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,

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) recruited men between the ages of seventeen and twenty-four years old who were out of work. The period of work was six months, and a person could serve a maximum of two years. In May 1933, the CCC began work on the Cheraw State Park in Chesterfield County. By 1938 South Carolina had fourteen state parks, for whites only, built by CCC labor (Huff 380). The New Deal proffered hopes and opportunities for survival; and most families borrowed federal money to start farming again or went willingly to the Civilian Conservation Corps camp in Augusta (Bethel 202). In the meantime, adult schools were established in 24 Civilian Conservation Camps throughout the state, and over 1800 young men were enrolled in off-duty classes (Lander 137).

The Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA) created farm regulations. For farmers the federal government in 1933 offered the AAA, which provided subsidies in seven basic commodities to farmers who would agree to crop control (Lander 126). The AAA made payments to farmers if they cut back production. This drop in production of crops was believed would keep farm prices high (Huff 375). The AAA eventually put cotton, tobacco, and several other farm products under a quota system, whereby individual farmers were limited in the amount that each could produce. This was intended to cut production and eliminate large crop surpluses. The federal government would guarantee the farmer a minimum price for his products just as long as he did not exceed his allotment. Although grumbling arose over setting quotas, and the red tape ad inefficiency involved, many South Carolina farmers admitted that the AAA saved them from bankruptcy as cotton rose from five to ten cents a pound (Lander 73-74). On the contrary, the AAA had a negative effect on tenants and sharecroppers. The crop reduction program resulted in de facto eviction of thousands of Negro tenants and sharecroppers, no longer useful labor to their white landlords. Still, some of the landowning farmers at Promise Land realized benefits from the program. Their farms were small ones, and the amount of government money that found its way into the community was minute, but it was more than the farmers had before Roosevelt’s New Deal (Bethel 199). New Deal measures saved many landowners from bankruptcy but offered little benefit for South Carolina’s 102,000 farm tenants. In fact, between 1929 and 1939 cotton acreage in America was reduced almost in half. In addition, landowners were increasingly turning to tractors and other mechanized equipment. Thus many landlords dismissed tenants. During the 1930s more than 25,000 South Carolina tenant farmers gave up their farms to become day laborers or seek relief. But federal relief was meager--$10.49 a month in 1933 for white sharecropper families, $8.69 for blacks (Lander 126-128).

The Farm Credit Administration (FCA) reorganized farm credit agencies and supplied additional credit to the agrarians. The Commodity Credit Corporation was established to advance loans to farmers with nonperishable crops as security (Lander 126).

The New Deal also dealt with the financial crisis. All the national banks were closed to see which ones could be reorganized and which ones ought to close. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) was formed to insure deposits in the bank up to a certain limit ($100,000). If a bank closed in the future, a person’s savings would be safe. The Securiti

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