THE FARMERS’ FRONTIER

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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

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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. - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Transcript of 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. • 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

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.

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.

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”

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

UNHAPPY FARMERS • Mother Nature unleashed powerful forces

on the farmers:– Grasshoppers and cotton-boll weevil– Floods led to erosion in south – Droughts in west

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

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

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

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.

• 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

Cynical political cartoon of the speech from the magazine Judge.

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

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