The great depression began on October 29, 1929 when the stock market completely crashed. The country was in shambles, people lost their jobs, businesses and banks went under, and poverty struck the nation. During the period of the great depression two men had control of the office, the first Herbert Hoover, a republican that believed heavily in people helping themselves and not relying on government, second there was FDR a democrat who believed that the government should be made to help the people, both men had completely different ways of trying to bring the country out of the biggest financial disaster in its history.
The great depression was one of the most detrimental and difficult things ever put on the US, people all across the country lost their jobs, went hungry, lost their homes, and were forced to live in poverty. People had to resort to eating out of dumpsters, scavenging for food, living in hoovervilles, sharing a small house with multiple families. One boy states that “We ate that dog meat with potatoes” (Doc 1). People were forced to eat meat that was meant for dogs, not humans. They were forced to live of small scraps of low grade meat and potatoes for weeks at a time. African Americans at this time were also put in extreme hardships, with most of their employers no longer having enough money to hire them they were forced to live in run down shacks, and rent out rooms to other people just to make up the rent. “Negro families were forced to take in lodgers […] frequently whole families slept in one room.” (Doc 2).
President Hoover believed “the Government should not support the people.” Hoover a self-made man, believed people should be able to support themselves, and make someone of themselves on their own, like he did. “Hoover on the other hand tells the working man to build homes, and in the face of the fact nearly every working man has had his home taken off of him” (doc 3). For quite some time, he simply refused to