farming, agriculture, and farmers in us h istory
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Farming, Agriculture, and Farmers in US H istory. New world New N ation. English colonists found no gold crops for survival crops for profit The Columbian Exchange - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
Farming, Agriculture, and Farmers in US
History
New world New Nation
English colonists found no gold crops for survival crops for profit
The Columbian Exchange Colonists trades crops for humans, and livestock (trade
between the Americas, Asia, Europe and Africa that also brought disease)
Triangular Trade Colonists traded crops, humans and gold with Africa and
Europe
Cash Crops Crops made in bulk that made a lot of profit in trade (indigo
& tobacco in the south rice and cotton in the deep south)
Columbian Exchange
Triangular Trade
Getting Land in Early America
Headright System
Granted anyone who bought stock in the Virginia company 50 acres of land in the New World
Communal Land Grant
System
Common Area w/ school & church, surrounded by
houses
FarmlandThere were too many people and not enough land pushed farmers outwards, paving the way for future urbanization
(cont.)Land
Ordinance 1785
Land surveyed by the government and organized so that for every 640 acres, 1/6th would be set aside for schools
Promoted movement and had new land for farmers
Homestead Act 1862
Government gave land to the public who were willing to farm on it for free
*promoted farming by helping farmers get land
Social Hierarchy Plantation Owners owned many
slaves that worked on the plantations to grow cash crops
Yeomen Farmers Small land owners who farmed for themselves and their family, usually without slaves
Indentured Servants servants who worked off the debt they owed for they journey to the New World
Slaves Africans who were forced into labor against their will, didn’t get paid, worked for life, and were “property”
Plantation
Owners
Indentured
Servants
Slaves
Yeomen Farmers
Hamilton created an economic plan that included taxation of the whiskey industry, which was strongly opposed by the farmers who made whisky by farming grain Whiskey Rebellion (1794)
Federalist Era & Jeffersonian DemocracyHamilton’s Economic
PlanEmbargo
Act Passed by Jefferson in
1807 in response to French and British impressment, this act actually devastated port cities and farmers who could not make any profit off of trading their crops
Transportation: National Cumberland Road
Paved road from MD to the Old Northwest. Unified the country and opened a new way for transportation
Erie Canal Canal from the Great
Lakes to New York City that made trade a lot faster and more efficient for farmers
Market Revolution Market Revolution was the
development of technology in communication, manufacturing and transportation Farmers could now trade
their goods farther away via railroads
Cotton farmers could produce much more cotton with the cotton gin, invented by Eli Whitney in 1793
Market Revolution
Encouraged industry over agriculture with the creation of the wage
worker who tended to machines instead of
working in the fields/farming
Helped the growth of the cotton industry as well as helped farmers trade their goods farther and faster
The Road to Civil War
Popular Sovereignty (created by Stephen Douglas) Compromise of 1850 Kansas- Nebraska Act of 1854
Agriculture, at least in plantations, relied on slavery for production of the crops. If states were allowed popular sovereignty, they could decide for themselves, meaning they could have slaves and continue to be economically
prosperous through plantations and slaves.
The lack of northern support for this policy as well asthe common northern support for emancipation helped
push the south to secede
The Civil War: Confederate Advantages
Cotton Production
Allowed the Confederacy to have a grand supply of clothes and economic standing while the Union struggled with their supplies
King Cotton Diplomacy
The strategy of the Confederacy:
If France & Britain continued to depend on the Confederacy for cotton, they would help them defeat the Union to get more cotton
The Gilded Age
Agrarian Discontent
Government helped industrialization over agriculture
Farmers in debt Crop lien: farmers promised
consumers crops they would trade them in the future in exchange for goods, services, or money
Sharecropping: Black families could work on plantations and live on them and share them with the plantation owners by splitting it up
Conglomerate farms Larger farms produce cheaper
charge less prices go down: made it harder for small farmers to grow economically
They can’t pay for themselves (supplies, support for families, etc) poor
The Gilded Age
What Farmers Wanted
1. More circulation of money via free silver
2. Increased government regulation
Specifically to decrease railroad prices so they can transport their goods
3. Direct election of the senators for representation
Successful - 17th Amendment (1912)
Farmers in Politics The Grange Movement (1860-1870)
Organized farmers movement that advocated for more power to the common farmer, a lower financial burden (buying seeds and farming equipment individually)
Free Soil Party Advocated for no slavery in the new territory, internal
improvements funded by the government, and free land from the government for settlers
Farmers Alliance An organization that united farmers locally and nationally, this
alliance had the goals of readily available farm credits and federal regulation of the railroads.
Peoples’/Populist Party Party comprised of southern and westerners, this advocated
for the rights and powers of farmers/common people versus the privileged/elite
2nd Industrial Revolution
Mass production/consumption For farmers, this meant that a handful
big plantations would profit and gain control of agriculture while smaller farms would struggle
Electricity Meant more machines to help facilitate
the production of crops
Wage Employment Sent small farmers who were not making
profit into urban areas for work because they needed to support their families
Bigger Corporations CEOs and owners of big corporations had
more control on the economy and politics, giving farmers a smaller voice while benefiting themselves as much as possible
Helped out industry over agriculture even more than before
Transformed farming and agriculture into the monopolies we have today, where big companies/plants control the whole market (from food inc)
1750 1800 1850 1900 1950 20000%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
% of Farmers in the Labor Force from 1790-1980
% Farmers in Labor Force
The graph above shows that over the course of American History, agriculture, farms, and farming decreased as the industries increased (market revolutions). As the industries
increased and agriculture became a place for big plantation owners to monopolize, small farmers stopped farming and moved into the common workplace, leaving the percent of
farmers in the labor force today below 5% compared to the 90% in 1790.
Information for this graph came from: http://www.agclassroom.org/gan/timeline/farmers_land.htm
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