What Are The Roles Of Farmers In The 1880s And 1890s

In the 1880s and 1890s farmers faced hard times and were ready to fix that. These hard times were important to the history of America because they led to the formation of several organizations that affected many aspects of life.
During the plight of the farmers farm prices fell while their share of the market grew. Through foreclosure, or the process of taking possession of a mortgaged property as a result of the mortgagor's failure to keep up mortgage payments, the majority of farms had fallen into the hands of the banks. Farmers decided that they had to band together in order to fix the problems, so they created the Farmer’s Alliance. The Farmer’s Alliance in the South demanded government control of transportation, such as railroads, and

In addition, they wanted the freedom to borrow money from the government to buy land, an income tax, and the freedom to coin their own money. Over time, the Alliance formed two regional alliances, the Northwestern Farmers’ Alliance and the Southern Farmers’ Alliance. Both alliances traveled and preached the message of the Alliance, but many American people did not need to be convinced that something was wrong. The Southern Alliance was more radical and reached out to African Americans, women, and industrial workers. Blacks and whites also tried to have a common cause with the Colored Farmers’ Alliance founded in Texas in the 1880s. Farmers used cooperatives as the heart of the Alliance. The farmers sold their cotton together so that they could negotiate a better price. They tried to gain independence from the merchant/creditor by having trade stores and exchanges. The Farmers’ Alliance tried to change the way that farmers lived and improve their situation through the cooperatives. However, the cooperative movement began to die because the cooperatives could not get credit due to opposition by merchants, bankers, wholesalers, and manufacturers who