AMH-2020 Lecture Notes - Lecture 14: Okie, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Donald Worster
Document Summary
The dust bowl and the nature of history. Technological advances: plows to break up soil, mechanization of farm equipment. Combine harvesters: these advances further erode the soil. Destabilization of soil plus a drought equals dust: no plants. Plants dying: when there are no plants to cover the ground, the soil/dust is vulnerable to wind. Black friday: a cloud of black dust engulfed towns and anything in its tracks, the cloud blocked the sun. Travels across states: displaces over 300 million tons of topsoil, people packed up their things and fled. Okies: the people who left the dust bowl, they headed west. To ca in particular: had little money. Camped out on the sides of highways etc. Ca(cid:373)ps (cid:449)ere (cid:272)alled (cid:862)little oklaho(cid:373)as(cid:863: they served as migrant farm workers, they traveled around as the seasons changed to find work, they worked for large farming conglomerates, they are only welcome during harvesting season.
