SECTION 3: Farmers and Populism
▲ Farmers gather at a Populist rally. The inset photo shows the cover of a Farmers’ Alliance songbook.
WITNESS HISTORY 
AUDIO
Black and White Together
In the late 1800s, a social and political movement made up largely of farmers arose in the South and West. Known as Populists, the biggest obstacle this group faced, especially in the South, was antagonism between blacks and whites. Populist leader Tom Watson tried to persuade the groups to work together.
“The white tenant lives adjoining the colored tenant…. They are equally burdened with heavy taxes. They pay the same high rent…. They pay the same enormous prices for farm supplies…. Now the People’s Party says to these two men, ‘You are kept apart that you may be separately fleeced of your earnings…. You are deceived and blinded that you may not see how this race antagonism perpetuates a monetary system which beggars both.”
—Thomas Watson, “The Negro Question in the South,” 1892
Objectives
- Analyze the problems farmers faced and the groups they formed to address them.
- Assess the goals of the Populists, and explain why the Populist Party did not last.
Terms and People
- Oliver H. Kelley
- Grange
- Populist Party
- William Jennings Bryan
- William McKinley
NoteTaking
Reading Skill: Identify Causes and Effects As you read, list the reasons that farmers in the South and West felt the need to organize and the effects of their effort.
Why It Matters Following the Civil War, millions of men and women migrated west in search of the American dream. However, in the late 1880s and early 1890s, their dream began to turn into a nightmare, which, in turn, sparked a social and political revolt known as populism. This movement displayed the dissatisfaction of millions of ordinary Americans—poor farmers, small landholders, and urban workers—and produced one of the largest third-party movements in American history. Section Focus Question: What led to the rise of the Populist movement, and what effect did it have?
Farmers Face Many Problems
The farmers of the West and the South were willing to accept the difficulties of farm life. Yet, farmers discovered that other enormous obstacles stood in the way of realizing their dreams. They received low prices for their crops, yet they had to pay high costs for transportation. Debts mounted while their influence on the political system declined.
Falling Prices and Rising Debt
Between 1870 and 1895, farm prices plummeted. Cotton, which sold for about 15 cents a pound in the early 1870s, sold for only about 6 cents a pound in the mid-1890s. Corn and wheat prices declined nearly as rapidly. One study estimated
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