WP1: Pre-Writing Assignment 3

By 1910, a majority of black farmers in the Delta had lost their land and were sharecroppers. By 1920, the third generation after freedom, most African-Americans in Mississippi were landless laborers again facing poverty (New World). "The Southern Blacks felt the worst of this economic despair, as seen by the grand migration of blacks to the north and west. There opinion of their social status however differed from one interviewee to the other. Some said the life the lived currently was worse than the life of slavery that they used to live; some said their life now was easier than the life of slavery and some yet said it did not make a difference free or enslaved" (Briggs). A perfect quote is one made by Andrew Boone who said “It’s all hard, slavery and freedom, both bad when you can’t eat" (Shaw)

In 1929, the Great Depression started and when on through all the the 1930's. It didn't just effect the black people but the whites as well. Families couldn't afford clothes or food because their husbands and fathers have lost their jobs. In 1927, the Great Mississippi flood took place where my picture was taken (The Mississippi Delta). The people in that area where still trying to recover from that when the the Great depression took place.

After doing more research on the time era of when this picture was taken, it hasn't altered my perception of this picture. It has more confirmed that the way the children are dressed and their facial expressions are showing what they felt that time. They show us how the United States felt at this time. Most people in the United States where depressed and going through hardship. Either they have lost their job, can't find one or their crops have been destroyed by weather. In Mississippi they were still trying to recover from the great flood but in California they were dealing with a drought. It wasn't just African American people suffering, it was wealthy white people as well because of the stock market crashing.

Work Cited

Stephanie J Shaw, "Using the WPA Ex-Slavery Narratives to Study the Impact of the Great Depression." Journal of Southern History, Vol. 69 No. 3 (Aug 2003), 634.

Briggs, Jennifer. "1930's Race relation in the American South: Reationship of Grace McCune and Mirriam McCommons." 9 March, 2004.

New World Encyclopedia. "Mississippi."