1 / 14

THE FARMERS’ FRONTIER

THE FARMERS’ FRONTIER. Homestead Act of 1862 160 acres of land by living on it 5 yrs, improving it, and paying a small fee averaging about $30 (as low as $10) Land given away to encourage settlement of West. Cont. . About 500,000 pioneer families migrated west.

kyne
Download Presentation

THE FARMERS’ FRONTIER

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. THE FARMERS’ FRONTIER • Homestead Act of 1862 • 160 acres of land by living on it 5 yrs, improving it, and paying a small fee averaging about $30 (as low as $10) • Land given away to encourage settlement of West

  2. Cont. • About 500,000 pioneer families migrated west. • 2/3 - forced to give up - inadequate plots and drought, hail, and ravage from insects. • Railroads played a role in taming the West. • Improved irrigation techniques • Flour-milling process by John Pillsbury of Minneapolis, increased grain demand

  3. THE FAR WEST COMES OF AGE • 1888-1889: 6 new States • Oklahoma Land Rush, April 22, 1889 - Nearly 100, 000 "boomers" • "Sooners" – land-grabbers who claimed land illegally before land rush began. • In 1890, census - first time in U.S. History, a frontier line no longer existed! • Once frontier was gone, farmers could not move west in significant numbers.

  4. THE FADING FRONTIER • "Safety valve" theory - Americans known for their mobility – farmers rarely remained in same place –hard times - moved west. • Free acreage did lure immigrant farmers who would otherwise have lived in overcrowded eastern slums. There was the POSSIBILITY of westward migration. • Frederick Jackson Turner - argued closing of the frontier had ended an era in American history.

  5. THE FARM BECOMES A FACTORY • Farmers - single cash-crop • World’s breadbasket • Massive migration of white and black Americans out of Southern Cotton Belt. • Commercial agriculture run by big businesses – “Bonanza Farms”

  6. DEFLATION DOOMS THE DEBTOR • "Crop lien" system - impossible for farmer to get out of debt. • Deflated currency, low food prices chief worries among farmers. • Natural disasters – bugs, floods, drought • Government-added woes: • Farmers’ land often overvalued – high taxes • Protective tariffs • trusts • Railroads – high rates ignored

  7. UNHAPPY FARMERS • Mother Nature unleashed powerful forces on the farmers: • Grasshoppers and cotton-boll weevil • Floods led to erosion in south • Droughts in west

  8. THE FARMERS TAKE THEIR STAND • National Grange of the Patrons of Husbandry(The Grange) 1867 - social & educational activities – Oliver Kelley • Granger (state) Laws - wanted gov't control over big business to benefit the people. • Munn vs. Illinois (1877) • Wabash case (1886) • Greenback Labor Party

  9. Rise of Populist Party • Farmers’ Alliances - like Grangers, sponsored social events, political action, cooperatives, and gov't regulation of railroads and manufacturers. • The People’s Party(Populist Party) early 1890s through the Farmer’s Alliances (started in Topeka, Kansas). • Ignatius Donnelly • Mary E. Lease Populist Party convention held at Columbus, Nebraska, July 15, 1890

  10. COXEY’S ARMY AND THE PULLMAN STRIKE • Coxey’s Army (1894) - unemployed on Washington, DC • Coxey’s platform included a demand for gov’t to relieve unemployment by an inflationary public works program + increase money supply by $500 million • Pullman Strike, 1894 Eugene V. Debs helped organize American Railway Union • First time gov’t used an injunction to break a strike

  11. GOLDEN MCKINLEY AND SILVER BRYAN • Election of 1896 • William McKinley - Republican • William Jennings Bryan – Democrat • Democrats refused to endorse Cleveland for his silver-purchase repeal, Pullman Strike action, and Morgan bond deal; move suicidal to the party’s hopes in 96’             -- Cleveland left office an extremely unpopular man.

  12. Cynical political cartoon of the speech from the magazine Judge. • Cross of Gold speech given at Democratic convention in Chicago -- "We will answer their demands for a gold standard by saying to them: ‘You shall not press down upon the brow of labor this crown of thorns, you shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold." • Democratic platform: unlimited coinage of silver (16 to 1).Bryan - People’s party

  13. CLASS CONFLICT: PLOWHOLDERS VERSUS BONDHOLDERS • Silver issue at the forefront • McKinley defeated Bryan 271-176 • McKinley won Northeast and North (HOW?????); Bryan in South & West • Legacy of Populism - Populism failed as a 3rd Party • Populist ideas that carried forward during the Progressive Era (1900-1920): railroad legislation, graduated income tax, direct election of Senators, initiative, referendum and recall

  14. REPUBLICAN STAND-PATTISM ENTHRONED • Tariff rates – 46.5% • Gold Standard Act of 1900 - Paper money was to be redeemed freely in gold; end to pro-silver movement

More Related