Presentation Transcript

1. The Calm Before the Storm

   The Flood of 1927 King Cotton Great Depression
2. The Flood of 1927 Dennis Murphee succeeded Henry Whitfield as governor Major catastrophe happened during his term A levee gave way and the Mississippi River flooded Nearly 3 million acres of Delta land under water
3. 185,000 fled the waters Gathered at the top of levees and Indian mounds Rescue boats-mainly took white women and children National Guard- Came in and evacuated whites and established camps for blacks
4. The Actual Flood Covered 27,000 square miles The River was 70 miles wide Flood water did not go down til late summer Whole cotton crop was lost
5. King Cotton Despite major set backs, cotton was still major crop of Mississippi Prices increased dramatically from 1911-1919 1920- prices fell from 40 cents to around 9 cents a pound Production was still mostly done by hand 1931- prices fell to 6 cents- which was less than it cost to produce it
6. How did this affect the farmers??? Small planters struggled to grow cotton Delta planters- group that still prospered Sharecropping brought in profits in which the Delta planters invested in the stock market Cotton prices helped to promote football at Mississippi A & M (MSU!!) and tsun. It also funded teams in the Cotton States League-pro baseball in the south
7. New Industries New factories were made for cheese and milk and even tomato production Biggest boom of the 1920s was real estate People were moving to Florida- the spillover of crowd ran into the MS Gulf Coast. Built hotels and casinos Prohibition brought some prosperity to the area
8. Kiln in Hancock County became famous for supplying Chicago gangster Al Capone with “Kiln Lightning” Moonshine Fishermen smuggled liquor from Cuba Gulf Coast became major port of entry Became illegal port
9. Prohibition and Moonshine

10. The Great Depression

    Leading up to the Depression Causes of the Depression Effects of the Depression on Mississippi
11. Troubles on the Horizon Economy was looking good Value of the stock market increased from $27 billion in 1925 to $87 bil in 1929 Wages rose: over 40%/ unemployment decreased to less than 4% Credit- used to purchase many new items such as appliances, cars, homes and enjoy them while using them
12. Why was the use of credit a problem? Government was encouraging borrowing by keeping interest rates low to fuel growth of the economy Many people had loans with banks-when they lost their jobs they couldn’t repay loans Failure to repay loans caused bank failures which meant people lost their deposits
13. Causes Crazy investing in stock market Get-rich-quick attitudes Over use of credit Stock speculation led to inflated stock prices Once prices fell-stock prices also fell; companies lost money Unemployment rose to 25%- up from 4% This caused stock prices to fall and more companies failed Effects Inflated prices of company stocks People put life-savings in stock market losing it all Banks had loaned out investors’ money; this meant there was no money to repay debts When demand fell, so did prices As companies lost money, they laid off workers If people couldn’t work-they couldn’t pay loans, causing banks to fail and money to be lost
14. Black Thursday October 29, 1929 Stock Market Crashes banks lost money in the market crash and customers couldn’t repay loans so many banks began to fail—as they failed, investors lost all their money on deposit. People PANICKED!!! Ran on the banks to withdraw their money before it could happen to them
15. Poverty increased dramatically
16. HIGH Unemployment
17. Effects of the Great Depression on Mississippi Causes mass bank foreclosures and tax sales on farms 1932- 10% of farm owners lost their land because they couldn’t repay their loans So much farmland and we could not feed our own people Martin “Mike” Conner- Governor of MS with no money in the treasury, left with huge State debt. Proposed a sales tax Teachers were paid in scrip (basically an IOU) Landowners could not pay rent People had only the clothes on their back and were on the move to seek work.