200,000 moved to California. Landing in California, the migrants were confronted with an existence practically as troublesome as the one they had cleared out. The dust bowl exodus was the largest migration in American history. My website is credible and trustworthy because it follows the CARS standards. The website I picked has the authors listed, accurate information, reasonable opinions, and it is supported by many sources. I have learned that many farmers have worked very hard
The livestock was another group that was affected in the dust bowl. When the AAA demanded the farmers to plow over there land they killed 6 million young pigs were slaughtered. Many of those pigs just starved because the farmers were no longer working so they could not feed them. When the dust bowl came money farmers and ranchers livestock were killed and when they cut them open there was only dust in there lungs and guts. The cattle grazing was reduced and millions of more acres were plowed and planted.
During the 1930’s thousands of Dust Bowl migrant workers made their way from the central plain into California seeking work. In their search for work and some form of income many of the migrants and their families ended up in Hoovervilles, which were makeshift roadside camps that were greatly impoverished. Steinbeck was able to travel through the labor camps and recorded the horrible living conditions of the migrant workers. The collection of these recordings was published as Harvest Gypsies. During the tours of the labor camps he saw the oppression of the workers first hand in addition to workers being demoralized by wealthy land owners.
Donald Worster is an environmental historian and his book Dust Bowl: The Southern Plains in the 1930s helped to define the environmental history movement as it was the first environmental history book published. He breaks the stereotype of how the Dust Bowl was viewed by writing it from an environmental standpoint instead of writing a social history by focusing solely on the people and their experiences. How it helped to define the environmental history movement is that it opened up this avenue for others to write about environmental issues. He is also an anti-capitalist and this book combines his interest in the environment with the effect that capitalism has on the environment.
Dust storms rushed into the region in January of 1932, coating the area like snow and devastating all in its path. Farmers continued to till and seed land because they thought the drought would culminate at anytime. However, their actions had more impact on the situation as storm frequency intensified. The storms affected all inhabitants of the Great Plains, both socially and economically. President Franklin D. Roosevelt sought not only to shelter affected farmers, but also to teach them how to prepare for another Dust Bowl, in case it happened again.
In the book, American Exodus: The Dust Bowl Migration and Okie Culture in California, James N. Gregory attempts to change readers perspective of stereotypes created by artist during the Great Depression, such as those created by John Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath and Dorthea Lange’s photograph of the “Migrant Mother”. In his book, Gregory “takes us back to the dust bowl migration” to reveal that there is more to Oklahoman, Arkansan, Texan, and Missourian immigrants than economic hardship. He focuses on regionalism, and an “Okie” subculture that was created due to the high rate of migration to California. Gregory sets out to prove that they also had a mass effect on Californian culture and social patterns. Using extremely efficient primary
Eight Months in the Dust Bowl One group of ninth graders was put to the task of surviving one winter, 240 days, in the dust bowl with limited food and water. During this eight months the group of four, two males and two females, had only one cow, one bull, 500 bushels of wheat, and 500 gallons of drinkable water. This group decided that the best way to survive would be that every person would get 2.6 gallons of water to last them 5 days and after that five days pass each person would get an additional 2.6 gallons.
The Dust Bowl negatively affected people in an economic way. How Drought played a big role in The Dust Bowl “ Federal aid to the drought-affected states was first given in 1932, but the first funds marked specifically for drought relief were not released until the fall of 1933. In all, assistance may have reached $1 billion (in 1930s dollars) by the end of the drought (Warrick et al., 1980). “ ( Source - http://drought.unl.edu/DroughtBasics/DustBowl/EconomicsoftheDustBowl.aspx )
During the Dust Bowl, the dust became a serious threat to health and life .When dust entered the lunge, the moisture them it into mud that attached to the organ. Many people suffered from breathing problems especially children. Livestock also suffered from the dusty air and many died from such unbearable environmental conditions. Scientist predicted that the illness resulted invisible microorganisms such as bacteria or germs that lived and multiplied in dust rather from the dusty clouds.
During the Dust Bowl some people made the decision to stay at their farms. Huge drifts of dirt piled up on homesteaders’ doors, came in the cracks of windows and came down from the ceilings. Barnyards and pastures were buried in dirt. After about 850 million tons of topsoil was blown away in 1935 alone. The government responded to this by saying “Unless something is done, the western plains will be as arid as the Arabian desert.”
Dust Bowl and Economics of the 1930s The Dust Bowl was a very desperate and troublesome time for America. The southwestern territories were in turmoil due to the arid effect of the drought causing no fertile soils. As the rest of America was being dragged along with the stock market crash and higher prices of wheat and crops since the producing areas couldn't produce. This was a streak of bad luck for the Americans as they were in a deep despair for a quite some time.
Many people left during the Dust Bowl because The Great Depression was during it. 300,000 people moved to California, but in total 2.5 million people left. However, for those that stayed around lived on milk, potatoes, and canned foods, sometimes if there was nothing people would eat tumbleweeds and dandelions. To try and not inhale
The Dust Bowl had impacted farmers and their techniques. The Dust Bowl, also known as the Dirty Thirties, was a period of acute and dangerous dust storms in the midwest that greatly damaged the farming and agriculture of the American people in the 1930’s. The dust bowl was caused by major droughts in the area. The farmers were the people who were affected the most by the dust storms because there entire living was destroyed. The dust bowl affects the areas of Oklahoma, Kansas, and northern Texas because of the severe soil erosion, during that time period which forced people to move.
Causes of the Dust Bowl The dust bowl was one of the most challenging moments in history that took place from 1931-1941. During this time, people were suffering and experiencing a myriad of hardships. Even Writer Timothy Egan states in his book that it was “a classic tale of human beings pushing too hard against nature, and nature pushing back,” which is known as the dust bowl. As you can see, some of the causes that provoked the dust bowl were poor farming techniques and drought, leading to severe dust storms called “Black Blizzards,” known as the dust bowl.
Thesis:People's actions caused the dust bowl” The dust bowl Hook: It was a long decade. Full of loneliness,dullness and most of all sickness. "Dust Bowl“A severe drought happened and it had caused dry land farming and the plants could not grow.
“With the gales came the dust. Sometimes it was so thick that it completely hid the sun. Visibility ranged from nothing to fifty feet, the former when the eyes were filled with dirt which could not be avoided, even with goggles ”( Richardson 59). The Dust Bowl was a huge dust storm in the 1930s that stretched from western Kansas to New Mexico. People that lived in that area could not step outside or they would get dust in their lungs.