It turns out that names are important. Everyone’s heard of the Great Depression, that worldwide economic trend covered so evocatively by Grapes of Wrath, Of Mice and Men, or To Kill a Mockingbird. But what about the Long Depression? No?
Previously called the Great Depression (until the new one came along and took its name) the Long Depression was supposedly the longest period of economic contraction that ever occurred after a panic, lasting about six years from 1873 to 1879 (the Great Depression of the 1930’s only experienced a contraction of 42 months). The repercussions of it were felt until about 1896.
More than a billion dollars of debt were defaulted upon and millions became unemployed. In New York alone one in four laborers in New York were out of work. Later Kansas farmers burned their own corn because it was cheaper than coal or wood.
Just like in later depressions, the Long Depression resulted in many people out of jobs and traveling to find what little work they could. Migratory workers were common, and the numbers of beggars and homeless increased dramatically. And, also like later depressions, they were often looked down upon.
Check out this great piece printed in the New York Times about the dangers of tramps and vagrants, published in 1879. In case it’s too small to read, the article is here.
As you can see in the article, tramps were seen as lowly, fearful men who attacked women and damaged civilization. They were looked down upon, people to be feared rather than pitied or helped.
Throughout a country that was busily trying to rebuild itself from the Civil War “tramp acts” were enacted, giving people the right to arrest trespassers on their property- or even the road crossing their farm- and often even rewarding them for turning trespassers over to the authorities. Those caught were often given several months of hard labor.
So how is it that, right in the middle of this backlash against the wandering homeless that a strange man clad all in leather enters the story? A man who despite his strange costume and his almost complete lack of speech managed to captivate the hearts of hundreds of people living in Connecticut and New York?
A man who even today is remembered? A man who Pearl Jam wrote a song about? Whose recent reburial made headlines across the country (including the same New York Times)?
Check back with us on Friday for the strange story of the Old Leatherman.