definitions Flashcards
viola desmond
Viola Desmond was a Canadian civil and women’s rights activist and businesswoman of Black Nova Scotian descent. In 1946, she challenged racial segregation at a cinema in Nova Scotia, by refusing to leave a whites-only area of the theater and got arrested by police.
bennett buggies
This was a term used in the great depression to describe a car which usuaully had its engine taken out and pulled by a horse attached to it, to pull the car. This is because people didn’t have the money anymore to pay for gas for the car and so they had to attach these horses to get around since they were stuck with these automobiles.
tariffs
The Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930 raised U.S. import duties with the goal of protecting American farmers and other industries from foreign competition. The Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act is now widely blamed for worsening the severity of the Great Depression in the U.S. and around the world, as it stopped foregin trade.
residential schools
These were institutions run by the Roman catholic church that took Indigenous children away from their parents to a big school. The point of these institutions was to get rid of the children’s culture and language and would teach these children that they are dirty and need to turn to god for forgiveness. These children would be abused and tortured never to see their parents again.
riding the rails
Traveling on the train without paying because people were trying to look for work since no one had money at this time.
africville
Is a town in Halifax Nova scotia that the black people that set up the city created when they were discriminated against. They set up their own community where they provided for themselves until the 1970s when the land was completely destroyed.
new deal
In 1933 Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected to the presidency of the United States on a promise to address the hardships faced by Americans during the Great Depression. The program focuses on what has come to be called the three Rs. Roosevelt reorganized the banks to prevent corrupt practices and began public work projects to get Americans back on their feet. Prime minister Mackenzie King would imitate the New Deal in Canada.
the 3 r’s
Relief for the unemployed and the poor,
Recovery of the economy back to normal levels,
Reform of the financial system to prevent a repeat depression.
boom
rapid economic growth. Plentiful jobs, high inflation rates, rising asset prices.
bust
rapid economic downfall. Deflation, unemployment, asset losses.
dustbowl
period of severe dust storms that greatly damaged the ecology and agriculture of North American prairies. Impossible for farmers to grow crops. Farmers abandoned their land and migrated in search of employment and income. Farmers lost their purchasing power from other businesses. Declined demand, production, and employment.
stock market
where investors buy and sell shares of their company
black tuesday
The wallstreet crash of 1929 was called black tuesday when the stock market collapsed from September to November of that year. The share prices of the New York stock exchange collapsed.
hooverville
Hooverville was a town built during the Great Depression by the homeless in the United States. They were named after Herbert Hoover, who was President of the United States during the onset of the Depression and was widely blamed for it because banks and financial institutions that had loaned money began to fail.
on-to-ottawa trek
In April 1935, many of the men in the B.C. camps staged a walkout to demand better working conditions and higher wages. They left the camps and walked or hitched rides to Vancouver. There , they planned to jump on freight trains to take their case to the prime minister in Ottawa
