American farmers and workers' problems in society

¶ … industrious order of farmers in America between 1865 and 1900; the writer explores the changes the industry faced and how those changes impacted the farming community. There was one source used to complete this paper.

From 1865 to 1900 American farmers and workers were confronted with a new industrious order. The farmers and workers had to strive to meet the challenges of the order and still make a living. They faced many obstacles during this time period and still managed to survive as an industry. The time frame proved once again the strength and stamina that the American farmer and worker maintains even in the face of adversity.

Farmers have worked from sun up to sun down since the beginning of time. They are a hearty lot.

A farmers http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/trouble/timeline/

In 1862, it was approximated that 90% of Americans at the time were farmers. They made their living off the land and worked to sow and sell their crops to the locals and each other. It was an interactive mutually profitable business for all involved. At that time President Lincoln called the U.S. Department of Agriculture the "people's department" because of the large number of farmers in the area.

From then until 1870 farmers began to dwindle. Corporation standards, Mother Nature issues and other things began to send farmers out of the fields and into the job market. By 1970 which was only three years later it was reported that only 47.7% of American workers were farmers. For the first time in American history the farmers were the minority.

The new industrious order developed many more mechanical farming abilities and this helped to drive more farmers out of the fields and into the job market. They began to rely more on bank loans for land and their equipment which put them in debt. If a bad crop season happened the farmer would not be able to pay the bank and would go further into debt until the bank would eventually foreclose on the farm or force the farmer to become a corporate farmer.

1880 U.S. population reaches 50,155,783, with farm population estimated at 22,981,000. Forty-nine percent of all employed persons are farmers, and of those, one in four is a tenant, despite the Homestead Acts. With the development of barbed-wire fencing and windmills, plow farming reaches the Great Plains."

In 1893 642 banks closed due to a United States economic crisis and more than 16,000 businesses closed. Tens of thousands of small farms closed due to produce prices dropping drastically and quickly.