The Plight of the Late Nineteenth Century American Farmer Essay

The Plight of the Late Nineteenth Century American FarmerFrom the azoic beginnings of America to well into the nineteenth century, America has been dominantly an agricultural acres. Farming and the country life have alship canal been a great part of the American culture. Thomas Jefferson even expressed his gratitude for the farming class by formulationThose who labor in the earth are the chosen people of God,if incessantly He had a chosen people, whose breasts He,has do His peculiar deposit for secure and genuine virtue.The American culture was built upon farming and agriculture alone since the end of the civil war and the abolition of slaves, things have changed dramatically to the American lifestyle. This time brought on the Industrial Revolution which sparked many factories and new ways of transportation across America. There were many acts passed to encourage the agricultural lifestyle still such as the Homestead venture of 1862, the Timber burnish Act of 1873, the Deser t Land Act of 1877, and the Timber and Stone Act passed in 1878. As a result of these acts, farm income dropped and new machines and methods or systems to farm such as sharecropping and tenant farming became available and made it much easier to increase crop yields. The people who had the smaller farms, uncultivated land, or limited resources could not compete against the farms who were bigger, better, and more modernized with the new technology. after many people failed on the farms, they were seen heading to t...