Academic Integrity: tutoring, explanations, and feedback — we don’t complete graded work or submit on a student’s behalf.

Letter to secretary of labor frances Perkins(1973) why is this document/ source

ID: 342896 • Letter: L

Question

Letter to secretary of labor frances Perkins(1973)
why is this document/ source important?
e NeW Deal, 1B32-l00 139. Letter to Sec perkins (1937) ter to Secretary of Labor Frances witz and David Rosner, ed., "Sla surer Gerald Marko Workers'Letters a ers about Life on the Job (thaca, NY, 198). pp, 103-04 ves of the Depression': nklin D. Roosevelt as president in 1932 did much to the victims of the Great Depression, the worst eco- victims rekindle hope among re isaster in American history. Throughout the 1930s, ordinary ns,one of whom referred to the downtrodden as'slaves of the ion" wrote poignant letters to federal officials describing the oppressive working conditions of those who retained their jobs and the difficulty of finding work for the unemployed. They wrote of the threat of starvation, the impossibility of obtaining medical care whenill and the abuses of dictatorial employers and supervisors. One such letter, addressed to Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins, described the "terrible and inhuman condition" of workers in the sugar fields of Louisiana PLAQUEMINE, LOUISIANA, JULY 27, 1937 Dear Miss Perkins: riting to you because I think you are pretty square to the of I a average laboring man. but Iam wondering if anyone has told you ecruel and terrile condition tht esist in thspatofthe country 163

Explanation / Answer

This document is important as it showed that even after the civil war, their was still a different kind of slavery going on, which in modern world can be termed as corporate slavery. The conditions of workers living in remote part of the country was very miserable as they had very less wages and the cost of food and other essentials were high as compared to their wages. Their wages were not enough to meet their daily basic needs. Due to these letters only an investigation was done to improve the working conditions of the people.