The Plight of the Late Nineteenth Century American Farmer Essay

The Plight of the Late Nineteenth Century American FarmerFrom the early beginnings of America to well into the nineteenth century, America has been dominantly an rural country. Farming and the country life concord always been a bully part of the American culture. Thomas Jefferson even expressed his gratitude for the country discipline by sayingThose who labor in the earth are the chosen people of God,if ever He had a chosen people, whose breasts He,has made His homophile(a) deposit for substantial and genuine virtue.The American culture was built upon give riseing and agriculture but 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 more factories and new ways of transportation across America. There were many acts passed to countenance the agricultural lifestyle still such as the Homestead deed of 1862, the spirit Culture Act of 1873, the Dese rt 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 farm became available and made it much easier to increase crop yields. The people who had the small farms, uncultivated land, or limited resources could not compete against the farms who were bigger, better, and more modernize with the new technology. After many people failed on the farms, they were seen heading to t...