About 15 million people lost their jobs.

by Kevin

National Archives

When the stock market crashed in 1929, many banks and big industries shut down. The Great Depression affected American families and their children. Then the children had to work because of the Depression. And the kids ran away from home and set their lives on the railroads. They were called The Box Car Kids. 

During the Great Depression there were years of hardship. About 15 million people lost their jobs. People were unemployed and many lost their homes. The hardest year of the Great Depression was in 1933 because lots of people couldn’t afford goods. The people who had no homes and couldn’t afford goods went on bread lines that the government formed. The Great Depression did not only affect the United States, it also affected many other nations. People kept on investing and prices kept on getting higher and higher. The Federal Reserve tried to stop it by raising interest rates.

    The kids that didn’t like the child labor laws ran away to the rail roads and these were called the box car kids. Because of the child labor laws and instead of running in the woods they hopped on trains. These were called The Box Car Kids and what they did is they hopped on trains and they would jump on trains while they were moving. If they were moving and if you slipped it was tragic. And the girls on the trains mostly dressed as boys. If they didn’t go on disguised they got a bed and meals while on the trains.  

And all of this happened because of one huge event, the Great Depression.

For more information:

BACK

Ms. Garrido's Class   |  Mrs. Lebenson's Class
Pocantico Hills School