Harper Lee's novel To Kill a Mockingbird is set in Maycomb, Alabama during the early to mid-1930s. It was written by Harper Lee and published in 1960, and was her only published book. The story takes place against the backdrop of the Great Depression and Jim Crow laws, which legalized racial segregation and discrimination in the Southern United States at that time.

1. To Kill a Mockingbird
An introduction
and some background

2. Author
To Kill a Mockingbird was
written by Harper Lee.
It was her only
published book.
She was born in 1926
and is still alive. She’s
known for refusing give
speeches or
interviews.

3. Setting
The novel is set in
Maycomb, Alabama
during the early to
mid-
1930s.

4. Setting
 Maycomb, Alabama
is a fictional town, but
is thought to be
modeled on the town
where Harper Lee
grew up, Monroeville,
Alabama.

5. Setting
Important historical background:
The Great Depression, which started with a
major stock market crash in 1929, resulted in
widespread unemployment and poverty.

6. Setting: Alabama in The Great Depression
Alabama Schoolhouse

7. Setting: Alabama in The Great Depression
Alabama Sharecropper

8. Setting: Alabama in The Great Depression
Tenant farmers in an Alabama cotton field

9. Setting: Alabama in The Great Depression
Alabama farm family, 1935

10. Setting
Important historical background:
Jim Crow refers to both the official laws and
unwritten rules of behavior that kept African-
American citizens segregated from and in a
lower socio-economic position than white
citizens.

11. Setting: Jim Crow in the South
Many jobs weren’t available to African-Americans.

12. Setting: Jim Crow in the South
Public transportation was segregated.

13. Setting: Jim Crow in the South
Medical care was segregated.

14. Setting: Jim Crow in the South
African-American neighborhoods were typically poorer
than white neighborhoods.

15. Setting: Jim Crow in The South
Nearly 3,500 African
Americans were lynched
between the years of
1882 and 1968.