West Virginia's leading industry, coal, underwent wrenching changes. In the early stages of the Depression, the industry suffered from a virtual collapse as mining companies failed and unemployment grew, leaving once busy coal camps idle and stranding thousands of miners and their families.
On August 23, 1939–shortly before World War II (1939-45) broke out in Europe–enemies Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union surprised the world by signing the German-Soviet Nonaggression Pact, in which the two countries agreed to take no military action against each other for the next 10 years.
<span>South Carolina promised every white volunteer a slave at the end of the war if the south won. The incentive was crucial because it reinforced the South was going to continue to reinforce slavery.</span>
