The Self Sufficient Farmer and the Self Made Man

1. The Self Sufficient Farmer and the Self Made Man Jake, Dylan, Cory

2. Ironically, popular belief in the, �self-sufficient farmer,� and the, �self-made man,� increased during the nineteenth century as the reality behind these beliefs faded. We are to assess the validity of this statement.

3. The Self Made Man �Self-made men [�] are the men who owe little or nothing to birth, relationship, friendly surroundings; to wealth inherited or to early approved means of education; who are what they are, without the aid of any of the favoring conditions by which other men usually rise in the world and achieve great results.��Fredrick Douglass

4. In other words� Self made man/self sufficient farmer- a person or farmer who started out in low or middle class. They then created profits and became wealthy through work, and not having money handed down to them from wealth inheritances.

5. Examples of Self Made Men

6. John D. Rockefeller

7. John D Rockefeller was born on July 8, 1839 in Richford, New York. He was very studious which helped him later in his career. He started off as a bookkeeper (1855), only making 50 cents a day. These were his humble beginnings that self made men often have.

8. In 1859, Rockefeller took his first steps into business with his partner Maurice B Clark. Together they built an oil refinery in 1863. This was the beginning of the Standard Oil Company. Rockefeller bought out the Clark brothers for the company. The standard oil company soon became dominant through horizontal integration (The acquisition of additional business activities at the same level of the value chain) of oil refineries. Rockefeller became a self made man, his personal wealth reached about $900,000,000. 

10. Rockefeller being, �enthroned,� as an industrial emperor.

11. Horatio Alger Jr.

12. Horatio Alger Jr. was an American novelist in the 19th century whose novels mostly focused on the aspect of going from rags to riches. His narratives follow the life's of characters, such as shoe shiners, newsboys, and other impoverished children, that grew up in an environment that seemed to prevent them from being successful. Most of his novels end with these characters achieving extreme wealth that to someone like that was thought of as impossible. 

13. Some of Alger�s works�

14. Some of Alger�s works�

15. Andrew Carnegie

16. Andrew Carnegie was a Scottish immigrant and steel tycoon, who has one of the most influential rags-to-riches stories of all time. He moved to Pennsylvania in 1848 and had a hard working job in a factory as a teenager.

17. After various investments in different businesses, he eventually gained control of the Homestead Steel Works company in 1888. 13 years later, he sold his company, consequently becoming the richest person in history. He spent the remainder of his life as a major philanthropist, giving away much of his money to worthy causes, including libraries and universities.

19. Carnegie Libraries

20. Carnegie�s Love For Libraries

21. Why Did These Beliefs Fade?

22. Political Because farmers culture and policies were unfavorable in favor of city culture and policies, politics in regard to the self sufficient farmer tended to be ignored Farmers� Alliance: Party of farmers designed to promote higher selling prices of the crops they grew. Unfortunately, it had limited and short termed success because, when their buyers didn�t want to pay the higher prices, they simply boycotted the Alliance.

23. Social Slavery was abolished, so a lack of workers=lack of self sufficiency The rise in industry and technology made the self-sufficient farmer and farmers altogether more obsolete When the industrial society came about, everyone left farms to pursue a life in the city. Very few farmers were left. The pressure of industrialization caused farmers to either sell off their land, or, purchase even more land with no one to work on it. Both were risky moves Farmers had to convert their lands into maize mazes, farm tours, and even restaurants in order to make any money Some of countries best farmland was industrialized into cities, resulting in a decrease in fertile growing land.

24. Economic Crop prices were not definite and fluctuated randomly, meaning an unstable profit for the farmer Rising land values= harder to purchase land at all Farmer Debt In West: Needed mortgages to cover land and machinery costs Crop value stopped fluctuating and just dropped Consequently, farmers had to grow more, which sold for even less= a vicious supply and demand cycle

25. In Conclusion� The self made man and self sufficient farmer may have been prominent at one point, but southern sufficiency was extremely effected by the industrialization of cities.

26. Work Cited Page http://alpha.furman.edu/~benson/docs/carnegie.htm http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/carnegie/timeline/timeline2.html http://www.bgsu.edu/departments/acs/1890s/rockefeller/bio2.htm http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/rockefellers/peopleevents/p_rock_jsr.html http://www25.uua.org/uuhs/duub/articles/horatioalgerjr.html http://www.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/cinder/bio.htm http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/doughtml/dougFolder5.html http://www.jstor.org/pss/3740085

27. Fin