Georgia History Primary Source Sets
The boll weevil took up residence in Georgia’s cotton fields between 1915 and the early 1990s and the infestation made cotton production unprofitable. This booklet, created by the Georgia State Board of Entomology in 1916, offered farmers some insight into the boll weevil infestation.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt created the Works Progress Administration (WPA) by executive order in 1935 as a part of his New Deal. The WPA acted as a work-relief program hiring unemployed citizens to build roads, bridges, airports, public parks, and other public facilities. WPA programs also included the federal art, music, theater, and writer’s projects. People were also employed for other tasks, including sewing, bookbinding and working in schools.
Like most places in the world, Georgia was affected by the First World War and played a major role, even as the country initially ignored the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. By the end of the war, though, the state housed many training grounds for American troops and contributed around 100,000 Georgians to U.S. forces. The war also affected much of the homefront, as women and African-Americans began taking part in the workforce when men went across the ocean, especially as white men were actively trying to prohibit black men from volunteering or being drafted to join the military. After the war, the rest of the nation was experiencing intense urbanization, but most of the South was remaining fairly rural and extremely segregated. When economic depression hit, African-Americans were hit hardest and many New Deal plans fell flat. These sources demonstrate Georgian life for blacks and whites during the First World War and through the Great Depression.
Click here to view the teacher guide to this primary source set.
