Federal Writers' Project – Life Histories/2021/Summer/105/Section 06/Lola Roberts

Overview

Lola Roberts was a housewife who lived through the Wall Street Stock Market Crash of 1929 and the Great Depression. After the death of her husband, she was left to care for their two daughters.

Biography

Early Life

Lola Roberts was born in the 1890s in Georgia. Roberts’ father owned a wholesale grocery business and served as a captain in the Confederate Army. He died when Roberts was a child and left her a $10,000 inheritance. After her father’s death, Roberts and her mother moved to Pennsylvania and lived off their inheritance and trust fund. They moved around quite often until they finally settled in New Jersey, where Roberts would meet her husband, Mr. Ramsey.

Family Life

Roberts and her husband had a short and violent marriage that nearly ended when Roberts’ mother was no longer allowed to live with them. Mr. Ramsey worked dealt with securities and in 1916, bought a home, car, and other expensive items for his wife in northern New York. Their daughter Helen was born the following year. Roberts’ mother died in 1932 and her second daughter, Alice, was born the next year.

Later Life

Mr. Ramsey’s business started to decline alarmingly after the Stock Market Crash of 1929. His financial struggles and Roberts’ suspicions of her husband’s infidelity led to Roberts’ nervous breakdowns. After some time, Mr. Ramsey proposed a divorce, but was rejected by Roberts. He moved away and sent her monthly checks for expenses. When Roberts finally decided to agree to the divorce, it was too late. Mr. Ramsey’s business was in ruins and he could not meet several demands from other creditors. He shot himself and Roberts collected his life insurance as well as other small sums of cash and moved back to North Carolina with her two daughters to live out the remainder of her life. Her date of death is unknown.

Historical Context

Stock Market Crash of 1929 and the Great Depression

Migrant Mother by Dorothea Lange is a photograph taken in 1936 in California depicting hopelessness and poverty during the Great Depression.

The Stock Market Crash of 1929 was a large stock market crash that occurred in the Fall of 1929. According to economists, the crash was caused by a variety of compounding issues. It occurred after a "long period of rising market growth that led to consumer overconfidence". Millions of people were buying stocks, which drove the prices up to unsustainable levels. Other causes include high interest rates by the Federal Reserve in August of 1929 (from 5% to 6%), panic, and a recession in the agricultural sector. Billions of dollars were lost due to the crash, and the U.S economy slipped into the Great Depression. The Great Depression was a devastating global economic depression that lasted approximately 10 years (1929-1939). The unemployment rate rose to the highest it has ever been at 25%, homelessness increased, international trade fell by 65%, and the stock market faced a huge loss of confidence among others. It would take around 25 years for the market to recover.

Mental Health and Suicide

Mental health issues and suicide became a more prominent issue during the Great Depression as financial and economic turmoil led to a significant increase in mental distress among those affected. Barke, Fribush, and Stearns note that “The rate of nervous breakdowns was high and rising operated from the 1920s to the 1960s--a key component of wider beliefs about the heavy mental toll of modern life.” Furthermore, “the national suicide rate rose to an all-time high in 1933.” All levels of society were affected by the financial shock, but young men were hit the hardest. Men were also likely to abandon their families out of embarrassment or frustration. This was commonly referred to as a “poor man’s divorce”.

Fred Horn and Rene Harper's wedding party, April 1938

Marriage during the Great Depression

Troubled marriages and broken homes were a common social theme throughout these difficult times. While divorce rates fell as many couples could not afford separate households or legal fees, desertion rates soared. Marital discord increased as men who could no longer provide for their families displayed increased signs of aggression and turned to alcohol. As such, violent and abusive marriages were common. Liker and Elder note that “both husband and wife experienced the same declining resource base, but it was typically men as chief breadwinners who lost jobs and income, as well as claims to ‘family headship’.”

Married women were also discriminated against in the job market. Married women held the tradition of being homemakers and were denied equal access to job opportunities. Historian Megan McDonald Way writes that “nine states had marriage [work ban] laws prior to the Depression”. This inequality in the job market led many to use married women as a scapegoat during the economic crisis. In 1935, lawmakers in Wisconsin passed a resolution stating that when married women with working husbands got jobs, they became the “calling card for disintegration of family life.”

Bibliography

Blakemore, Erin. “Why Many Married Women Were Banned from Working during the Great Depression.” HISTORY. HISTORY, March 5, 2019. https://www.history.com/news/great-depression-married-women-employment.

Douglas, Carter. “Folder 318: Carter, Douglas (Interviewer): Neurotic :: Federal Writers Project Papers.” Unc.edu, 2021.

“Economic Hardship and Marital Relations in the 1930s on JSTOR.” Jstor.org, 2021.

“Family and Home, Impact of the Great Depression on - Document - Gale EBooks.” Unc.edu, 2021.

https://www.facebook.com/thebalancecom. “How the Lows of the Great Depression Still Affect Us Today.” The Balance, 2021.

Konkel, Lindsey. “Life for the Average Family during the Great Depression.” HISTORY. HISTORY, April 19, 2018.

Liker, Jeffrey K, and Glen H Elder. “Economic Hardship and Marital Relations in the 1930s.” American Sociological Review 48, no. 3 (1983): 343–59. https://doi.org/10.2307/2095227.

‌Marks, Julie. “What Caused the Stock Market Crash of 1929?” HISTORY. HISTORY, April 13, 2018.

“Nervous Breakdown in 20th-Century American Culture on JSTOR.” Jstor.org, 2021.‌