Dbq 19th Century Farmers

In the late nineteenth century shortly after the Civil War and Reconstruction, farmers in the Midwestern United States found themselves in quite a predicament. During the second industrial revolution of the United States that contained mass introduction of: railroads, oil, steel, and electricity, the risk-taking entrepreneurs of this era took an adventure into the world of cutthroat capitalism. In just a little time, a handful of monopolies arose in all these industries which hurt both the consumer of the product and the producer of the material (Doc. F). Because of the corrupt politicians in Washington DC, the absence of regulation on the monopolies put into place by bribes and greed or moderation from them, and the devious ways of the US Mint to support the wealthy elite, the overwhelming anger from the hard-working farmers of the United States had a just cause and was a strong voice that needed to be heard across the land.
Thanks the economic crisis of 1893 hit the United States, the working people went in to a stage of shock due to the rise in population but little increase in the dollars in circulation (Doc C.). The normal and poverty class wanted an inflation to take place so the dollar was readily accessible to all citizens. Although this would devalue the dollar, this would assist the farmers because they constantly had to take out loans from big banks controlled by monopolies like J.P. Morgan and John Thompson. The allowance of the farmers more dollars means that they would not have to take out as many loans for new technology, equipment, and seeds to grow their crops. Because there was no inflation, the farmer was chained to the banker and the banker to the government just like 30 years ago and the quote that “the slave was chained to the gin and the planter to the slave”. This was vividly pictured thanks to the design presented in (Doc. D). When the farmers took out all the loans they needed to the first time around, the prices of their wheat