1. 8-5.6: The Plight of the Farmers
Focus Question:
Why was life so difficult for South Carolina farmers in the late 1800’s?

2. Unhappy Farmers
More farms and better technology helped farmers produce more crops than ever before. This should have been a good thing, right?

3. But the problem was one of economics.
Farmers overproduced. The supply of foods like corn, wheat, potatoes, vegetables, and fruits was much greater than the demand for the crops. This caused the prices for crops to fall. Falling prices meant farmers were making less money!

4. South Carolina farmers also faced the same problem.
Farmers who grew cotton , rice, tobacco and other farm crops, who used fertilizers, saw the amount of crops increase, but crop prices fall.

5. Cotton continued to dominate the South Carolina economy, but it did not bring prosperity.
Small farms, worked by sharecroppers or tenant farmers, had replaced the large plantations of the antebellum period.

6. Cotton farmers also had competition from other countries.
American farmers had to compete on a world market. Farmers in Asia, South America, and Europe all grew crops that American farmers grew.
Who grows the most cotton now?

7. Top 10 Cotton Producing Countries (in metric tonnes)
Rank
Country
2010
2011
2012 1
 China
5,970,000
6,588,950
6,840,000 2
 India
5,683,000
5,984,000
5,321,000 3
 United States
3,941,700
3,412,550
3,598,000 4
 Pakistan
1,869,000
2,312,000
2,215,000 5
 Brazil
973,449
1,673,337
1,638,103 6
 Uzbekistan
1,136,120
983,400
1,052,000 7
 Turkey
816,705
954,600
851,000 8
 Australia
386,800
843,572
973,497 9
 Argentina
230,000
295,000
210,000 10
 Turkmenistan
225,000
195,000
198,000

8. Cotton was still picked by hand.
Even though the Industrial Revolution gave farmers new mechanized tools, they would not be used until later in the 1900’s in SC.

9. Government not only did not help, but made things worse!
Instead of helping the destitute farmers, the Conservatives passed a crop lien law that allowed creditors to have first claim on a farmer’s crop. The crop lien system held farmers in continual debt.
Hey come back here! Daggone government!

10. Farmers also had to deal with Mother Nature
Plagues of pests like the grasshopper, armyworm or the boll weevil could wipe out an entire harvest leaving the farmer with nothing.

11. Excessive rain, flooding or draughts also had a devastating effect on farmer’s crops.
Between 1893 to 1911, seven hurricanes hit South Carolina. Rice production would decline and start to disappear in SC.
Last major hurricane to hit Charleston area- in 1989, category 3 Hurricane Hugo
Hurricane Preparation or

12. 2015 Hurricane Season Names Will a hurricane be named after you this year?
Ana Bill Claudette Danny Erika Fred Grace Henri Ida Joaquin Kate Larry Mindy Nicholas Odette Peter Rose Sam Teresa Victor Wanda

13. If you had to evacuate, what is your plan?
What would you take? Work with your group or a partner to come up with the most important things you would take with you.

14. Lowcountry farmers turned to truck gardening to supply local markets
Lowcountry farmers turned to truck gardening to supply local markets. Tobacco was introduced as a cash crop to the Pee Dee but could not be grown in other parts of the Lowcountry. Some upstate farmers started planting peach trees; however cotton continued to dominate South Carolina agriculture into the 20th century.

15. Farmers organized!
The Grange was an organization of farmers whose goals were to work together to help farmers sell their crops, spread agriculture technology information, and to try to influence legislation to aid farmers.

16. The Farmers Alliance replaced the Grange.
It also wanted to help farmers sell their goods and was very active in politics. In South Carolina, the Farmer’s Alliance was segregated racially. There was a white Farmers’ Alliance and a Colored Farmers’ Alliance

17. The Populist Party
In the 1890s, alliances around the country united to form the Populist Party, which supported the regulation of railroads and banking, the free and unlimited coinage of silver, and a system of federal farm loans.

18. The party also advocated democratic reforms such as the popular election of Senators, the secret ballot, and a graduated income tax. The farmers attempted to ally with industrial workers by advocating an eight-hour day and restrictions on immigration.
Hey, lets become allies!

19. The Rise of Ben Tillman in South Carolina
By the time the Populist party had reached its peak in 1892, South Carolina had fallen under the spell of Benjamin Tillman, a farmer from Edgefield County.

20. South Carolina farmers accepted the leadership of Ben Tillman because of his speaking and political skills.
He could be considered a Populist because he appealed to the values and needs of the common people against the Conservative elite.

21. Unlike other Southern Populists, Tillman never supported the Populists’ appeal for the vote of the African-American farmers, who suffered as much or more from economic conditions as the white farmer.

22. Instead Tillman’s white supremacy message and racist rhetoric led to an increase of violence and lynching against African-Americans and to efforts to disenfranchise the African-American voter.

23. The fight between the Tillmanites and the Conservative establishment first got statewide attention with Tillman’s support for the establishment of Clemson as an agricultural college and his opposition to the elitism of the University of South Carolina.

24. Thomas Green Clemson, son in law of John C
Thomas Green Clemson, son in law of John C. Calhoun, supported Tillman’s promotion of an agricultural college
He left his plantation and money when he died to create a new agricultural college, Clemson . It would open in 1893.
Today Clemson is considered among the top 50 Universities in
the country and has an enrollment of 15,000 students.

25. In order to comply with the ‘separate but equal” doctrine South Carolina and other southern states established separate land grant colleges for African America farmers. South Carolina State was authorized by the land grant system but received limited financial support from the state.

26. Tillman with the help of his Tillmanites, would be elected governor and stay for two terms
Once in power, Tillman did little to help achieve the goals of farmers and the Populists who had supported them.

27. More disaster: An Devastating Earthquake in 1886
As the largest, most destructive (thus costly) and most lethal earthquake ever to strike east of the Mississippi, the catastrophe and the city’s response to it revolutionized and modernized practices in construction, disaster preparedness/response and scientific study that continue to this day.

28. The most destructive earthquake ever recorded in the eastern United States occurred near Charleston at 9:51PM on August 31st, The quake was felt by two out every three people living in the country! Estimated at a 7.3 magnitude the shock lasted about a minute.

29. More than 100 people were killed and almost every building in Charleston was damaged.
People in Charleston abandoned their damaged home to sleep outside, in parks, cemeteries, backyards, on buses, ships, ice wagons, and railroad cars. Ships in the harbor became refugees for the homeless.

30. Many Charleston brick homes and warehouses still sport earthquake bolts where iron rods were inserted to reinforce them.

31. Sooooo….. Do we need to worry about earthquakes as well as hurricanes?