Farmers Alliance

Below is a free term papers summary of the paper "Farmers Alliance." If you sign up, you can be reading the rest of this term papers in under two minutes. Registered users should login to view this term paper.

Term Paper Title	Farmers Alliance
# of Words	1448
# of Pages (250 words per page double spaced)	5.79

farmers alliance

[Category]:

History

[Paper Title]:

farmers alliance

[Text]:

Farmers Alliance

In the 1880s, as drought hit the wheat-growing areas of the Great Plains and
prices for Southern cotton sunk to new lows, many tenant farmers fell into deep
debt. This exacerbated long-held grievances against railroads, lenders,
grain-elevator owners, and others with whom farmers did business. By the early
1890s, as the depression worsened, some industrial workers shared these farm
families' views on labor and the trusts.

By the end of the 1880s, farmers had formed two major organizations: the
National Farmer’s Alliance, located on the Plains west of the Mississippi and
know as the Northwestern Alliance, and the Farmers’ Alliance and Industrial
Union, based in the South and known as the Southern Alliance.

The southern alliance began in Texas in 1875 but did not assume major
proportions until Dr. Charles W. Macune took over the leadership in 1886. Its
agents spread across the South, where farmers were fed up with crop liens,
depleted lands, and sharecropping. By 1890, the Southern Alliance claimed more
than a million members. Like the Grange, the Alliance distributed educational
materials, and it also established cooperative grain elevators, marketing
associations, and retail stores.

Loosely affiliated with the South en Alliance, the separate Colored Farmers’
National Alliance and Cooperative Union enlisted black farmers in the South.
Claiming over a million members, it probably had closer to 250, 000. Blacks
organized at considerable peril. In 1891, when black cotton pickers struck for
higher wages near Memphis, the strike was violently put down; fifteen strikers
were lynched. The abortive strike ended the Colored Farmers’ Alliance.

On the Plains, the Northwestern Alliance, a smaller organization, was formed
in 1880. But it lacked the centralized organization of the southern alliance. In
1889, the Southern Alliance changed its name to the national Farmers Alliance
and Industrial Union and persuaded the three strongest state alliance in the
Plains to join. Thereafter, the new organization dominated the Alliance
movement.

The Alliance turned early to politics. In the West, its leader rejected both
the Republicans and the Democrats and organized their own party. The Southern
Alliance resisted the idea of a new party for fear it might divide the white
votes, thus undercutting white supremacy. Instead, the Southerners wanted to
capture control of the domi...

This is not the end of the termpaper! Register below to see the complete version of this term paper.

Membership Plans	Credit Card	Check

1 month membership

3 month membership (You Save 50%)

6 month membership (You Save 67%)

Copyright © 2002-2007 Mid Term Papers. All rights reserved. This term papers website is used for research purposes only.
If you have forgotten your username or password, please click here.
If you like to cancel your account, please click here.

1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8 - 9 - 10 - 11 - 12 - 13 - 14 - 15 - 16 - 17 - 18 - 19 - 20 - 21 - 22