Topics in American History Series:
Agriculture, Part 2
Segment descriptions
Sampler– Topics in American History Series
Agriculture, Part 2
3’-4” (51’ lecture)
What is the very significant impact of the building of
the Erie Canal in the early 1800s on the dynamics of
where farm products would go, the status of NYC,
and ultimately the Civil War?
play sampler
1
The Populist Party of the 1890s, a 3rd
party. Its platform includes support of
industrial labor, government control of
railroads, an end of absentee landlords,
coining silver as well as gold to counter
inflation, and a series of democratic reforms.
2
The election of 1896. William Jennings
Bryan, the Democratic candidate from
Nebraska, a farm state, and his “Cross of
Gold” speech. The Populist Party backs
Bryan but the Republican McKinley wins.
The Populist Party fades and eventually dies.
3
Jim Crow Era begins. With the demise of
the Populist Movement, the upper class
whites win control of one-party South, and no
longer need to vie with the lower class whites
for the black vote. “Separate but equal”
Supreme Court decision dooms blacks to
inferior education in the South. Total
segregation of every public facility in the
South. A time of terror, including many
lynchings. Poverty of sharecroppers
continues for the next decade.
4
The legacy of Populism. It was not the
regression to the agrarian myth of the noble
farmer, nor the socialistic view of the
government taking over the railroads. Rather
it was an effort to find a way of individualism
to fit into the need to organize in an
increasing industrialized society.
5
Farming at beginning of the 20th century.
Progressivism of President Wilson is more
structured than the somewhat emotional
Topics in American History Series:
Agriculture, Part 2
Segment descriptions
Populist Movement, and is less sympathetic
to small farmers. Farmers experience
prosperity during WW I supplying the military,
and then sending farm goods to starving
Europe after the war.
6
Farm depression in the 1920s. A
prosperous time in general, the 1920s begin
a farm depression. The Army demobilizes.
Europe recovers. Markets shrink.
Competition from other world markets. Farm
prices drop and continue to drop through the
1920s into the 1930s..
7
Great Depression of the 1930s. This adds
to farmers’ already dire situation. The Great
Plains Dust Bowl due to lack of rain and
misuse of farmland destroys farms, causing a
great migration west. In 1900 dire conditions
in the South causes migration to northern
cities by blacks and whites who are often met
with great hostility in the competition for jobs.
8
FDR and the New Deal in 1933. Attempts to
help farmers. Intentional scarcities to raise
prices to farmers. Failure: non-compliance,
circumvention, lack of oversight.
Sharecroppers not covered, suffer. Law later
declared unconstitutional. Concern for the
large farmer at the expense to the small
farmer. Farmers migrate west or at times
resist economic depression during the 1930s.
.
New farm prosperity. Coming of WW II and
end of drought. Feeding soldiers.
Permanent migration to cities for high paying
defense jobs, replaced by poor migrant
farmers from Mexico living under dire
conditions, continuing into the post-war era.
Myth of romanticizing farming. .
9.
10
Post-WW II American agriculture. Some
benefit exporting food to war-devastated
Europe. Subsidies continue but large farms
benefit more than small ones. Future of
family farms undermined by children leaving.
Competition of large agribusiness. Tragedy of
family farms’ overwhelming debt burden.
Agribusinesses thrive, also compete
internationally. Many Mexican small farms
cannot survive, forcing migrant workers to the
U.S.
Topics in American History Series:
Agriculture, Part 2
Segment descriptions
11
Agriculture attempts to adapt to
modernity. Many approaches, with a mix of
successes and failures. Issues will remain for
a long time to come.