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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Photo Sources