The Forgotten Man Research Paper

Over the past couple decades the number of undocumented immigrants involved in American agriculture has increased by the hundreds. They have dominated the fields on the west coast and have been put to work in some very harsh conditions. Many people in the US believe that these men, women, and even children are occupying jobs that legal citizens could have. We realize that even though much of our agriculture these days is harvested by modern technologies, a big part of the agriculture’s economy is made up of labor intensive from people, such as harvesting grapes, strawberries, pistachios, raspberries, etcetera. As we dig deeper into this topic we will realize why our agricultural

American family farmers produced goods for the global economy; however, after 1870, the depression struck the nation, meaning that the produce families grew for the market and economy would be sold for at a lower price. A family who had contributed themselves to the nation’s economy would find themselves in an event of possibly, and most likely, losing their farm since at that time farming insurance wasn’t available. Ownership of farms were not secure or stable during this time of depression.

Dorothea Lange became a well-known photographer with pictures of the Dust Bowl. According to Garland 2003 her photography obtained government relief for Dust Bowl migrants because she “visually demonstrated the hunger, poverty, hardship, and the plight of the migrants.”

Throughout the era of the great depression, migrant farm workers were put at unfair labor. A man named Cesar Chavez helped migrant farm workers by boycotting the fruit companies they worked for and forming unions for them. The beginning of Chavez’s life, striking and boycotting fruit companies, and his new projects were the biggest impact in changing farm worker’s lives.

Ben Tillman was born August 11, 1847 in Trenton, South Carolina to Sophia Hancock and Benjamin Ryan Tillman. Ben thought of himself as a “dirt farmer”, but was actually purely flourishing. He owned a 2,200-acre farm with a total of 30 workers. Just like his fellow farmer “buddies”, Tillman came close to losing everything in the 1880s. Before Ben Tillman came along to “save the day” many farmers were saddened due to the decline of income, high railroad shipping charges, and high interest rates

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

One of the biggest changes in this new American society was the move from agricultural based jobs, to factory based jobs. People’s lives changed drastically because of it. Families no longer worked as a single unit, but rather each family member went out to work and bring money to the family. However,

Thousands of families journeyed to California, settling in San Joaquin Valley. From 1930 to 1936, the Dust Bowl caused damages in agriculture in the Central Valleys all the way to the East Coast of the U.S. At the time, the majority of the farmers were from Oklahoma, in other words, they were American. Although most of the farmers fleeing the Dust Bowl were U.S born, some were Mexican-Americans living in Texas, Arizona and the states closer to the border (Gregory). However, this event did not fully give rise to the Mexican Migrant Farm Workers’ community. It was instead, the beginnings of successful farm labor in the valleys of California, which transformed California’s view towards farming. California seemed perfect, the climate was good for a diversity of crops and it promised a lot to the desolated farmers from the East. Why was this significant to the formation of the Mexican Migrant community? In other words, if the Dust Bowl would not have happened, then farm labor would have not been as significant in California as it is. Californians would have continued mining and building factories in soils that today, are used primarily for agriculture. James N. Gregory, professor at the University of Washington argues that “The twentieth century drained rural Americans from the land as surely as it improved the technology and efficiency of farming” as he discusses the effects of the

Families had to split up in search for work and many children got jobs to make extra money for their families. In 1933, when Roosevelt took office, “24.9% of the total workforce or 12,830,000 people were unemployed” according to the FDR Library. This statistic shows just how much the average American was struggling to keep themselves and their families afloat. The FDR Library also states that “drastic drops in farm commodity prices resulted in farmers losing their lands and homes due to foreclosure” and that “gangs of unemployed youth, whose families could no longer support them, rode the rails as hobos in search of work.” The previous excerpts depict America’s loss of stability because the people providing food were out of jobs and parents had to send their children away since they could not afford to care for them any further. Thankfully, President Roosevelt and his administration stepped in soon afterward to correct the

The South’s agriculture was predominantly dependent on slave labor prior to the Civil War. Although the North continued to industrialize and improve its technology to advance their farming, the South stuck to their tradition of using slaves, which proved to be inefficient. By 1860, the productivity of the North was almost double of that of the South, and the reason is revealed in this article. When he was traveling short distances, he found the slaves to be completely inefficient. Only few slaves on a farm were capable of working for their masters, others were often too young, too old, or too ill to work. The white men didn’t like work because of their belief that work was meant for slaves, and the slaves that worked never gave their best effort, for they were lacking

Arguing that the majority of farmers during the Great Depression benefitted from the government policies produced through President Roosevelt’s New Deal is an inaccurate claim. While history textbooks highlight the improvement of finances for people in rural areas in the United States of America, the personal experiences of family farmers contradict those textbooks. Writers of textbooks about American history should consider looking further into the delicate topic of how the Great Depression effected common farm families. In the West, farmers endured the Dust Bowl. In the North, people in rural areas competed to make a profit. Although statistics show the most economic damage of the Great Depression beginning at the end of 1929, small farm families refer to the effects of the Depression dating back as early as 1925 since government policies mostly benefitted large farm industries as small farms were forced to foreclose.

The farmers in America had a very difficult time when the Great Depression occurred. “People who grew up during the Depression said, ‘No one had any money. We were all in the same boat.’ Neighbors helped each other through hard times, sickness, and accidents” (Bill Ganzel). Because no other profession gave enough money at the time, buying much of a farmer’s produce was not in their price range. Farmers would have to either lower their prices or make no profit at all. Though a wide variety of issues made a farmer’s job difficult in the 1930s, the problems mainly all arose as a result of tenant farmers (people who rented land to farm). Tractors became available, though expensive, and many landowners would buy one which ended up causing problems (Bill Ganzel). Due to the lack of money, affording a tractor for each tenant farmer on a landowner’s

Growing up on a small family wheat farm in southwestern Oklahoma, I have experienced the harsh conditions of farming firsthand. The job that used to employ the largest amount of people in the United States has lost the support and the respect of the American people. The Jeffersonian Ideal of a nation of farmers has been tossed aside to be replaced by a nation of white-collar workers. The family farm is under attack and it is not being protected. The family farm can help the United States economically by creating jobs in a time when many cannot afford the food in the stores. The family farm can help prevent the degradation of the environment by creating a mutually beneficial relationship between the people producing the food and nature. The family farm is the answer to many of the tough questions facing the United States today, but these small farms are going bankrupt all too often. The government’s policy on farming is the largest factor in what farms succeed, but simple economics, large corporations, and society as a whole influence the decline in family farms; small changes in these areas will help break up the huge corporate farms, keeping the small family farm afloat.

Dorothea Lange’s pictures of the homeless during the Great Depression got the attention of the Federal Resettlement Administration. She began to work for them taking pictures and capturing the publics attention of the poor. She also worked for the US Farm Security Administration before World War Two. She investigated the conditions of farm workers in many Western states. Many of the people she photographed during this time had came to escape the “Dust Bowl” (a drought which devastated millions of acres of farm land in midwestern states).

“They had no argument, no system, nothing but their numbers and their needs. When there was work for a man, ten men fought for it – fought with a low wage. If that fella’ll work for thirty cents, I’ll work for twenty-five”(Steinbeck). The renowned novel, The Grapes of Wrath, is a realistic portrayal of life and social conditions during the 30’s when the Dust Bowl swept across the nation, causing many to fall deeper into the depression. This caused many families to leave their homes in search of a safer and more hopeful land. The Grapes of Wrath follows Tom Joad, his family, and many other migrant farmers as they migrate from their Oklahoma farms into their new, hope filled life in California. The struggles that these characters endure