What does it tell you about Hooverville society? Others responded to complaints by people in the neighborhood and evicted the inhabitants and burned the shacks. Many of us spend a great deal of time imagining what we'd do if we had a lot of money--if we won the lottery, for example. Library of Congress. Nearly 29 percent of the population was non-white. Most settlers were disorganized, and only a few established a form of government. How many people lived in the Hoovervilles in the 1930s? Inhabitants living in the primitive conditions of the shantytowns were subject to many health problems. At its peak, roughly 25%, maybe more, of the American work force was unemployed. It was named after Herbert Hoover, an American politician who was the president during the first years of the Great Depression. You can find out more about our use, change your default settings, and withdraw your consent at any time with effect for the future by visiting Cookies Settings, which can also be found in the footer of the site. This sample is exclusively for KidsKonnect members!To download this worksheet, click the button below to signup for free (it only takes a minute) and you'll be brought right back to this page to start the download! months[6] = "Uncover a wealth of facts and information on a variety of subjects produced by the Siteseen network. Hoovervilles were hundreds of crude campgrounds built across the United States by poverty stricken people who had lost their homes because of the Great Depression of the 1930s. This was at a time when most workers didn't have access to unemployment benefits, health care, or Social Security--in fact, none of the programs that could provide that kind of help even existed. Second New Deal Purpose & Programs | What was the Second New Deal? Others were simply holes dug in the ground covered with pieces of tin. The term was coined by the publicity director of the Democratic National Committee in 1930. However, most buildings were little more than crude shelters thrown together from wooden crates, cardboard boxes, tar paper, scrap metal, and other fire-prone discarded materials. 'Hooverville' was the nickname for any variety of makeshift shelters for homeless people, mostly victims of the Great Depression from 1929 to 1941. Homelessness was rampant during the Great Depression. In Seattle, Washington, stood one of the country's largest, longest-lasting, and best-documented Hoovervilles, standing for ten years between 1931 and 1941.Though several were located about the city, this Hooverville was on the tidal flats adjacent to the Port of Seattle. City of Seattle.Americans React to the Great Depression. Some of the homeless found shelter inside empty conduits and water mains. The suffering in the Great Depression, from 1929 to 1941, is hard for modern Americans to wrap their minds around. "Hooverville" was a deliberately politicized label, emphasizing that President Herbert Hoover and the Republican Party were to be held responsible for the economic crisis and its miseries. Dwellings in the Hoovervilles were little more than shacks built of discarded bricks, wood, tin, and cardboard. Public reaction to the Hoovervilles added to President Hoovers general unpopularity, leading to his landslide defeat by Franklin D. Roosevelt in the 1932 presidential election. Click the button below to get instant access to these worksheets for use in the classroom or at a home. Seattle's Hooverville had lasted a full decade.[4]. By the spring of 1932, when it could have most helped ease the Depression, Americas revenue from world trade was reduced by more than half. Home Facts Privacy About Blog Contact Terms. As the Depression worsened and millions of families lost their jobs and depleted their savings, they also lost their homes. Exhibit B: Location and Number of Shacks (March 5, 1941) Will Work ForAnything. Roy noted that the only Filipinos and Mexican men were segregated, generally due to language rather than racial discrimination. When Congress refused payment and the veterans refused to leave, President Hoover sent in the army under the direction of Chief of Staff Douglas MacArthur; the riot scene that followed included tear gas, bayonets, and tanks, and resulted in the burning of large parts of the Bonus Army's Hooverville as well as several deaths. Black and white men would share homes out of convenience and, likewise, exemplify camaraderie and friendship. Seattle, in 2009, is currently facing a recession that may be the most serious since the Depression of the 1930s, and a community similar to Hooverville has formed. But they eventually returned because they had nowhere else to go, and they were soon allowed to stay, owing to public sympathy. Thousands of Hoovervilles began to appear all over the country. Two young residents at a Hooverville shantytown in Washington, D.C. Longley, Robert. 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When Roosevelt took office in 1933, he acted swiftly to stabilize the economy and provide jobs and relief read more, The Stock Market Crash of 1929 occurred on October 29, 1929, when Wall Street investors traded some 16 million shares on the New York Stock Exchange in a single day. The first nine years of the so-called Roaring Twenties had been a decade of prosperity and optimism in the United States. [2], Tacoma's "Hollywood-on-the-Tideflats" was burned by city officials in May 1942, but was soon reoccupied and rebuilt. The decision led to the establishment of the Shack Elimination Committee by the City Council. Why was the Shanty Town called a Hooverville? In addition to his perceived disregard for the harm done by the Great Depression, Hoover was criticized for backing the controversial Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act. [3] Report of the Sanitation Divison December 31, 1935 as quoted in Excerpt from the Health Department Annual Report 1935, Seattle Municipal Archives: http://www.seattle.gov/CityArchives/Exhibits/Hoover/1935ar.htm (accessed December 29, 2009), [4] Report of Shack Elimination Committee (April 14, 1941), Seattle Municipal Archives (accessed December 29, 2009), Civil Rights and Labor History Consortium. In 1934, Roy recorded a population of non-White people, including Black men, Costa Rican, Chilean, Filipino, Japanese, Mexican, and. Hoovervilles: Homeless Camps of the Great Depression. Many felt that the government had to help those who lost work in the 1930s. lessons in math, English, science, history, and more. Many were established near rivers, as the above picture shows, or ponds - it helped to have access to some water. A "Hooverville" is the popular name for slum towns built by people without homes during the Great Depression. Some cities allowed squatter encampments for a time, others did not. Ultimately, they were a bitterly ironic symbol of the suffering inherent in the worst economic crisis in U.S. History. Many other names were coined by Democrats based on his opinion, including Hoover blanket, flag, leather, and wagon. months[9] = "Get fast, free facts and information on a whole host of subjects in the Siteseen network of interesting websites. This began with a heated debate over the status and rights of Hooverville residents, which became more visible in petitions submitted throughout the late 1930s. However, that didn't last long. ThoughtCo, Dec. 6, 2021, thoughtco.com/hoovervilles-homeless-camps-of-the-great-depression-4845996. Out of desperation, the homeless began building camps of makeshift shacks near cities across the nation. The camp began when an unemployed lumberjack Spread over nine acres; it housed a population of up to 1,200. Roy lived in the Hooverville in spring 1934 while conducting this survey which became his 1935 MA thesis. Some of the men who were forced to live in these conditions possessed construction skills, and were able to build their houses out of stone. Did New Deal Programs Help End the Great Depression? [9], Regardless of the gender of the residents, Hoovervilles served as a common ground for many different nationalities and ethnicities. Longley, Robert. Odd pieces of wood, stones, loose boards, crates, cardboard, scraps of other materials, old bricks and parts of boxes. The Great Depression caused social upheaval and political unrest. Join 51,000+ happy teachers and students who use our teaching worksheets and resources every day. A shantytown, also known as a Hooverville (named for U.S. President Herbert Hoover), was located in Seattle, Washington, during the Great Depression. When you visit the site, Dotdash Meredith and its partners may store or retrieve information on your browser, mostly in the form of cookies. He was the President, after all, and there were many things he could do--but he was in trouble from the start, for a couple of different reasons. Courtesy Tacoma Public Library. The highly unpopular Hoover was defeated in the 1932 presidential election by Franklin D. Roosevelt, whose New Deal recovery programs eventually helped lift the United States out of the Depression. In turn, a new lexicon came into being -- words like "Hoovervilles," "Hoover blankets" and "Hoover hogs." This Hooverville thrived because it was funded by private donations. "; [1] WATCH VIDEO: How Artists Helped End the Great Depression. People who rented their homes fell behind with the rent and were evicted by bailiffs. The nickname 'Hooverville' was given to the shanty towns that sprang up across the nation during the Great Depression. As fears grew, many Americans believed the U.S. government could and should do something to help. When most of the veterans refused to leave their shacks, Hoover ordered his Chief of Staff Gen. Douglas MacArthur to drive them out. In his Pulitzer Prize-winning 1939 novel, The Grapes of Wrath, writer John Steinbeck, vividly described his hardships as a young farmworker in the Weedpatch Hooverville near Bakersfield, California. As their investments lost value, people soon depleted their savings. 10 Question Quiz. For example, newspapers used to shield the homeless from the cold were called Hoover blankets, while empty pants pockets pulled inside outdemonstrating no coins in ones pocketswere Hoover flags., When soles wore out of shoes, the cardboard used to replace them was dubbed Hoover leather, and cars pulled by horses because gas was an unaffordable luxury were called Hoover wagons.. In 1929, unemployment was around 3%. "; President Herbert Hoover lost the election in 1932 to Franklin D. Roosevelt. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. Beyond the waters lie two rugged mountain ranges, the Olympics to the west and the Cascades to the east. Signed in June 1930, the decidedly protectionist law placed extremely high tariffs on imported foreign goods. Trade your paper with a Partner. (Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images). They were built by unemployed impoverished Americans that had been made homeless and had nowhere else to live. The New Deal Legacy & Impacts | What is the Legacy of the New Deal? Because of the lack of government, it took a lot of work. The majority of the homeless chose to live in small towns where they could easily access free soup kitchens. These are ready-to-use Hooverville worksheets that are perfect for teaching students about Hooverville, which was a small town founded by homeless people in the United States during the Great Depression. Tensions between destitute citizens and the Hoover administration climaxed in the spring of 1932 when thousands of World War I veterans and their families and friends set up a Hooverville on the banks of the Anacostia River in Washington, D.C. The largest Hooverville, located in St. Louis, Missouri, was home to as many as 8,000 homeless people from 1930 to 1936. The current "Nickelsville" is a nod to Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels, just as "Hooverville" was a sarcastic nod to . But residents rebuilt and the site remained occupied all the way through World War II. A request from the city was that women and children would not be allowed to live in the shantytown. Writer John Steinbeck featured a family who lived in a California Hooverville and sought farm work in his Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Grapes of Wrath, published in 1939. "; Longley, Robert. Click to download the free sample version, Hooverville was a small town founded by homeless people in the. Jackson was also the chairperson of the Vigilance Committee. Banks closed, and factories shut down; thousands and then millions of jobs were lost. [7], While some Hoovervilles created a sort of government, most were unorganized collections of shanty houses. Economic disparity in the United States during the 1930s was not limited to American born individuals. Most people, however, resorted to building their residences out of wood from crates, cardboard, scraps of metal, or whatever materials were available to them. READ MORE:Did New Deal Programs Help End the Great Depression? Politicians continued drinking as everyday people were slapped with charges. The people who lived in a Hooverville or Shanty Town were men, women and children, black and white, from all walks of life, who had been evicted from their homes and made homeless due to unemployment in the Great Depression. It became the most widespread crisis of the twentieth century, affecting several countries worldwide. Hoovervilles primarily popped up on the outskirts of major cities. READ MORE:Life for the Average Family During the Great Depression, In addition to the term Hooverville, President Hoovers name was used derisively in other ways during the Great Depression. As the optimism of the 1920s gave way to fear and desperation, Americans looked to the federal government for relief. Around 15,000 men joined the movement, many of whom came from far away and arrived in the area by illegally riding on railroad freight trains. All other trademarks and copyrights are the property of their respective owners. In his estimation, prosperity would return if people would simply help one another. [1] There were hundreds of Hoovervilles across the country during the 1930s.[2]. Throughout the country, Hoovervilles, or makeshift shanties, would spring up to provide shelter wherever possible, often near water sources or the soup kitchens operated by churches and charities. Interesting Facts About Hoovervilles During the Great Depression The Bonus Army of veterans built a large Hooverville in Washington D.C. that housed around 15,000 people. Residents of the previous Hooverville in Tacoma rebuilt homes on the same site they occupied throughout. 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