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If I lived in 1880, I would choose to be a farmer because of the Homestead Act of 1862, which allowed acres of land for any American citizens over 21. The Homestead Act provided many potential farmers with new land and a chance to make a living for themselves. African Americans also took advantage of this opportunity and moved their whole families along with them. Although the land was free, it was not exactly suitable for farming. The conditions of the plains were arid and the soil was dry. The weather was also not suitable for farming. Summers were dry and create fires and killed heir animals, rainfall was scarce and winter brought along cold blizzards that made living conditions all the more harder. Many complained that railroad companies
had the best land. Working on the farms required all of the family to pitch in some world I'm order to make a living out of it. Women had it the hardest. They had to mend, sew, care for the animals, make butter, and cook and clean with little to no water. Living as a Western farmer were that even though farming was not an easy task, new inventions were helped take off some of the stress of farming. These inventions halved the amount of work a farmer had to do and made life a little bit easier. These reassured people who wanted to become farmers but were afraid of the hard labor that came along with it, thus it was an opportunity for farmers to take advantage of the new machines. Living in the West as a farmer, miner or cowboy was an opportunity in itself. Being able to travel from faraway states to foreign and nonlocal land was a brave move many made in order to secure a better future.
From the expanding of railroads country wide, to limiting laws on the goods farmers sold and transportation of the goods,to starvation of the economy, agriculture began to take its own shape from 1865 through to 1900 in the United States.
Farmers’ incomes were low, and in order to make a profit on what they produced, they begun to expand the regions in which they sold their products in. This was facilitated through the railroads, by which through a series of grants from the government as...
In the 1830's the Plains Indians were sent to the Great American Deserts in the west because the white men did not think they deserved the land. Afterwards, they were able to live peacefully, and to follow their traditions and customs, but when the white men found out the land they were on were still good for agricultural, or even for railroad land they took it back. Thus, the white man movement westward quickly begun. This prospect to expand westward caused the government to become thoroughly involved in the lives of the Plains Indians. These intrusions by the white men had caused spoilage of the Plains Indians buffalo hunting styles, damaged their social and cultural lives, and hurt their overall lives. The lives of the Plains Indians in the second half of the nineteenth century were greatly affected by the technological development and government actions.
Farmer’s had difficulties making a living because the rates of being a farmer was high. “Nothing has done more to injure the western region than these freight rates.” (Quoted from Document F) The high rates of being a farmer made it very difficult to make payments on the lands. Some farmers couldn’t even sell their produce for a reasonable profit. They worked long, hard hours and the government wasn’t on their side about paying them a decent income. Along with farm prices failing, railroad prices were increasing. Railroads were important very to farmers because they took farmers out to their lands, carried their produce to markets, and brought them the manufactured goods that they needed. Many farm settlements were made around railroads just because of this reason. Railroad managers were forced to charge very high rates and because of it, farmers would have to pay more money to use railroads.
Unfortunately, the circumstances in the Great Plains all came to a head, resulting in a horrific ten years for citizens of the Great Plains. The Dust Bowl caused government and people to look at farming practices and evaluate their output. These policies resulted in overproduction of crops, causing the prices to fall. The conclusion of World War I and countries that stopped importing foods added to the pain the farmers were already feeling.
Farmers everywhere in the United States during the late nineteenth century had valid reasons to complaint against the economy because the farmers were constantly being taken advantage of by the railroad companies and banks. All farmers faced similar problems and for one thing, farmers were starting to become a minority within the American society. In the late nineteenth century, industrialization was in the spotlight creating big businesses and capitals. The success of industrialization put agriculture and farmers on the down low, allowing the corporations to overtake the farmers. Since the government itself; such as the Republican Party was also pro-business during this time, they could have cared less about the farmers.
The availability of inexpensive land in the American West provided opportunity for many Americans to fulfill the American dream of individualism, economic opportunity and personal freedom. Immigrants, former slaves and other settlers moved across the country to become western farmers and ranchers to make a new life. One of the reasons why the west was a land of opportunity for the farmers and ranchers was the large quantity of cheap available land. This allowed for many Americans, both rich and poor, to buy land for farming and raising cattle. The Homestead Act of 1862 aided the process. The Homestead Act gave title to 160 acres of federal land to farmers who staked a claim and lived on the land for five years. Alternatively, a farmer could buy the land after six months for $1.25 an acre. Many blacks and immigrants joined the westward expansion, looking for a better life. Immigrants saw the land as opportunity because many could not own land in the countries where they were born. For example, in Nebraska, a fourth of the population was foreign born. These immigrants transformed...
(Worster12) but neglects the fact that at the time of the Dust Bowl many of the farmers weren’t fully educated in preventing most of the natural disasters that occurred. The drought has caused a lot of unfavorable conditions for farmers in the southwest. In Worster’s book he says “Few of us want to live in the region now”. There is too much wind, dirt, flatness, space, barbed wire, drought, uncertainty, hard work.”
White settlers started moving westward to settle the land gained by the victory over the Native Americans. A major factor that caused this major movement, other than by the victory of the war, was the homestead act. This act provided and granted 160 acres of free land to any citizen who was the head of a house or family. While moving, the settlers were challanged by the new enviornment of the plains and they had to start adapting to the new enviornment. While moving west, all farmers were supported by the government on technical aspects and on agricultural education.
Agrarian Discontent 1880 to 1900. The period between 1880 and 1900 was a boom time for American politics. The country was finally free of the threat of war, and many of its citizens were living comfortably. However, as these two decades went by, the American farmer found it harder and harder to live comfortably.
Most of the reasons concerning agrarian discontent in the late nineteenth century stem from supposed threats posed by monopolies and trusts, railroads, money shortages and the demonetization of silver, though in many cases their complaints were not valid. The American farmer at this time already had his fair share of problems, perhaps even perceived as unfair in regards to the success industrialized businessmen were experiencing. Nevertheless, crops such as cotton and wheat, which were once the staples of an agricultural society, were selling at such low prices that it was nearly impossible for farmers to make a profit off them, especially since some had invested a great deal of money in modern equipment that would allow them to produce twice as many goods. Furthermore, improvements in transportation allowed foreign competition to emerge, making it harder for American Farmers to not only dispose of surplus crop, but to transport crops period. Finally, years of drought in the Midwest and the degeneration of business in the 1890's devastated many of the nation's farmers, and as a result of this agricultural depression' many farm groups, most notably the Populist Party, arose to fight what farmers saw as the reasons for the decline of agriculture.
During the 20th century, radical transformation was occurring to the political status of African Americans. Blacks were freed from slavery during the nineteenth century and many African Americans were farmers unlike white, whites worked outside of Farm. Many black children did not go to school and white children did. However, during the 20th century economically African Americans stopped working at the farms, and nearly twice likely to own their own homes (Maloney). Even after this period, African Americans still had disadvantages in terms of education, work, home ownership, labor of success, etc. The sharecropping system was made to allow African Americans land however; whites did not want them to gain profit from their crops or own land.
...s. These lands were “usually in less desirable locations and discouraged any successful transition to agriculture”.24
The agriculture, cattle, and sheep markets made many people large profits and, as with the stones and metals, relied on the railroad to bring the goods to the consumers. With the aid of the railroads there was an abundance of agricultural goods in the United States, “American commercial farmers, constantly opening new lands, produced much mor...
Agriculture is quite possibly the most important advancement and discovery that humanity has made. It produces the one thing that we need the most: food. It has been around since 9500 BC, and can be the oldest sign of mankind’s acumen and the development and evolving of our minds and creations. Agriculture has been mastered throughout hundreds of years and is one of our most important resources on Earth, along with water and fossil fuels. Although the older farming methods from ancient times seem somewhat mediocre and barbaric, they were very ingenious and advanced for that time period. Over thousands of years, we have improved the way agriculture is used, how land is cultivated, the various techniques of farming and irrigation, and the tools and mechanics used. Numerous things that we see as aboriginal today, such as using a hand plow, were extremely contemporary in ancient times, and played key roles in the development of man and society, since quick labor was not abundant before this time. We are now extremely advanced in agriculture and irrigation and the tools used to farm and grow and harvest crops. We have learned from our past and ancestors how to grow and evolve in our methods and have advanced forward greatly.