Post-Civil War

The purpose of the Homestead Act of 1862 was to promote westward migration within the United States of America. By examining the jarring environmental conditions present throughout the Great Plain region and the duplicitous state

After the Civil War, the south was faced with creating a New South. This New South produced new ways of making money to try and help reestablish its economy. One of the ways for southerners to find work was industrialization. Industrialization was the process of producing clothes from cotton, and it resulted in mill villages being formed across the Piedmont landscape (Hall 106). These mills provided jobs for many people who lived in the south who left their work on the farm in search of a different life. Analyzing the relationships between the mills and its workers through resources found throughout the book, The Most They Ever Had, the reader can get a sense of how the workers felt about their labor and what effect the mills had on their lives. The relationships will be described by explaining what the mill work was, what the conditions were like inside the mill, and some of the curricular activities that took place outside the mill. This will help in

The Homestead Act of 1862 made surveyed lands obtainable to homesteaders. The act stated that men and women over the age of 21, unmarried women who were head of households and married men under the age of 21, who did not own over 160 acres of land anywhere, were citizens or intended on becoming citizens of the United States, were eligible to homestead. This paper will show how the Homestead Act came to be enacted, who the homesteaders were and the effects of the Homestead Act on the pioneers.

May 1862 marked a major stepping stone toward western settlement. The Homestead act was passed on May 20th 1862, and permitted settlers to settle on 160 acres of pre-government land. The great part was virtually anyone was eligible, and with few requirements lots would take advantage. Although no certificate would be given until a certain time after settlement, this didn’t deter the population from signing up. Lasting more than 100 years it certainly allowed enough time for many generations to claim their stake in the new world.

“The Disappearing Family Farm”, by Jacob C. Toews examines the lifestyle of a farmer and how it is fading fast. After peaking at 6.8 million in the 1970’s family farms took a quick and fatal drop to 2.1 million in 2002. Farmers and their family become very pressured when the farmer retires at age 52-57 and a younger member is not willing to take over the farm. Another major impact on family farming is the economic imbalances. It is very hard for a farmer to make a profit to support the family with very little income and soaring expenses. As the average family needs over $47,000 in expenses ,A little under one in four farms exceed $50,000 in revenue. Although 90% of farms are still family owned and operated the trend is that they are turning

The build up of the armed services and the migration of workers to industrial centers such as Portland created severe farm labor shortages. In 1944, back in Bradley, South Dakota, Audrey Grigg’s uncle and aunt, Robert and Bessie Brown couldn’t find anyone to work their farmland. Ever since Bessie inherited the land from her parents, tenant farmers kept it productive. Although Robert grew up on a farm, he never farmed as an adult. Shortly after serving in World War I, he and his brother, Harry, acquired a Ford dealership in Bradley, which they operated throughout the 1920s, 30s, and into the 40s as part-owners.

In the 1820s, Romanticism expanded to involve all of Europe's literatures. Later in the second phase, the movement was more concerned with exploring each nation's historical and cultural inheritance, as well as examining the passions and struggles of exceptional individuals. Some of the Romantic and Romantic-influenced writers were the Brontë sisters in England, Victor Hugo in France, Alessandro Manzoni in Italy, Mikhail Lermontov in Russia, José de Espronceda in Spain, Adam Mickiewicz in Poland, and most of the important writers in pre-Civil War in

The cattle ranchers of the “counties” of southern California had prospered during the cattle boom of the early 1850s/ They were able to “reap windfall profit... pay taxes and lawyer’s bills… and generally live according to custom” (Pitt 1966). However, cattle ranching soon declined, which contributed to the expansion of agriculture.

While the older generations appear to examine similar opinions about farming, class or feudal systems of agriculture, education, the war, and religion, it is clear that there are many differing opinions regarding life and farming. For instance, Leonard Thompson, a seventy-one farm worker is depicted as stating, “These farmers were famous for their meanness. They took all they could from the men and boys who worked their land. They bought their life’s strength for as little as they could. They wore us out without a thought” (Blythe, 1999, p.37). While Roger Adlard, a thirty-one factory farmer, stated, “Farming is not this lackadaisical business of yesterday. Yet I think of my grandfather and his father, and I think that although they had small profits for so much hard work, they had carefree life”(Blythe, 1999, p.234). Here, Blythe compares and contrasts perceptions of life in agriculture as found from those who were engaged in agriculture both before and after the war. Even within the oral histories on one individual, like Gregory Gladwell, who despite living a very successful life in the midst of a agricultural and industrial revolution, he continues to wonder whether he is living in a way that “exceeds the terms of his indentured”(Blythe 1999, p.109). In this way, Blythe provides the entire perspective of the village,

But if farmers are barely able to survive, then why would you want to become one? Love. Farmers love what they do. I work a part time job on a farm and I can’t see myself anywhere else. I find joy taking early morning walks through the fields as the sun peeks over the horizon, smelling the trees blossom in the spring and the freshly cut hay in the summer. Watching the foals race in the pasture field, as their mothers gaze upon them with loving eyes. But then reality strikes, and I am provoked by an unsettling fact. The fact that the celebrated American Farmer can’t survive. Because after all, the family farm is what built this great

As children, my grandfather offered my brother and me a job on his farm. He took the time to employ us for many reasons: cheap labor mainly. However, for us, this opportunity offered much more. It gave us a source of income, character growth, experience, and most of all—it gave us perspective.

A result of growth in the industry and social change often crashed political views. Labor unions formed first in the northeast.

With the end of the 19th century and the start of the 20th century came a lot of change for the U. S. with the coming about of railroads and electricity, the U.S. was undergoing a profound economic revolution and as the economy grew, U.S. territory would also experience great expansion into the west, Latin America and Asia. The first form of U.S. expansion would occur in the American west. In 1862 the U.S. government would encourage its people to move out west in an attempt to improve and cultivate the land. The Homestead Act of 1862 would provide any adult citizen, or intended citizen, who had not borne arms against the U.S. government, claim over 160 acres of surveyed government land. Claimants would need to have a valid plan for

As a child I remember hearing stories about a lost family fortune from my father’s side of the family. I never put a lot of stock into those stories, but evidently they were true. My father’s side was comprised of farmers for many generations. The Owens family owned thousands of acres of land in Kentucky, on which they farmed tobacco and raised horses and cattle. My father, Leland, blames his grandfather’s generation for whittling away the family’s money. Even with the loss of prestige of owning such an abundance of land, the family continued to farm. I suppose it is all they knew. They became good, working class farmers and small business owners, working on their modest-sized farms. But they did own the land which separates them from the

Trade and transportation thus began to influence farming life significantly. Before 1820, the rural community accounted for eighty percent of consumption of farmers’ goods (Hurt 127). With the improvements in transportation, twenty-five percent of farmers’ products were sold for commercial gain, and by 1825, farming “became a business rather than a way of life” (128). This business required farmers to specialize their production and caused most farmers to give “less attention to the production of surplus commodities like wheat, tobacco, pork, or beef” (128). The increase in specialization encouraged some farmers to turn to technology to increase their production and capitalize on commercial markets (172).