ISAAC+M+ --+ Analyze+the+ways+in+which+technology

Home List of Themes Model - Articles of Confederation

**Theme:** Industrialization **Topic:** Agriculture **Free Response Question**: Analyze the ways in which technology, government policy and economic conditions changed American agriculture in the period 1865-1900. In your answer, be sure to evaluate the farmer's response to the changes. Introductory Paragraph **Setting:** Between the Reconstruction of the South and the beginning of the Progressive Era, American agriculture witnessed great changes. **Basis for Analysis**: Agriculture had been a primary part of the United States' economy until the Industrial revolution. Despite the I.R. American agriculture continued to evolve. **Partitions**: Further development of agriculture was effected by national policies, developing technologies and a changing economy for farmers. **Thesis:** As industrialization became fueled during the post-Reconstruction period and the American farmer was slowly forgotten, American farmers came together to bargain in the wake of corrupt presidential cabinets. Outside Knowledge (OK) for each partition

**Partition 1:** Technology Railway Systems (Union Pacific and Central Pacific Railroads, monopoly)

Department of Agriculture (Distributed information/technology needed e.g. plows and threshers)

Bonanza Farms (Focused on one/two main crops, acted as a business)

**Partition 2:** Government Policy Freedmen's Bureau & Committee on Reconstruction (Provided "40 acres and a mule" to ex-slaves)

Homestead Act 1862 (encouraged Americans to move west by offering 160 acres of land for a small price)

Interstate Commerce Act 1887 (federal government can interstate railway rates, failed due to lack of enforcement)

Sherman Anti-Trust Act 1890 (allows federal government to regulate trusts)

Elkins Act 1903 (Authorized the Interstate Commerce Commission to impose heavy fines on railroads that offered rebates)

Hepburn Act 1906 (Authorized ICC to finally set maximum railroad prices)

** Partition 3: ** Economic Conditions Gold Standard (made all U.S. currency based off of gold, as a result less money was in circulation making farmer's situation work)

The Grange/American Federation of Labor (organization of farmers in order to bargain for necessities i.e. federal regulation of railroads, bimetallism, establishment of state agriculture department in every state, farm credits/subsidies)

Greenback Party/Populists (political parties that attempted and overall failed to make the farmer's demands a reality in the 19th century)

General Information: <span style="background-color: #ffffff; display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 15px; text-align: left;"> <span style="background-color: #ffffff; display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 15px; text-align: left;">-Freedmen's Bureau attempted to support ex-slaves, ultimately failed, many moved west as a result of Morrill Land-Grant Act and Homestead Act <span style="background-color: #ffffff; display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 15px; text-align: left;"> <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;"> -Railway system was a monopoly that kept farmers from being able to pay the necessary rates, this stacked with high tariffs created issues for the farmers <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;"> -Many homesteads failed because of a lack of cooperation/preparedness out on the prairie, bonanza farms survived for the most part, land speculators purchased land <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 15px;">-Lack of money in circulation kept inflation down=very bad for farmers <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 15px;">-Technology prevented farmers from making a profit -> government policies instituted to assist farmers, didn't do enough -> farmers had to come together to make their issues public, wouldn't be solved until Progressive Era reforms