Federal Writers' Project – Life Histories/2023/Fall/Section18/Albert and Anne Denman

Biography

Early Life and Childhood

Having spent their childhoods raising corn and cotton with their fathers, spouses Albert (Bob) and Anne Denman were born in Geneva County, Alabama, in 1894 and 1902, respectively. Albert went to school but left after the sixth grade in favor of working but, seeing the value in a good education, he continued to read and study throughout his adult life. Albert and Anne married in 1919, and bought land in Hicoria, Florida, a little area just outside of town. After going back to Alabama briefly and finding it difficult to farm, they returned to Florida in 1925 and settled down permanently, raising five children.

Florida during the Great Depression

Married Life

Bob and Anne had five children: Lotty, born in 1921, Grace, born in 1924, Darlene, born in 1928, John, born in 1926, and Gene, born in 1930. Both Bob and Anne were proud Baptists and raised their children on the values of the Baptist Church. All of the children attended school where, in addition to traditional courses, they could take courses in business. Lotty had aspirations of becoming a teacher. Albert harbored hopes that his kids would be able to use their education to make better lives for themselves, and he wanted to find a way to send Lotty to college. Albert began raising corn and cabbage and eventually got enough money in 1933 to build a shack that he turned into a store. Though the store did not provide the family with much income, it gave the family access to more nutritious food like canned milk and dried fruit and gave Albert and Anne more money to buy proper clothes for their children. When he wasn't tending to the store, Bob farmed crops such as okra and beans in the garden in their backyard. Anne endured regular pain in her side from household chores such as washing clothes and cleaning rooms, which she did frequently while her husband worked and children were away at school. Albert and Anne tried to stay caught up with politics and were Democrats who supported FDR, crediting him with "saving" America.

Social Context

Education During and After the Great Depression

The Great Depression greatly changed the way many Americans viewed education. Before the Great Depression, around thirty percent of students graduated high school. By 1940, that percentage had increased to around fifty. Many children of low and middle income families didn’t have the opportunity to attend school. Often, children were expected to forgo education in favor of working to contribute to the income of their families. Children suffered from poorer health due to lack of access to education and early introduction into the workforce. The child labor reform laws put in place in the 1920s protected some children from the harsher parts of the labor force. Due to the lack of jobs during the Great Depression, more children attended school, with sixty-five percent of teens attending high school in 1936. Education in America underwent a major shift during this time as well. As industries began to reconstruct after the Great Depression, companies increasingly sought educated people who possessed skills beyond just a mastery of English that would make them "more effective managers, sales personnel, and clerical workers." This shift placed value in education once again, as people began to view school as an investment that could lead to higher wages in the future.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt and the New Deal

Democrat Franklin Delano Roosevelt took office in 1933 after a tight race against Hebert Hoover and immediately undertook all of the burdens of leading a country during the Great Depression. As the country's economic crises worsened around him, Roosevelt promised the American people that he would "wage war against the emergency," and wasted no time instituting his fireside chats which he used to urge citizens to reinstate their faith in the banks. These chats lasted from 1933 to 1944, and covered topics ranging from new economic polices and the fight against fascism in Europe. In an effort to make sure these chats were accessible to the majority of the American people, Roosevelt used simple language and typically addressed his listeners by saying "my friends." This approach contributed to his high approval ratings and his winning of four consecutive presidential terms, the most terms that any US president has ever served. During his first 100 days in office, Roosevelt also declared a "bank holiday" that allowed time for banks to federally inspected and confidence to return to the institutions. Under his leadership, Congress passed the 21st Amendment, ending Prohibition. Roosevelt also instated the National Industrial Recovery Act, which gave workers the right to unionize and campaign for higher wages, the Farm Security Administration, which helped families purchase farmland, and a bill that paid commodity farmers to stop production in order to end "agricultural surpluses," all during the first phase of what was called the New Deal. During the Second New Deal, Roosevelt created the Social Security Act, which gave insurance to the unemployed, the Works Progress Administration, which hellped fund construction projects across the states, and the National Labor Relations Act. Though a majority of American citizens viewed the New Deal in a positive light, some conservative politicians argued that it represented an overextension of governmental power and attempted to stop some New Deal programs. In response, President Roosevelt announced that he would appoint new liberal justices to the Supreme Court in a court packaging scheme that would ultimately harm his administration's public opinion. While this "court packing" didn't actually take place, it weakened the Roosevelt Administration and made it harder for further New Deal programs to be put in place. When America slipped briefly back into a recession in 1937, it was the bombing of Pearl Habor by the Japanese in 1941 and the onset of WWII that ultimately rejuvenated the American economy and put an end to the Great Depression.

References

“Albert and Anne Denman” interview by Barbara Berry Darsey, date February 7, 1939, Folder 104, Federal Writers’ Project Papers #3709, Southern Historical Collection, the Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Leonhardt, David. 2010. Students of the Great Recession. New York City, New York: The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/09/magazine/09fob-wwln-t.html

History.com editors. 2010. The Fireside Chats. New York City, New York: A&E Television Networks, LLC. https://www.history.com/topics/great-depression/fireside-chats

History.com Editors. 2009. New Deal. New York City, New York: A&E Television Networks, LLC. https://www.history.com/topics/great-depression/new-deal.

Nixon, H. Clarence. “The New Deal and the South.” The Virginia Quarterly Review 19, no. 3 (1943): 321–33. http://www.jstor.org/stable/26441461.

Mormino, Gary R. “Twentieth-Century Florida: A Bibliographic Essay.” The Florida Historical Quarterly 95, no. 3 (2017): 292–324. http://www.jstor.org/stable/44955689.

Goldin, Claudia. “Egalitarianism and the Returns to Education during the Great Transformation of American Education.” Journal of Political Economy 107, no. S6 (1999): S65–94. https://doi.org/10.1086/250104.

DiGirolamo, Vincent. 2007. Growing Up in Down Times: Children of the Great Depression. New York City, New York: American Social History Project. http://www.ashp.cuny.edu/YA/detail.php?rec_id=140.