Ninety-seven years ago tomorrow, on Tuesday, October 29, 1929, the New York Stock Exchange had one of the worst days in its history. People would soon call it Black Tuesday. It became the best-known moment of the great stock market crash of 1929, an event Britannica says helped bring on the Great Depression.
It is a story about money, but at its heart it is really a story about trust: where we put it, and what happens when the things we lean on give way.
A Decade of Rising Prices
The 1920s felt like a time when the good days would never end. According to the Federal Reserve’s history of the crash, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose about sixfold, from 63 in August 1921 to a peak of 381.17 on September 3, 1929.
Much of that buying was done with borrowed money. The Federal Reserve history explains that buyers “on margin” typically put down only about 10 percent of a stock’s price and borrowed the rest. When prices climbed, that looked like a smart shortcut. When prices fell, it left people owing money on stocks that were worth far less than they had paid.
Four Days in October
The panic did not happen all at once. It came in waves:
- Thursday, October 24: Britannica calls it the first day of real panic, with a record 12,894,650 shares traded. Banks and investment firms bought large blocks of stock to try to calm the market.
- Monday, October 28: The Dow fell nearly 13 percent, according to the Federal Reserve history.
- Tuesday, October 29: More than 16 million shares changed hands, Britannica reports, and the Dow fell about 12 percent more.
By mid-November 1929, the Dow had lost almost half its value. It kept sliding for nearly three years. On July 8, 1932, it closed at 41.22, about 89 percent below its 1929 peak. The Federal Reserve history notes that the Dow did not get back to its 1929 high until November 23, 1954, about 25 years later.
The Long Storm That Followed
The crash was not the whole story. The Federal Reserve history explains that the economy was already slowing in the summer of 1929, and that later troubles, including waves of bank failures, turned a downturn into the deepest depression in the nation’s history.
For ordinary families the years ahead were very hard. Britannica reports that U.S. unemployment rose above 20 percent at its worst, and that by 1933 about one in five of the banks operating at the start of 1930 had failed. People waited in breadlines. Some sold apples on street corners. Many who lost their homes lived in shantytowns made of scrap wood, cardboard and tin. The U.S. economy did not fully recover until about 1942.
And yet families endured. They worked, waited, prayed and held on, and the nation did recover.
“Charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not highminded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy;”
— 1 Timothy 6:17 (KJV)
Lessons for Our Families Today
This is not financial advice. It is simply what history invites us to remember:
- Good times do not last forever, and neither do hard times. In 1929 many believed prices could only go up. In 1932 many felt things could never get better. Both were wrong.
- Be careful with borrowing. Debt can magnify a loss as surely as it can magnify a gain. For complex money decisions, talk with a trusted, qualified professional.
- Recovery can take patience. The market needed about 25 years to return to its old high. Some of life’s healing is slow too.
- People matter more than portfolios. What carried families through the 1930s was not wealth. It was faith, hard work and one another.
Riches are uncertain, as Paul told Timothy long ago. But God is not. When the things we trusted begin to shake, we can still stand on Him, and we can still stand with each other. Through every storm, we rise together.
Did your parents or grandparents pass down stories or habits from the Great Depression?
Sources: Federal Reserve History, “Stock Market Crash of 1929” (accessed Oct 28, 2026); Britannica, “Black Tuesday” (accessed Oct 28, 2026); Britannica, “Stock Market Crash of 1929” summary (accessed Oct 28, 2026); Britannica, “Great Depression: Key Facts” (accessed Oct 28, 2026); KJV 1 Timothy 6:17
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