The American economy has suffered through many slumps throughout the United States history. Some slumps were worse than others. However, the worst economic times in the U.S. history was the period of the Great Depression. The Great Depression was sparked by the crash of the stock market in October of 1929, and lasted until 1941. "This depression was deeper, wider, and longer than any previous slumps in the American economy." Therefore, the effects of the Great Depression reached more of the middle class America, and were particularly hard on the south.

Although the nation was industrializing, one quarter of the entire population of the south was sharecroppers and tenant farmers. The south also had a large population of African Americans who were descendants of freed slaves. The farmer suffered financially during the 1920's, and they had not recovered by the time the depression hit. Their situation only worsened. Plantation...