Ancient Egyptian Agriculture.

had to prepare and cook the food that the men obtained.   Most of the time, they

Despite the flushed predictions of prosperity that had lured new settlers to the plains, the reality was more difficult. The farmers claimed that they did not have enough land, money, and transportation (Doc C). The farmers went into in a never ending cycle if they did not have a good harvest. As Booker Washington explains the farmers had no money so they had to borrow money from the banks which charged 12 to 30 percent interest. The interest the farmers were hit with was nearly impossible to repay so they had to mortgage everything and if the mortgage wasn’t paid the land was foreclosure which led the yeomen to become tenant farmers (Doc B). With periods of drought growing good crops was hard. Leading Economic Sectors shows how the farmers predicament of not being able to make a very

farmers who had a difficulty making a living off of the crop because of the work that

later, brought rural farmers’ grievances into the picture after their land was destroyed during the

These assumptions include: farmers had to compete with industries for workers; the emancipation of slaves left farmers with no workforce, forcing them into industry jobs; and income taxes drove farmers into debt. After our hypothesis was written, we consulted Mr. Nelson on advice in moving forward. With him, we created a list of variables to focus on: taxes, land, population, and crop production. We chose to focus on Al Valorem Taxes, as a farmer’s business depends on their land. We also chose to focus on cotton production because cotton farms were the most successful and thus biggest of farms. We filtered through data from the National Archives and U.S. Census Bureau to separate data related to these variables, and then created a separate graph for each topic. After analyzing the data trends, we researched the reasons behind these trends, and then looked for other problems related to our argument that we did not include in our assumptions.

The new technology used in American agriculture made it overall more productive and widespread while creating mixed results for the farmers. The advancement in machines like reapers, threshers, and mowers to harvest grains produced contrasting outcomes. An obvious benefit was some of the ease brought to the farmers. The human labor involved in harvesting grain by hand with a scythe or by a simple, one horse-powered machine was far greater than harvesting with a big, multi-horse powered machine. The devices made work simpler, faster, and more efficient for the farmers by relying on animal energy and technology (Document D). With promises of larger crops with less exertion, the new machines became very desirable to farmers in order to stay in competition with their peers; however, buying these machines also pushed many of them into unfortunate financial situations. Not only was the actual

From 1880-1906, western farmers were affected by multiple issues that they saw as threats to their way of life. The main threats to the farmers were railroads, trusts, and the government, because these institutions all had the power to drastically affect the ability of the farmers to make profits. Therefore, the farmers were not wrong to feel frustration toward those institutions when the institutions caused the farmers to live lives of increasingly extreme poverty.

Though they were technically free now, they were freed with no money, so they worked on these farms where they were tenants who were allowed to use the land to farm as long as the landowner received a portion of the crops. The similarities between slavery and sharecropping did not seem to make a big change that they hoped for Reconstruction. This new system,

Working conditions between the two groups also varied. Tenant farmers were fortunate enough to be able to own their farming supplies and equipment. This in turn made their working conditions a bit easier because they were used to using the equipment that they had. Because of this productivity was increased and allowed them to have more control over the volume of goods produced, and consequently, profits. Immigrants were not as lucky. With whatever jobs they could find, conditions were just as bleak and unpromising. The average annual wage for unskilled immigrant laborers was $270 per year (1/22 lecture notes). For example, with scavenging they had to go and clean waste from outhouses. This was probably one of the dirtiest jobs one could have during this time. Assuming the scavenger had a home, they could wash off a day’s work, but this was not usually the case. Working conditions for immigrants were not as predictable and uniform because they had the least job security and opportunities for advancement.

A Short History of the Agrarian Revolt in America, Lawrence Goodwyn explains the unfairness shown to the farmers: “should population and production double to twenty while the money supply was held at ten- currency contraction- the price of wheat would drop to fifty cents. The farmers of the nation would get no more for twenty bushels of wheat than they had previously received for ten.” Song pamphlets also circulated throughout the United States during this time, rallying farmers together against this financial

The farmers had it hard in those days and it seemed that things might not get better, but all changed with

crops so low, this meant the farmer’s income was low. Many farmers abused the land for

In 1890 clergyman Washington Gladden wrote an article called “The Embattled Farmers”. In it he blamed the ruin of the farmers on “protective tariffs, trusts…speculation in farm products, over-greedy middlemen, and exorbitant transportation rates.”

Ancient Egyptian and Mesopotamian agricultural lives were highly differentiated due to their contrasting geographical situations, and also differences in technological processes and developments. Only a small area of Egyptian land (the Delta and Nile Valley) was fertile during the annual inundation of the river Nile. Moreover, harsh natural circumstances created a famine risk for the entire population, thus restricting the freedom to decide for a common citizen. To illustrate, an uneven spillage of the river Nile, when there were insufficient water resources for the agriculture or floods threatening corps, required a unified, or communal, water regulation and distributional system. So, a

make the farm successful . Families were the most important social and economic unit where