Plight of SC Farmers

8.5-6—Compare the plight of farmers in South Carolina with that of farmers throughout the United States, including the problems of overproduction, natural

disasters, and sharecropping and encompassing the roles of Ben Tillman, the Populists, and land-grant colleges.

Recap of what’s happening…• Postwar agriculture depression continues after

the end of Reconstruction• Sharecroppers & tenant farmers (difference?)• Cotton dominates the economy, but doesn’t

bring prosperity• In stead of helping the farmers, Conservatives

passed crop lien laws that allow creditors first dibbs on the farmer’s crops

Supply & Demand

Video teaching us about supply & demand with cookies! (3:00)

Dropping Cotton Prices• SC hand picked cotton through the 20th century• Other regions mechanized cotton harvests, raised supply • SC had fertilizers that raised cotton yield• SC competed against foreign markets as well• Worldwide supply exceeded the demand causing the

price of cotton to fall• Farmers in the Midwest & South couldn’t make their

payments on loans• In SC, farmers planted more cotton to make more profits,

but only caused the price of cotton to fall even more

• SC farmers felt the impact of dropping cotton prices through bank foreclosures, forfeiting their land for non-payment of taxes, droughts & pest that led to crop failure

1. Army Worm2. Boll Weevil3. Draught

1

23

Populist Movement Recapped• Appealed to suffering small farmers in mill

workers• Farmers organized the first Grange (a social

organization designed to alleviate the isolation of farm life)

• In the Midwest it evolved into a political organization

• SC- 1800s: White Farmer’s Alliances & Black Farmer’s Alliances

• By 1890s alliances united to form the Populist Party

Populist Party• Supported :– Regulation of railroads & banking– Free unlimited coinage of silver– A system of federal farm loans– Advocated for democratic reforms:

• Popular election of Senators• Secret ballot• Graduated income tax• 8 hour work day• Immigration restrictionsSC did not form a separate party, but worked to control

the Democratic PartyTillmanites in SC

• Tillman supported Clemson as an agricultural college

• Opposed elitism of the University of South Carolina

• Tillman advocated the establishment of educational facilities for farmers to teach them better crop management and to develop new crops to increase their economic prosperity

• Clemson was a “land grant college” • Both colleges encouraged diversification of crops

Earthquake of 1886

Video (3:35)

Earthquake of 1886• Epicenter near

Summerville, SC• Destruction more graphic

in the city of Charleston rather than the agricultural countryside

• Largest, most destructive, costly, & lethal earthquake east of the Mississippi

• City’s response to the disaster revolutionized & modernized practices in construction, disaster prep/response, & scientific study that continues even today

Sea Island Hurricane-1893• Sea Islands were the home to the

Gullah People• Wiped out rice fields & consumption

from the Far East ended the production of “Carolina Gold”

• Lowcountry farmers turned to truck gardening supplying local stores

• Tobacco was introduced as a cash crop in the Pee Dee region, but nowhere else in SC

• Some Upstate farmers planted peach trees, but continued to grow cotton into the 20th century

Sea Islands Hurricane n August 1893 a major hurricane, known as the "Sea Islands Hurricane" struck the offshore barrier islands of Georgia and South Carolina. Over 1,000 people were killed (mostly by drowning); and 30,000 or more were left homeless as nearly every building along the barrier islands was damaged beyond repair. After the disaster, a 10-month relief effort was run by the American Red Cross.

from Scribner's Magazine, February 1894

The year of our Lord eighteen hundred and ninety-three will long be remembered as the year of storms. Inland gales rose and blew furiously southward. Cyclones rushed out of the tropics and raged northward. Hurricanes plunged through the Mexican Gulf and shook the southern region. Tornadoes crashed along the Atlantic coast, carrying death and destruction with them. The memory of the oldest inhabitant fails him when he tries to recall such another year of storms. The records show no parallel to it. And the storms themselves have wrought unprecedented destruction to life and property.

A storm in the South Atlantic and Gulf coasts is no new experience to the people who live near the danger line of the sea, nor even to the people who live far inland. It is a part of the climate. It belongs to expectation. 

"The August hurricane was not unexpected. In fact it had been heralded, and for at least three days before it made its appearance warnings had been given."

These elemental disturbances are confined to no particular area, as the oldest inhabitant will tell you. Their feeding-grounds are in the tropical seas, the treacherous West Indian waters - but when they gather strength and gain bulk, they rush madly forth, describing vast circles, or tearing straight ahead until they exhaust themselves. They sweep along the coasts, or go raging inland, sometimes in the shape of a whirling cyclone, and sometimes in the shape of a roaring hurricane. And the effects of them are felt hundreds of miles in all directions, even when they fail to break across the coast-line barriers; for the inland winds that are roguishly playing rock-a-bye baby in the tree-tops are keen for a frolic, and no sooner do they feel that preparations for one are going forward in the tropics than they hurry to join and feed the monstrous riot of the elements. And so wildly do they rush and tear along in their haste to become part of the whirl and swirl in the tropics, that trees and houses fall before them. This sweep of the inland winds to the central disturbance, or to the mad vacuum behind it, is usually described as a storm, but the frolicsome gales that form it are merely feeders of the real storm.