Time Frame: 1929

The stock market crash of 1929 was like a double whammy on farmers who had been struggling since the early 1920s. With nearly one fourth of the population working in agriculture, a farm sector in turmoil, thundered its way through the nation’s economy. Fueled by terrible unemployment and long food lines fear spread throughout the entire country, and by the early 1930s, nearly everyone was affected.

Neil Harl: Everyone realized it was a time of desperation really. A time when individuals were vulnerable and there was not much they could do about the vulnerability, except try to survive.

In 1933, as part of the New Deal, Franklin D. Roosevelt’s administration undertook the most far reaching land reform and planning program in modern American history, and one of the new agencies as the FSA, the Farm Securities Administration. The FSAs goal was to come to the aid of agricultural workers and tenant family farmers.