“Changes in Agriculture”N.C. New South

(1876-1900)

Changes after the Civil War

• New technology began to transform American agriculture

• Railroads and the growth of cities opened up new markets for cash crops

• Farming Issues• new economic pressures• former slaves and many white farmers

found themselves tenants or sharecroppers

• facing endless cycles of debt

Agriculture Before the Civil War

• In the 1850s, subsistence agriculture dominated the Southern Piedmont.

• Although a handful of large plantations dotted the region, most farmers worked small pieces of land, raising grains, vegetables, and animals to feed their family, and bartered with neighbors for most of the goods they could not produce themselves.

• On the eve of the Civil War, however, railroads began to enter this backcountry, making the land accessible for commercial agriculture and industry.

Agriculture After the Civil War

• The Civil War, of course, abolished slavery, breaking up the large plantations into small plots, still owned by wealthy white families but now worked by African American and white sharecroppers.

• Crop liens, agreements in which farmers who needed land and credit to buy supplies worked property owned by planters who needed labor, transformed the agricultural economy.

What was the role of merchants?

• Merchants also gained power as a result of the liens, providing supplies and lines of credit to farmers in exchange for a share of their crops.

• Merchants charged high interest rates, farmers had no choice but to plant cash crops such as cotton and tobacco, shifting their focus from food to commercial production.

• Result: farmers began to buy instead of grow more of the crops their families needed for survival, leading to higher debts owed to merchants.

What are fence laws?

• Fence laws• which kept farmers from allowing livestock to roam land that they did not own

• higher taxes further decreased the limited resources of small farmers and made them increasingly dependent on the market economy.

• When crop prices fell in the 1870s, 1880s, and 1890s, farmers plunged into deepening debt.

From Farm to Factory• During these hard times for farm

families, merchants experienced dramatic growth in their economic power.

• As they accumulated capital, many invested in the construction of textile mills that converted into yarn and cloth

• In NC an average of 6 new mills were built every year between 1880 and 1900. By 1900, the state was home to 177 mills, the vast majority of which were located in the Piedmont.

• Farm families were drawn to factory work by the promise of a steady wage and their sometimes desperate desire to escape a future of poverty and debt

• The move to the mills marked an enduring break with rural life. Over time, they came to think of themselves as a distinct new class of “cotton mill people.”

Describe the Revolution in Agriculture• Despite the great gains in industry,

agriculture remained the nation’s basic occupation.

• The nation’s population more than doubled, with the largest growth in the cities

• American farmer grew enough grain and cotton, raised enough beef and pork, and clipped enough wool not only to supply American workers and their families but also to create ever-increasing surpluses.

• Reasons this occurred:• expansion into the West• technological revolution• Agricultural science:

• raising yields, squeezing out small producers, and driving migration to industrial cities

Sharecropping and tenant farming• Tenant farmers usually paid the

landowner rent for farmland and a house. • owned the crops they planted and

made their own decisions about them.

• After harvesting the crop, the tenant sold it and received income from it.

• From that income, he paid the landowner the amount of rent owed.

• Sharecroppers seldom owned anything. • they borrowed practically everything• not only the land and a house but

also supplies, draft animals, tools, equipment, and seeds

• contributed his, and his family’s, labor.

Continued……

• Most tenant farmers and sharecroppers bought everything they needed on credit from local merchants, hoping to make enough money at harvest time to pay their debts.

• http://www.learnnc.org/lp/editions/nchist-newsouth/5492

The history of the NC State fair• In 1852 agricultural journal editor Dr. John F. Tompkins

decided to try to improve agriculture in North Carolina. He organized a Raleigh meeting of the state’s leading advocates of agricultural reform.

• The group decided that the best way to encourage North Carolina farmers to adopt scientific methods of farming was through an annual State Fair.

• The fair, they hoped, would allow the society to demonstrate the best farming practices in the state to thousands of farmers, as well as provide an opportunity to teach better farming methods.

• The Civil War brought the State Fair to an end. North Carolina, now a Confederate state, used the fairgrounds for the instruction of volunteer troops.

Continued….

• Between 1873 and 1925, the fair underwent many changes, but the Agricultural Society stuck to its basic concept of using the fair to educate North Carolina farmers about better farming practices.

• The society continued to award premiums for the best crops, livestock, agricultural implements, and household items.

• In 1925 the Agricultural Society went bankrupt, and for two years there was no fair.

• 1928, the State of North Carolina made the fair a state agency under the control of the Department of Agriculture and reopened the fair at its current home.

• 1937 the State Fair became a division of the Department of Agriculture

• Today, the fairgrounds hum with activity the entire year. Still, each October the ten-day-long exposition, carnival, and celebration of our agricultural heritage that we know as the North Carolina State Fair is attended by more than 700,000 people.

• Remains the state’s oldest and most important annual celebration.

The African American State Fair• After the Civil War, a group of African American men in Raleigh

were looking for a way to demonstrate the progress made by African Americans in NC.

• In 1879, 22 of these men organized as the Colored Industrial Association of North Carolina.

• Purpose was to improve and educate North Carolina’s African Americans and to demonstrate what newly freed people could accomplish.

• The association succeeded in organizing a fair in Raleigh during the month of November for a number of years in the late 1800s.

• The fair combined agricultural and industrial displays. Exhibitors displayed farm produce, crafts, and arts, including such items as poultry, needlework, quilts, and paintings.

Continued…….

• Prominent politicians and public figures, both black and white, made speeches during the fair.

• Parades and bands lent a festive air to the activities.

• Visitors traveled to the fair from across the state, and many railroads offered discounted rates to the fair’s exhibitors.

• The Colored Industrial Association Fair did not become a financial success, however.

• When the fair was discontinued is unclear, although it lasted at least a decade