1. Crop Failure
8-6.3—Explain the reasons
for depressed conditions in
the textile mills and on
farms in South Carolina
and other regions of the
United States in the 1920s
and the impact of these
conditions on the coming
of the Great Depression.

2. Farming Good Times
• US exported food to feed
troops in Europe during the
war
• Brief prosperity for SC
farmers
• Cotton for uniforms
• Crops to feed the Europeans

3. Bad Luck for Farmers
• War end, resulting in
a decreased need for
crops; prices plunged
• Boll Weevil Attack!
• 1922 demand
• Drought, erosion, &
soil depletion 
• Farmers turned to
peach tress & livestock

4. The Farming Boom
• Farmers borrowed from local banks to:
– Expand
– Buy land
– Buy new equipment
– Buy insecticides to kill Boll Weevils
• With lower crop yields and plunging
prices, farmers couldn’t pay on their loans

5. Failing SC Banks
• Banks foreclosed on past due mortgages
• The state took possession of farms that owed
back taxes
• B/C banks could not make $ on their loans or
sale the foreclosed properties they began to
fail in SC (before the 1929 stock market crash)
• Dispossessed farmers became tenant or share
croppers
• Many white farmers took mill jobs

6. Changes in the Textile Industry
• Wartime factory needs dwindled
• Synthetic fibers (nylon) replaced cotton
fashions in this era
• Increased international competition by
lowering domestic tariffs
• Northern mills closed & moved
south, flourishing in SC
• SC offered readily available cheap labor

7. Southern Mill Trends
• Improved living conditions
by adding electricity &
running water
• Increased profits by using
the “speed-up” & “stretch-
out” methods
• Wage remained low
• Over production of cloth
led to reduced work hours
& lay-offs
• SC suffered from the
declining demand &
overproduction of the era
Remember the rule of
supply & demand?