1. 8.6-4—Explain the effects of the Great
Depression and the lasting impact of the New
Deal on people and programs in South Carolina,
including James F. Byrnes and Mary McLeod
Bethune, the Rural Electrification Act, the
general textile strike of 1934, the Civilian
Conservation Corps, the Works Progress
Administration, the Public Works
Administration, the Social Security Act, and the
Santee Cooper electricity project.
2. The
Great Depression
Begins
• The crash of the stock market in October 29,
1929 marked the beginning of the Great
Depression
• Stock market crash was not the cause of the
Great Depression though
• SC had already been in a depression for many
years before the crash
• After the crash, conditions in SC did continue
to deteriorate
3. Depression Impact on SC
• Banks continued to fail
• Some textile mills closed
• More farmers lost their land to foreclosures
• The railroad went bankrupt
• One quarter if South Carolinians were
unemployed
4. Depression Impact on SC
• People had no money to
spend in local stores
• Marriage & birth rates
dropped
• Young men wondered
from town to town looking
for work
• Churches & charitable
organizations couldn’t
keep up with the demand
for food & shelter any
longer
• People looked to the
government for help
5. Roosevelt’s Promise
• Roosevelt elected president in Nov 1932 on his
promise of a “New Deal for the American people”
• Sought advise from South Carolinians: James F.
Byrnes & Mary McLeod Bethune.
• First “hundred days” in office; started an
aggressive program to bring relief, recovery, &
reform to the country
• Used radio “fireside chats”- Americans have
“nothing to fear but fear itself”
• Program not specifically designed for SC, but had
significant long-term impact
6. James F. Byrnes
• Byrne selected to
senate in 1930
• Helped pass the New
Deal
• Served as an
important domestic
policy advisor
• Served as SC senator
until 1941 when he
accepted an
appointment to the
Supreme Court
• Later served as head
of the Office of War
Mobilization, Secretary
of State, & Governor
of SC
7. Mary McLeod Bethune
• Educator & civil rights
leader
• Founded a college
• Organized the National
Council of Negro Women
• Served as the Director of
Negro Affairs for the
National Youth
Administration
• Influential member of the
unofficial “Black Cabinet” (a
group of black leaders
President Roosevelt
consulted)
8. The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC)
• Put unemployed young men to work
in the nation’s parks
• They lived in army camps & sent
most of the $ they made back home
• This $ pumped local economies
again
• 50,000 SC men were employed in
reforestation & soil conservation
projects
• They built parks including: Hunting
Island, Paris Mountain, Poinsett, &
Myrtle Beach State Parks
• Still segregated
9. The Public Work Administration (PWA) &
Works Progress Administration (WPA)
• Building projects that put people back to work, but also
improved communities
• PWA: build schools, libraries, courthouses, & US Navy
aircraft carriers
• WPA: built highways, airports, bridges, playgrounds,
hospitals, & schools
• WPA employed artists & writers to produce murals,
plays, & record interviews with former slaves that
preserved the historical record of African Americans in
SC
• Job creation programs put some people back to work,
alleviated their despair & economic hardship, *
pumped some money back into the economy
• The New Deal did not result in economic recovery
10. Social Security Act
• Designed as a reform system to prevent future
depressions & provide for the elderly, orphaned,
the disabled, & the unemployed
• Old age benefits were important for SC b/c it did
offer a program like this for the elderly
• Cost was shared by the workers & their
employers
• The basic social welfare legislation in the US
• Set the precedent for future aid to people in need
• Social Security was criticized b/c of this precedent
• Poverty rate for the elderly declined as a result
11. Santee Cooper Electricity Project
• Largest New Deal project in SC
• Promoted by Senator Byrnes
• Built dams along the Santee & the Cooper
Rivers
• Created Lake Marion & Lake Moultrie
• Hydroelectric dams:
– produced power for the region
– Provided jobs for builders
– Industries made possible by the power provided
– Improved living conditions for many in SC
12. Lake Marion Dam
Ferguson cypress swamp
Graves documented
before they were
flooded over to make
the lake
13. The Rural Electrification Act
• Brought power to
farms & rural regions
of SC
• Creative power
cooperatives
• By 1940. 25% of farms
had electricity
• Farmers who still had
their land were able to
install milking
machines & water
pumps that made
farming more
profitable
14. National Recovery Act
• Designed to address problems of overproduction
& declining prices for farmers & industry
• Set up codes for industries to regulate prices for
consumers & standard work hours and wages for
workers
– did not guarantee a 40 hr work week
• Did not effect the “speed up” or “stretch out”
methods of mills
• SC Mill workers unhappy with wages & working
conditions joined a labor union & called a general
strike in 1934
15. Mill Strike
• Affected mills along the eastern seaboard
• Violence broke out between union members &
strike breakers (scabs)
• In SC, deputies fired on a crowd in Honea Path
(Chiquola Mill) killing 7 workers & injuring others
• Roosevelt urged worker to end the strike & allow
arbitration for a settlement
• Strikers agreed- SC mill owners did not; keeping
their mills closed even when workers were ready
to return
• Strike led to the collapse of the union in SC
• In SC, the general textile strike intensified anti-
union sentiment which continues today
17. •The New Deal
did not end the
Great Depression.
•The Great
Depression ended
when the US
became involved
in helping the
Allies fight Hitler’s
Germany in
World War II
