- If you think the Great Depression sounds really, well, depressing, you'd be right.

It was one of the worst economic downturns in United States history.

But right before this crisis, the country had experienced a surge of rapid prosperity.

During the early 1920s, businesses expanded, industries boomed, and Americans spent money more freely.

It seemed like the good times would never end, but they did.

By the end of the decade, the economy had collapsed.

Businesses closed, banks failed, farms suffered, jobs disappeared, and families across the country struggled just to get by.

While the effects of the Great Depression were felt globally, the state of Georgia was hit especially hard.

Its economy depended heavily on farming and crops had already been battered by drought, destructive pests, and plunging prices.

So what went wrong and why was Georgia more depressed than many other states during the Great Depression?

The 1920s were known as the Roaring Twenties, and for good reason.

After World War I ended in 1918, many Americans were optimistic and excited about the future.

Jazz bands played late into the night, the Charleston took over dance halls, and businesses and cities grew.

But beneath that growth, serious problems were developing.

Trouble first began in 1915 with the arrival of a tiny destructive bug known as the boll weevil.

The boll weevil's larva feed off the boll of a cotton plant, effectively ruining it.

In a state like Georgia, whose economy largely relied on cotton production, this insect caused some serious damage.

To make matters worse, Georgia's agricultural heartland experienced a devastating three-year drought that began in the mid 1920s.

A drought is a long stretch with little or no rain.

Georgia's drought dried up crops, water supplies, and livelihoods.

Farmers lost income and their employees lost jobs.

Many rural communities struggled to survive.

As a result, thousands of people moved to urban areas in search of work.

This population shift helped some industries, such as manufacturing, grow, but agriculture, the backbone of Georgia's economy, continued to weaken.

And adding to the problem, the price of Georgia's cash crop cotton dropped to new lows as other materials became popular in the textile industry.

Farmers could have chosen to purchase expensive new equipment to expand their harvest.

The increased production would have offset plummeting prices, but most could not afford it.

Then in 1929, the situation became much worse and much more widespread.

But to understand why, we first need to look at another part of the economy, the stock market.

The stock market is like a giant store where people can buy tiny pieces of a company called shares.

The person who owns these shares is called an investor.

If the company does well, the value of those shares goes up and the investor can make money.

But if the company struggles, the shares drop in value and the investor can lose money.

In the 1920s, stock prices were rising fast.

Investors were making big profits and this made people feel confident that the good times of the Roaring Twenties would keep going.

But some investors began buying stocks with borrowed money or loans, expecting their future profits to cover their current debts.

Banks also lent out money, offering credit too easily.

This created a dangerous situation.

Stock prices rose beyond what companies were truly worth and people purchased loans they might not be able to repay.

Economists call this a financial bubble.

And in October 1929, that bubble burst.

On Monday, October 28th, the stock market fell roughly 13%.

The next day, it fell another 12%.

The stock market had crashed, and so had the Roaring Twenties.

Tons of investors, including everyday people, lost significant amounts of money and many couldn't pay back their loans.

Others panicked and rushed to banks to withdraw whatever cash remained, draining the bank's funds.

But bank deposits weren't protected by insurance at the time.

So when funds ran out, the money was really gone.

Banks had also lost money from bad loans and risky stock investments.

Some were forced to close.

Businesses struggled to stay open as people cut back on their expenses.

Many had to lay off their employees to survive while others closed completely.

Nearly one in four Americans lost their jobs.

And as if that all wasn't bad enough, farms across the Midwest began failing too.

Overfarming and severe drought in the region created an environmental disaster.

This led to catastrophic dust storms, which destroyed farmland and forced thousands of families to relocate.

Today, this event is known as the dust bowl.

The stock market crash, the dust bowl, and skyrocketing unemployment affected nearly everyone across the nation.

And that's why this time is remembered as the Great Depression.

Georgia, which was already in trouble from the boll weevil and drought, felt the pain even more than many other states.

When the stock market crashed in 1929, it only made Georgia's problems worse.

Life during the Great Depression was extremely difficult.

Children walked to school without shoes.

Families were kicked out of their homes for failing to pay their mortgages or the loans used to buy houses.

And instead of using money, neighbors often bartered for food and household items to get by.

Across the country, millions were out of work, out of homes, and out of savings.

In rural areas, including parts of Georgia, many people still lived without electricity or other basic comforts we take for granted today.

Communities leaned on one another, but it would take the United States over a decade to fully recover from the Great Depression.

The Great Depression wasn't caused by a single event.

Instead, it was a time when one problem stacked on top of another.

Pests, drought, a crashing stock market, bank failures, and high unemployment nearly all hit at once.

In Georgia, where so many people relied on farming, the impact was even worse.

But the country finally began to bounce back from the Great Depression as the United States entered World War II.

Wartime production of weapons, planes, and ships, along with the expansion of military bases, created steady jobs and income, especially for those in Georgia.

After years of loss and hardship, the nation was on the path to recovery.

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