Chapter 11 Section 2
I can: explain the rise of Populism
in the 1890’s
Guide to Reading
Main Idea
In the 1890s an independent political movement called populism emerged
to challenge the two major parties.
Key Terms and Names
•
populism
•
•
•
•
•
greenback
inflation
deflation
Grange
cooperative
•
•
•
•
•
People’s Party
graduated income tax
goldbug
silverite
William Jennings Bryan
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Unrest in Rural America
• A political movement called Populism
emerged to increase the political power of
farmers and to work for legislation for
farmers’ interests.
• The nation’s money supply concerned
farmers.
• To help finance the Union in the Civil War,
the government issued millions of dollars
in greenbacks
(pages 372–374)
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Unrest in Rural America (cont.)
• This rapid increase in the money supply
without a rapid increase in goods for sale
caused inflation–a decline in the value
of money.
• The prices of goods greatly increased.
• To get inflation under control, the federal
government stopped printing greenbacks
and started paying off bonds.
(pages 372–374)
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Unrest in Rural America (cont.)
• This led to deflation–or an increase in the
value of money and a decrease in the
general level of prices.
• Deflation forced most farmers to borrow
money to plant their crops.
• The short supply of money caused an
increase in interest rates that the farmers
owed.
(pages 372–374)
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Unrest in Rural America (cont.)
• Some farmers wanted more greenbacks
printed to expand the money supply.
• Others wanted the government to mint silver
coins.
• The Grange was a national farm organization
founded for social and educational purposes.
• The Grange changed its focus to respond to
the plight of farmers.
(pages 372–374)
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Unrest in Rural America (cont.)
• Grangers put their money together and
created cooperatives–marketing
organizations that worked to help its
members.
• The cooperatives pooled members’ crops
and held them off the market to force the
prices to rise.
• Cooperatives could negotiate better
shipping rates from railroads.
(pages 372–374)
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Unrest in Rural America (cont.)
• However, the Grange was unable to improve
the economic conditions of farmers.
(pages 372–374)
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Unrest in Rural America (cont.)
How did the Grange try to help farmers?
Some Grangers pressured state legislatures to
regulate railroad and warehouse rates. Others
joined the Independent National Party, or
Greenback Party, to pressure the government
into printing more greenbacks to increase the
money supply. Grangers also formed
cooperatives to help farmers market their crops
for higher prices and negotiate better shipping
rates.
(pages 372–374)
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The Farmers’ Alliance
• The Farmers’ Alliance was formed
in 1877.
• By 1890 it had between 1.5 and 3 million
members with strength in the South and
on the Great Plains.
• The Alliance organized large cooperatives
called exchanges.
• These exchanges mostly failed.
(pages 374–375)
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The Farmers’ Alliance (cont.)
• Many exchanges overextended themselves by
loaning too much money at low interest rates
that were not repaid.
• Wholesalers, manufacturers, railroads,
and bankers discriminated against the
exchanges.
• The exchanges were too small to make an
affect.
(pages 374–375)
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The Farmers’ Alliance (cont.)
• Members of the Kansas Alliance formed the
People’s Party, or Populists.
• Most Southern leaders of the Alliance
opposed the People’s Party because
they wanted the Democrats to retain control
of the South.
• One Southern leader, Charles Macune, came
up with a subtreasury plan to set up
warehouses where farmers could store their
crops to force prices up.
(pages 374–375)
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The Farmers’ Alliance (cont.)
Why did the exchanges set up by the Farmers’
Alliance fail?
Many exchanges overextended themselves by
loaning too much money at low interest rates
that were not repaid. Wholesalers,
manufacturers, railroads, and bankers
discriminated against the exchanges. The
exchanges were too small to dramatically affect
world prices for farm products.
(pages 374–375)
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The Rise of Populism
• In 1890 the Farmers’ Alliance issued the
Ocala Demands:
• the adoption of the subtreasury plan
• the free coinage of silver
• end to protective tariffs and national
banks
• tighter regulation of the railroads
• direct election of senators by voters
(pages 375–378)
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The Rise of Populism (cont.)
• In July 1892, the People’s Party held its
first national convention where it
nominated James B. Weaver to run for
president.
(pages 375–378)
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The Rise of Populism (cont.)
• The People’s Party platform called for
unlimited coinage of silver, federal ownership
of railroads, and a graduated income tax, one
that taxes higher earnings more heavily.
• It also called for an eight-hour workday,
restriction of immigration, and denounced
the use of strikebreakers.
• Democrats nominated New Yorker Grover
Cleveland for the 1892 presidential election.
• Cleveland won the election.
(pages 375–378)
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The Rise of Populism (cont.)
• The Panic of 1893 was caused by the
bankruptcy of the Philadelphia and Reading
Railroads.
• It resulted in the stock market crash
and the closing of many banks.
• By 1894 the country was in a deep
depression.
(pages 375–378)
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The Rise of Populism (cont.)
• President Cleveland wanted to stop the flow
of gold and make it the sole basis for the
country’s currency, so he had Congress repeal
the Sherman Silver Purchase Act.
• This caused the Democratic Party to split into
the goldbugs and the silverites.
• Goldbugs believed the American currency
should be based only on gold.
• Silverites believed coining silver in unlimited
amounts was the answer to the nation’s
economic crisis.
(pages 375–378)
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The Rise of Populism (cont.)
What was the People’s Party platform in
the election of 1892?
The People’s Party platform called for unlimited
coinage of silver, federal ownership of railroads,
and a graduated income tax, or one that taxes
higher earnings more heavily. It also called
for an eight-hour workday, restriction
of immigration, and denounced the
use of strikebreakers.
(pages 375–378)
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The Election of 1896
• The Democrats nominated William Jennings
Bryan for the presidential election of 1896.
• He strongly supported the unlimited coinage
of silver.
• Populists also supported Bryan for president.
• The Republicans nominated William
McKinley of Ohio for president.
• He promised workers a “full dinner pail.”
(pages 378–379)
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The Election of 1896 (cont.)
• McKinley won the election of 1896.
• New gold strikes in Alaska and Canada’s
Yukon Territory and in other parts of the
world increased the money supply without
needing to use silver.
• As the silver issue died out, so did the
Populist Party.
(pages 378–379)
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The Election of 1896 (cont.)
Why did William McKinley appeal to workers
and business leaders?
McKinley promised workers a “full dinner pail.”
Most business leaders liked him because they
thought that unlimited silver coinage would
ruin the country’s economy.
(pages 378–379)
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Checking for Understanding
Define Match the terms on the right with their definitions on the
left.
__
C 1.
__
B 2.
__
D 3.
__
A 4.
__ 5.
E
the loss of value of money
a piece of U.S. paper money first
issued by the North during the Civil
War
a person who believes that American
currency should be based on a gold
standard
a decline in the volume of available
money or credit that results in lower
prices, and, therefore, increases the
buying power of money
a person who believes that coining
silver in unlimited quantities would
solve the nation’s economic crisis
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A. deflation
B. greenback
C.
inflation
D. goldbug
E.
silverite
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Chapter 11 Section 3
I can: describe the measures that
were taken to keep African
Americans segregated
Resistance and Repression
• After Reconstruction, most African Americans
were sharecroppers
• In 1879 Benjamin “Pap” Singleton
organized a mass migration of African
Americans, called Exodusters, from the
rural South to Kansas.
(pages 380–381)
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Resistance and Repression (cont.)
• Some African Americans that stayed in the
South formed the Colored Farmers’ National
Alliance.
• The organization worked to help its members
set up cooperatives.
• Many African Americans joined the Populist
Party.
• Democratic leaders began using racism to try
to win back the poor white vote in the South.
(pages 380–381)
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Resistance and Repression (cont.)
• Election officials in the South began using
methods to make it difficult for African
Americans to vote.
(pages 380–381)
Resistance and Repression (cont.)
What did African Americans do to try to
improve their conditions in the South after
Reconstruction?
Exodusters left the rural South and migrated to
Kansas. African Americans
who stayed in the South joined organizations
such as the Colored Farmers’ National Alliance
and the Populist Party.
(pages 380–381)
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Disfranchising African Americans
• Southern states used loopholes in the
Fifteenth Amendment that barred almost all
African Americans from voting.
• In 1890 Mississippi required all citizens
registering to vote to pay a poll tax, which
most African Americans could not afford to
pay.
(page 382)
Disfranchising African Americans
(cont.)
• The state also required all
prospective voters to take a literacy test.
• Other Southern states adopted similar
restrictions.
• The number of African Americans and poor
whites registered to vote fell dramatically in
the South.
(page 382)
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Disfranchising African Americans
(cont.)
• To allow poor whites to vote, some Southern
states had a grandfather clause in their
voting restrictions.
• This clause allowed any man to vote
if he had an ancestor on the voting
rolls in 1867.
(page 382)
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Disfranchising African Americans
(cont.)
What methods did Southern states use
to disfranchise African Americans?
Southern states imposed restrictions such as a
poll tax and literacy tests.
(page 382)
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Legalizing Segregation
• In the late 1800s, both the North and
the South discriminated against African
Americans.
• In the South, segregation, or separation of
the races, was enforced by laws known as
Jim Crow laws.
• In 1883 the Supreme Court overturned the
Civil Rights Act of 1875.
• The ruling meant that private organizations
or businesses were free to practice
segregation.
(pages 382–383)
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Civil Rights Act of 1875
Be it enacted, That all persons within the
jurisdiction of the United States shall be
entitled to the full and equal enjoyment
of the accommodations, advantages,
facilities, and privileges of inns, public
conveyances on land or water, theaters,
and other places of public amusement;
subject only to the conditions and
limitations established by law, and
applicable alike to citizens of every race
and color, regardless of any previous
condition of servitude
Legalizing Segregation (cont.)
• Southern states passed a series of laws that
enforced segregation in almost all public
places.
• The Supreme Court ruling in Plessy v.
Ferguson endorsed “separate but equal”
facilities for African Americans.
• This ruling established the legal basis for
discrimination in the South for over 50
years.
(pages 382–383)
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Legalizing Segregation (cont.)
• In the late 1800s, mob violence
increased in the United States, particularly in
the South.
• Between 1890 and 1899, hundreds of
lynchings–executions without proper
court proceedings–took place.
• Most lynchings were in the South,
and the victims were mostly African
Americans.
(pages 382–383)
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Legalizing Segregation (cont.)
What was the result of the Supreme Court case
Plessy v. Ferguson?
The Supreme Court ruling in Plessy v. Ferguson
endorsed “separate but equal” facilities for
African Americans. This ruling established the
legal basis for discrimination in the South for
over 50 years.
(pages 382–383)
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The African American Response
• In 1892 Ida B. Wells, an African American
from Tennessee, wrote newspaper articles
and a book denouncing lynchings.
• Booker T. Washington, urged fellow African
Americans to concentrate on achieving
economic goals rather than legal or political
ones (Atlanta Compromise speech).
• W.E.B. Du Bois believed that African
Americans had to demand their rights,
especially voting rights, to gain full equality.
(pages 383–384)
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The African American Response
(cont.)
How did the viewpoints on solving
discrimination differ between Booker T.
Washington and W.E.B. Du Bois?
(pages 383–384)
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The African American Response
(cont.)
Booker T. Washington urged fellow African
Americans to concentrate on achieving economic
goals rather than legal or political ones.
Washington said African Americans should prepare
themselves educationally and vocationally for full
equality. Du Bois said that white Southerners
continued to take away the civil rights of African
Americans, even though they were making progress
in education and vocational training. He believed
that African Americans had to demand their rights,
especially voting rights, to gain full equality.
(pages 383–384)
Checking for Understanding
Define Match the terms on the right with their definitions on the
left.
__
A 1.
__
C 2.
farmer who works land for an
owner who provides equipment
and seed and receives a share of
the crop
A. sharecropper
the separation or isolation of a
race, class, or group
D. Jim Crow laws
__
E 3.
an execution performed without
lawful approval
__
D 4.
statutes or laws created to
enforce segregation
__
B 5.
a tax of a fixed amount per
person that had to be paid
before the person could vote
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B. poll tax
C.
E.
segregation
lynching