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Dust Bowl Dbq

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The Dust Bowl also known as the dirty thirties was a major crisis that happened in the United States in the 1930's. Drought struck over the Midwest causing their crops to perish and eventually making a majority of the farmers go into poverty. Thus causing them to flee from their homes and their belongings. looking for opportunities elsewhere. Some walked, some took the train, and some drove if they were fortunate enough to afford one. There are many different primary sources that picture this crisis which all lead to the conclusion that it was a devastating era in the Midwest and filled with misfortune. A few primary examples are as follows.

This picture shows one of the many dust storms that the Mid-West encountered in the Dust Bowl. In …show more content…

In the advertisement on the billboard payed for by the Southern Pacific railroad, it says “Next time try the train and relax.” However, this implies that the railroad company is taunting them because a majority of the farming business were run into the ground. There is no way that they would be able to afford a train ticket to travel half way across the United States. Also when looking at the source, the two people in the picture who appear to be husband and wife are carrying very little with them. This is most likely the case because of the many dust storms they had encountered and nothing was salvageable to keep. This also may be the case because they couldn’t afford something such as a mule to carry their stuff and even less an automobile. This source truly shows how much poverty these farmers were in because one train ticket to the Midwest to California was a little under seventy dollars. As known, money was more valuable in the past. However, if they made as much as minimum wage in those times which was around 25 cents and they worked for 8 hours a day, they would be able to afford one train ticket in a month and change. But farmers worked countless hours a day and still couldn’t make that small amount of money. That is why most farms had to walk instead of taking the train or …show more content…

He was most likely a member of the Okies who were a group of famers who decided that it was best to seek opportunities elsewhere so they headed west towards California. However, these farmers didn’t have one key piece of information which was that the stock market had recently crashed in California. So they were basically moving from one disaster to another. This source also depicts a woman and her child. It appears as if the woman is covering her nose. This implies that there was so much dirt/dust in the air that they were starting to inhale it. The baby also appears to be in a full body suit because it is very bad for babies to inhale other substances other than air. Salvageable or not, this family had no choice but to bring along most of their stuff because they had themselves to support and a child. They most likely also made a big investment on the car so they could afford to buy new furniture and other

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