Green Corn Rebellion Essay

GREEN CORN REBELLION

The Green Corn Rebellion was a short-lived uprising against the United States federal government. The rebellion was unique to Oklahoma and it spanned three counties: Pottawatomie, Pontotoc and Seminole. It consisted mainly of poor white men, but it also included African Americans and Native Americans as well. The cause, outcome and historical significance are all important factors of the Green Corn Rebellion. This small rebellion rarely makes it into the history books, but it had a great impact on the Socialist Revolution, which began around 1910 and continues even today. Many people consider World War One, which began in 1914, as the beginning of the Socialist Movement.

There are several causes of the Green Corn Rebellion,

the first of which is World War One and the Conscription Act of 1863. World War One began in 1914 but the United States did not enter the war until April of 1917. Even so, many young American men enlisted and joined the Allied Forces in Europe, particularly as part of the English and French militaries, before the United States officially entered. Many Americans wanted the United States to enter the war, believing that if they did it would soon end. While there was support in favor of it, however,

there was also resistance to the war. These rebels were mainly farmers and small business owners of the west, particularly Oklahoma. They wanted their sons to come home again and thought that this fight was for the European states to settle among themselves.

Another cause of the Green Corn Rebellion was the newly formed Socialist Party of Oklahoma.

Socialism is nothing more than communism with a different name. They believed that everything from where you attend church to the items you buy at the store should be regulated by the community as a whole. In the early 1900s, before the Socialist Revolution began, the Working Class Union was popular with many Oklahomans. The Working Class Union sought labor reforms, old-age pensions, free school textbooks, and the abolishment of rent, all of which were important to the working class. According to the Encyclopedia of the Great Plains, by the time of the United States’ entry to World War One, the Working Class Union held thirty-five thousand members from Oklahoma, half of the state’s male population at that

time.

At the time of World War One, those who suffered most were the small business owners and tenant farmers of the west. Because of the war, farmers had no one to buy their crops. Money was scarce for everyone. Tenant farmers were not at all attached to their homes, which were often poorly remodeled chicken houses. Instead, they often moved their families after the crops were in. Their

landlords demanded rent of them that could not be paid.

These farmers thought that the Socialist party could help them using such organizations as the Renter’s Union. They soon learned that to receive help of any kind from the Socialists, they would first have to join the Industrial Workers of the World. The Industrial Workers of the World, however, only admitted wageworkers. Since these men had no jobs because of the war, the Working Class Union continued to hold the membership of many Oklahomans.

All these ideas were simmering in the hearts of farmers throughout the summer of 1917. One thousand five hundred men met at the farm of John Spears in Sasakwa, Oklahoma on August 3. These men included whites, Africans and Indians, all united by a common cause. They devised a plan. Two days later, they would march to Washington D.C. in protest of the war and the Conscription Act. They intended to overthrow the government in Washington and replace it with the Socialist Party. On the way, they planned to live on barbecued beef and green corn, which gave the rebellion its

name.

Within two weeks, the civil authorities restored order. They arrested four hundred fifty men and held them for trial, charging them with resistance to the draft and seditious conspiracy. Three men were killed. One hundred fifty were convicted and received prison time. The uprising did not encourage the federal government to withdraw the United States from the war as the rebels had hoped,

nor did it end the draft imposition. President Wilson did use it as a means to disband the Socialist Party, which he disliked. State and local authorities also used it as a means to suppress the Industrial Workers of the World, though it had taken no part in the rebellion.

Though the Green Corn Rebellion was small, it holds considerable historical significance. At the time of World War One, the entire world was going through a type of Socialist Revolution. Just a few years earlier in 1910, the Mexican Revolution was a success along with the Russian Revolution just a few months prior to the Green Corn Rebellion. Both of these successful uprisings gave the rebels confidence that they, too, could win. The Green Corn Rebellion did not accomplish what they had hoped, however, and many of the members later joined the Klu Klux Klan and other similar organizations.

The Green Corn Rebellion was not unique. There were hundreds, if not thousands, of similar rebellions stretching across Europe at the time. Most of them never made it into the history books, but are instead passed down through stories of people who participated in them. The rebellion did show that even people who ordinarily hate each other can unite around a common cause such as freedom, just as the whites, blacks, and Indians united during this time.