Lesson 19.4: The Farming Frontier

1. Lesson 19.4: The Farming Frontier Today’s Essential Question: How did settlers come to live on the Great Plains and how did they respond to the various challenges they faced there?

2. Vocabulary • Exoduster– African Americans who left the South and settled on the Kansas prairie • homestead – the land your family owns and lives on • cooperative – businesses owned and operated by their members • regulate – control by passing laws • inflation – high prices as a result of too much money in circulation

3. Check for Understanding • What is today’s Essential Question? • Where did Exodusters live before relocating to the Great Plains? • Can an apartment be your homestead? Explain. • Why is it important that the purity of food be regulated? • Why is inflation bad for most people?

4. What We Already Know After the Civil War, angry Southerners still abused African Americans and tried to keep them down.

5. What We Already Know By 1890, all the Native American tribes had been defeated and exiled to remote reservations, leaving nearly all Western lands open to white settlement.

6. What We Already Know The Great Plains were treeless, dry, and so different from any other lands they’d ever seen, settlers initially called it the Great American Desert.

7. What We Already Know From time to time, a new political party emerges to challenge the established parties, like the Democratic Party did in 1828 and the Republican Party did in 1856. Andrew Jackson Abraham Lincoln

8. The U.S. Government Encourages Settlement • For years, people had been calling on the federal government to sell Western land at low prices. • Before the Civil War, Southern states fought such a policy.

9. The U.S. Government Encourages Settlement They feared that a big westward migration would result in more non-slave states.

10. The Homestead Act Passes • During the Civil War, with no Southern Congress-men to oppose it, the government passed the Homestead Act. • This 1862 law offered 160 acres of land free to anyone who would live on the land and work it for five years.

11. New Settlers Move West to Seek a New Life • Thousands of African Americans left the South to escape continuing discrimination. • A large group that migrated to Kansas compared themselves to the Biblical Hebrews leaving slavery in Egypt, and called themselves Exodusters.

12. The Railroads Encourage Settlement • Hundreds of thousands of European immigrants – Swedes, Germans, Norwegians, Ukrainians, and Russians – also settled in the West. • The immigrants often first learned about the West from agents for American railroad companies, who traveled throughout Europe with pamphlets proclaiming “Land for the Landless! Homes for the Homeless!”

13. The Railroads Encourage Settlement • From 1850 to 1870, the government gave millions of acres of public land to the railroads to promote railroad expansion. • The railroad companies resold much of the land to settlers, not only making themselves rich, but it also creating new customers for their services.

14. Get your whiteboards and markers ready!

15. How did railroads cause more Europeans to come to America? • The railroads advertised in Europe that land in America was cheap, or even free. • They came to help build the railroads. • They used the railroads to sneak into the country illegally. • Railroad car manufacturers recruited factory workers in European cities.

16. 88. How did the federal govern-ment encourage and support settlement of the Plains? • It sold land at low prices to railroad companies so they could re-sell it to settlers. • It guaranteed loans for settlers to buy privately-owned land. • It offered free land to settlers who agreed to live on it and improve it. • It purchased railroad tickets to help settlers’ families relocate to the West.

17. What TWO groups settled in the West in large numbers? • Civil War veterans • African American ‘Exodusters’ • Chinese railroad workers • Northern ‘Copperheads’ • Southern ‘scalawags’ • European immigrants

18. 89. Who were the Exodusters? • Former slaves • European immigrants • Settled on the Kansas Plains • Civil War veterans • Helped build the transcontinental railroad • Victims of the Homestead Act Choose all that are true!

19. What was true about the Homestead Act? • It was passed by Congress during the Civil War. • It was supported strongly by Southerners. • It made free land available to settlers. • It required settlers to live and work on it for five years. • African Americans were excluded from the offer. Choose all that are true!

20. Life on the frontier was a challenge. The Plains were nearly treeless, so farmers had to build their first homes with blocks of sod, which is why they were called sodbusters.

21. Farmers had to burn corn cobs and dried manure for fuel.

22. They often had to dig deep into the ground for water. • Settlers also had to face blizzards, prairie fires, hailstorms, tornadoes, grasshoppers, and drought.

23. New inventions helped farmers to meet some of their challenges. • John Deere’s steel plow let farmers slice through tough soil. • Improved windmills pumped water from deep wells to the surface.

24. New inventions helped farmers to meet some of their challenges. Barbed wire allowed farmers to fence in livestock.

25. New inventions helped farmers to meet some of their challenges. Reapers made the harvesting of crops much easier, and threshers helped farmers to separate grain or seed from straw.

26. New inventions helped farmers to meet some of their challenges. • These inventions also made farm work more efficient. • From 1860 to 1890, farmers doubled their production of wheat.

27. Get your whiteboards and markers ready!

28. 90. Which inventions aided farmers on the Plains in the late 19th Century? • Steel plow • Hay baler • Reaper • Thresher • Seed drill Choose all that are true!

29. 91. What challenges did Plains farmers face? • Droughts and prairie fires • Tornadoes and hailstorms • Cattle rustlers • Indian raids • Grasshopper swarms • Blizzards Choose all that are true!

30. The Problems of Farmers • Improved machinery helped farmers to grow more food, but such a large supply of crops caused prices to drop. • While farmers received less money for their goods, they had to spend more to run a farm. • New farm machinery and railroad rates were especially costly.

31. The Problems of Farmers • Railroads charged the farmers high fees to carry their crops to market. • The railroads also usually owned the grain elevators where crops were stored until shipment.

32. Farmers had no choice but to pay the high costs of storage that railroads charged. • These high costs made farmers angry, so they joined together to seek changes.

33. The Problems of Farmers In 1867, farmers formed the Grange, officially known as the Patrons of Husbandry.

34. The Problems of Farmers • The Grange began as a social organization, to meet the social needs of farm families who lived great distances from one another. • But soon its members began working to improve the economic conditions of farmers.

35. The Problems of Farmers • Grange members formed cooperatives, which are businesses owned and operated by their members. • The cooperatives bought grain elevators and sold crops directly to merchants, allowing farmers to keep more of their profits.

36. The Problems of Farmers • Through the Grange, farmers also demanded help from their state governments to regulate railroad rates. • In 1877, the Supreme Court ruled in Munn v. Illinois that government could regulate railroads because they were businesses that served the public interest.

37. Get your whiteboards and markers ready!

38. 92. What problems in the 1890s led the farmers to take political action? • Railroads charged unfair shipping rates. • There were too many cooperatives in place in the Plains states. • Farm machinery was expensive. • Crop prices were falling. • There were no grain elevators where crops could be stored until shipment. Choose all that are true!

39. 93. What was the Grange? • Developed new technology that would help farmers produce larger crops • Wanted to create inflation by sticking to the gold standard • Tried to elect political candidates who were sensitive to farmers' concerns • Originally formed to meet the social needs of farm families who lived great distances from one another

40. How did members of the Grange try to solve their problems? • They asked Congress to raise tariffs on foreign agricultural products. • They introduced laws that lowered mortgage interest rates. • They formed cooperatives and helped pass laws that regulated railroad rates. • They helped pass laws that banned producer and consumer cooperatives.

41. Why did farmers seek action against the railroads? • The railroads charged unfair shipping rates. • The railroads owned the grain elevators and demanded high storage fees. • The railroads had banned the formation of cooperatives. • The railroads were refusing to haul the crops of Grange members.

42. How did the courts aid the farmers? • The courts ruled that government could regulate railroads because they were businesses that served the public interest. • Laws that allowed the railroads to charge unfair rates were ruled unconstitutional. • In the Munn v. Illinois decision, ownership of grain elevators by railroads was banned. • Railroad companies were ruled to be in violation of laws banning resale of free government land granted by the Homestead Act.

43. The Rise of Populism • In 1890, several farm groups formed the Populist Party, or People’s Party. • The Populist Party wanted the government to adopt a free silver policy, meaning the unlimited coining of silver. • Since silver was plentiful, more money would be put in circulation.

44. The Rise of Populism • Farmers hoped that increasing the money supply would cause inflation, resulting in higher prices for all goods -- including crops. • This would help farmers pay back the money that they had borrowed to buy new farm tools or to improve their farms.

45. The Rise of Populism • Opponents of free silver wanted to keep the gold standard. • Under this system, the government backs every dollar with an amount of gold. • Since the nation’s gold supply was limited, fewer dollars would be in circulation and inflation would be less likely.

46. The Rise of Populism • The Populist Party also called for government ownership of railroads and shorter working hours. • Although the Populist candidate, James B. Weaver, lost the 1892 presidential election, the party won more than a million votes. • This was a good showing for a third-party candidate.

47. Get your whiteboards and markers ready!

48. Which of the following does NOT describe the Populist Party? • A third national political party • Believed a policy of inflation would be good for America • Made up of business owners • Originated from several Western farm groups

49. 94. What was the platform of the Populist party? • Free and unlimited coinage of silver • Continuation of the gold standard • Government ownership of railroads • Votes for women • Shorter working hours • Ban on cooperatives Choose all that are true!

50. Why did farmers support a free silver policy? • Silver had been found on a number of Western farms, and farmers hoped to become wealthy. • “Free silver” would increase the money supply, causing inflation and a rise in crop prices. • “Free silver’ would be easier to earn than silver that had to be paid for. • A free silver policy would allow farmers to turn the tables on the railroad companies.