facts about hoovervilles

"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. Tacoma had a large encampment that spanned six blocks. However, some countries retaliated by raising their tariffs, and international trade was hampered. But residents rebuilt and the site remained occupied all the way through World War II. Did you know? Most Hoovervilles operated in an informal, unorganized way, but the bigger ones would sometimes put forward spokespersons to serve as a liaison between the camp and the larger community. Browse Catalog. Who lived in a Hooverville or Shanty Town? (Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images). The homeless clustered in shanty towns close to free soup kitchens. There were dozens in the state of Washington, hundreds throughout the country, each testifying to the housing crisis that accompanied the employment crisis of the early 1930s. President Herbert Hoover, however, refused to propose any assistance programs, saying instead that Americans should help each other. However, that didn't last long. The new population was forced to set up makeshift "towns" known as "Hoovervilles." 16. WATCH VIDEO: How Artists Helped End the Great Depression. var months = new Array(12); He described the population as fluid in 1938, owing to men selling their homes to newcomers and moving on. Many people turned to farming, and grew the food themselves, like fruits, vegetables, cattle, chickens, sheep, and hogs. The term was coined by Charles Michelson. [7], While some Hoovervilles created a sort of government, most were unorganized collections of shanty houses. The Great Depression was the greatest and longest economic recession of the 20th century. Seattle's decision to raze Hooverville in 1941 and expel its residents relied on a discourse of "otherness" that set Hooverville economically, socially, and geographically apart. It began with the United States stock market crash of 1929, and didn't completely end until after . There was no work, people were starving and the local police repeatedly burned down the camp. Filipinos and Mexicans were the only ones who were separated, but this was due to language rather than racial discrimination. 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. By 1932, Hoover was so unpopular that he had no realistic hope of being re-elected, and Governor Franklin D. Roosevelt of New York won that years presidential election in November by a landslide. Police officers doused the little structures with kerosene and lit them as spectators watched. Despite being some of the hardest hit victims of the Great Depression, the encampments residents remained upbeat, naming their neighborhoods Hoover Heights, Merryland, and Happyland. They elected a mayor and a liaison to represent the camp in negotiations with St. Louis authorities. By the early 1940s, with the economy rebounding during World War II, many Hoovervilles had fewer residents and most were torn down. President Herbert Hoover did not do much to alleviate the crisis: Patience and self-reliance, he argued, were all Americans read more, The Great Depression was the worst economic downturn in the history of the industrialized world, lasting from 1929 to 1939. Along with Hoovervilles, other derogatory terms aimed at President Hoovers continued refusal to initiate welfare programs became common in both the homeless camps and newspapers. What were the Hoovervilles (Shanty Town) of the Great Depression? "; He believed this would represent a philosophical shift in what the government was supposed to be for--namely, to ensure a level playing field for economic opportunity, but not to regulate or take over the functions of the market. Library of Congress. Cookies collect information about your preferences and your devices and are used to make the site work as you expect it to, to understand how you interact with the site, and to show advertisements that are targeted to your interests. Most people, however, resorted to building their residences out of wood from crates, cardboard, scraps of metal, or whatever materials were available to them. This issue will be discussed more below. Hooverville shanties were constructed of cardboard, tar paper, glass, lumber, tin and whatever other materials people could salvage. With such a well-developed social order, the camp maintained itself as a functional separate community from 1930 to 1936, when President Franklin D. Roosevelts New Deal sweeping economic recovery plan allocated federal funds for its removal. Come learn about Hoovervilles, how they got their name, and. What became the city's main Hooverville started as a group of little huts on land next to Elliott Bay south of "skid road," as the Pioneer Square area was then called. 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. Some Hoovervilles were dotted with vegetable gardens, and some individual shacks contained furniture a family had managed to carry away upon eviction from their former home. Almost 6,000 shanty towns, called Hoovervilles, sprang up in the 1930s. Hoovervilles varied in size from a few hundred residents to thousands of people in larger cities like New York City, Washington, D.C., and Seattle, Washington. https://www.thoughtco.com/hoovervilles-homeless-camps-of-the-great-depression-4845996 (accessed March 1, 2023). The state described as 'absolute poverty' has been described as "a condition characterized by severe deprivation of basic human needs, including food, safe drinking water, sanitation facilities, health, shelter, education and information". months[3] = "Check out the interesting and diverse websites produced and created by the international publisher in the Siteseen network. Click the Edit button above to get started. The large camps were set up on the worst type of unused or public land often on the outskirts of towns and cities. Many authorities frequently tolerated the shantytowns out of sheer necessity. Multiple factors led to the Great Depression, including the U.S. stock market crash in October 1929 and the widespread failure of the American banking system, both of which helped destroy confidence in the nations economy. Nonwhites comprised 29% of the colony's population, including 120 Filipinos, 29 African Americas, 25 Mexicans, 4 Native Americans, 4 South Americans, and 2 Japanese. See the fact file below for more information on the Hoovervilles, or alternatively, you can download our 20-page Hooverville worksheet pack to utilize within the classroom or home environment. No two All rights reserved. A Tarpaper Carthage: Interpreting Hooverville, by Joey Smith, In 1930, the largest Hooverville in America, consisting of four distinct sectors, was established in St. Louis. A "Hooverville" is the popular name for slum towns built by people without homes during the Great Depression. We spend less time wondering what we'd do if we lost it all and had to make do with virtually nothing. [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. St. Louis, Missouri, and Seattle, Washington, were home to two of the countrys largest and longest-standing Hoovervilles. Brief History of Seattle. Summary and Definition: The Shanty Towns, known as Hoovervilles, sprang up across the nation during the Great Depression (1929 - 1941). Herbert Hoover was a rising star of American politics when he won the presidential election of 1928. Some were as small as a few hundred people while others, in bigger metropolitan areas such as Washington, D.C. and New York City, boasted thousands of inhabitants. In this lesson, look at the Great Depression, some historical background, and the definition of and facts about Hoovervilles. President Herbert Hoover lost the election in 1932 to Franklin D. Roosevelt. Usually built on vacant land, the camps were largely tolerated by city authorities. In 1932, Hooverville was established in Anacostia, District of Columbia, to house a group of. All the Hoovervilles were 'eradicated' at the end of the Great Depression in 1941. He wrote that the racial barriers constructed in normal society did not stand within the Hooverville. Roy lived in the Hooverville in spring 1934 while conducting this survey which became his 1935 MA thesis. Many felt that the government had to help those who lost work in the 1930s. WATCH VIDEO: Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal. .adslot_1 { width: 300px; height: 250px; } The Great Depression drew to an end with the outbreak of WW2 and municipal programs aimed at "eradicating" shantytowns destroyed all the Hoovervilles. Whenever possible, Hoovervilles were built near creeks, streams, and rivers to provide a source of water. 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. More often than not, Hoovervilles were tolerated. Shanty towns also appeared in or near other cities. Most were white with the majority of them foreign-born, especially Scandinavians. Enrolling in a course lets you earn progress by passing quizzes and exams. As America's housing and economic crisis worsened through 2009, homelessness was on the rise. Roy documents a unique spirit of tolerance and amiability between ethnic groups. In turn, a new lexicon came into being -- words like "Hoovervilles," "Hoover blankets" and "Hoover hogs." var current_date = new Date(); month_value = current_date.getMonth(); day_value = current_date.getDate(); year_value = current_date.getFullYear(); document.write( months[month_value] ); was the 31st American President who served in office from March 4, 1929 to March 4, 1933. It was a period of the global economic crisis that began with a significant drop in stock prices in the United States. (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); By 1932, between one and two million American people were homeless. How many Hoovervilles or Shantytowns were there? ThoughtCo, Dec. 6, 2021, thoughtco.com/hoovervilles-homeless-camps-of-the-great-depression-4845996. The term Hooverville itself is a partisan political attack on Herbert Hoover, who was the President of the United States at the time. Homeless people roamed the country looking for food and work. Many Hoovervilles were built along rivers, proving drinking water and allowing some residents to grow vegetables. [9], Regardless of the gender of the residents, Hoovervilles served as a common ground for many different nationalities and ethnicities. 19. However, the countrys 31st president, Republican Herbert Hoover, who took office in March 1929, believed that self-reliance and self-help, not government intervention, were the best means to meet citizens needs. By the end of the decade it covered a six block area and, like Seattle's Hooverville, included a large number of little houses that residents had built out of scrap materials and steadily improved over the years. Even during the worst of the Depression, most Hooverville residents continued to seek employment, often taking backbreaking seasonal jobs like picking and packing field crops. The largest Hooverville, located in St. Louis, Missouri, was home to as many as 8,000 homeless people from 1930 to 1936. Some homes were not buildings at all, but deep holes dug in the ground with makeshift roofs laid over them to keep out inclement weather. Twelve million Americans, about 25% of the normal labor force, were out of work and many suffered poverty, deprivation and homelessness. "Hoovervilles: Homeless Camps of the Great Depression." After negotiating with the camps mayor, the Health Department agreed to let the residents remain as long they observed minimal safety and sanitary rules. In 1929, unemployment was around 3%. They were built by unemployed impoverished Americans that had been made homeless and had nowhere else to live. Many Americans in need believed the resolution to their problems lay in government assistance, but Hoover resisted such a response throughout his presidency. A structured government ran Hooverville in Seattle, Washington, and extensive documentation was collected. Not ready to purchase a subscription? 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It was a highly diverse population. Homelessness followed quickly from joblessness once the economy began to crumble in the early 1930s. One of the most famous ways in which people migrated during the timeframe of the Great Depression was by 'riding the rails' on trains. Many Americans quickly purchased automobiles, appliances, and stocks, but they did so on credit. People were expected to fend for themselves. New York City: Depression shacks "Hoover Village" in the old Central Park reservoir. months[4] = "Locate all of the popular, fast and interesting websites uniquely created and produced by the Siteseen network. He explained that the population was fluid, as men sold their shacks to newcomers and moved on, and at its maximum during the winter months when it reached as hight as 1,200. 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. Click here to see more photographs of Hoovervilles and homeless encampments in Seattle and Tacoma. , but this was due to language rather than racial discrimination problems in! And Seattle, Washington, were home to two of the Great.... Repeatedly burned down the camp in negotiations with St. Louis authorities automobiles, appliances, and didn & x27! Many authorities frequently tolerated the shantytowns out of sheer necessity the way through World War II began the... Doused the little structures with kerosene and lit them as spectators watched due... 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