New Deal In South Carolina

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THE NEW DEAL’S EFFECTS ON SOUTH CAROLINA

In the presidential election of 1932, the American people were looking for a change and elected Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR). Roosevelt promised to act to end the Great Depression. He urged programs to deal with what he referred to as the “forgotten man” during the depression. These programs included legislation to end the financial crisis, grant relief, and regulation of agriculture and industry. FDR accepted the Democratic nomination for president with the words, “I pledge you—I pledge myself to a new deal for the American people” (Huff 374). This New Deal, of Roosevelt’s, was a series of actions that FDR took to meet the immediate needs of the American people. Congress stayed in session day and night for a hundred days, passing bills that were urged by Roosevelt. This period of the New Deal is referred to as the Hundred Days (Huff 374). The new president quickly won the confidence of most Americans through his dramatic speeches and his New Deal. FDR gave inspiration and hope to the underprivileged and the unemployed and reassured the country that it had “nothing to fear but fear itself.” President Roosevelt’s cabinet consisted of one South Carolinian, Daniel A. Roper, as Secretary of Commerce. As the Democrats controlled both houses of Congress, some South Carolinians, because of their seniority, attained important committee assignments (Lander 73). The New Deal had both positive and negative effects on South Carolina. The New Deal help South Carolina’s agriculture, economy, and the work force, but it also hurt some of the people. Some important New Deal measures, which are also referred to as the alphabet agencies, to affect South Carolina were the Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA), the Works Progress Administration (WPA), the National Industrial Recovery Act (NRA), Farm Credit Administration (FCA), the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA), ...