Roosevelt promised relief from the economic collapse and programs to help America out of the Depression. President Roosevelt was the man with the plan. In the Bonds book it has several letters that were written to president-elect Roosevelt. Each person wrote a letter to the president telling him of their struggles. Letters from whites, black, poor, and rich were sent to Roosevelt. Some had lost their jobs due to the Great Depression. And because of the banks failing and being forced to close, the depression ruined all of their life savings. And in that day and time you worked hard for all of those savings. Some lost their farms, and their farms were their way of life. Although Mississippi was struggling economically before the Depression, Roosevelt brought great relief to Mississippians with his campaign. One program was, “The Agricultural Adjustment Administration (AAA), awarded a parity payment to farmers who volunteered for the program. In exchange for reducing the number of acres planted in crops, like cotton, farmers would receive money from the crop they did not plant” (Bonds 210). This was particularly designed for the farmers of Mississippi. And to Roosevelt this seemed to be a very logical plan, to pay …show more content…
On December 7, 1941 the people of Mississippi started their Sunday like any other, but by noon when they were arriving home from church, Mississippians lives had changed forever. “They heard the news that the Empire of Japan had bombed Pearl Harbor, A United States naval base in Hawaii.” (Busbee 260) This altered the life of Mississippians significantly. Like the rest of America, Mississippi showed great Patriotism after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. “In the course of the war more than 267,000 Mississippians entered military service, including reserves of the National Guard, volunteers, and person drafted in the selective service” (Busbee 261). The war brought tremendous economic changes to the state. Busbee goes into great detail saying, “With the sudden growth of military camps and new industries, thousands of Mississippians went to work for wages higher than the Great Depression generation could have imagined” (262). Before the war agriculture was the most important aspect to Mississippians, but most went off to war or other employment. The war brought upon many needs, so seven hundred factories were built, creating 25,000 jobs in Mississippi. Vera Anderson, the number one welder in the country, worked at Ingalls Shipbuilding Company located in Pascagoula, Mississippi. The company was the leading producer of ships (Fleeger lecture 7) while some things in Mississippi were flourishing others were