8-5.6 Study Guide: Plight of SC Farmers
1) Describe post war South Carolina agriculture:
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Depressed with falling prices
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Small farms replaced plantations
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Sharecroppers & tenant farmers replaced slave labor
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Cotton was main cash crop picked by hand
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Fertilizers increased the crop yield
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Competition with foreign suppliers led to supply exceeding demand
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Conservatives passed crop lien law allowing creditors first claim on farmer’s crop
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Crop lien system caused cycle of debt & poverty
2) Describe farming outside of South Carolina:
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Mechanization of farming increased the supply of farm products
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Fertilizers increased crop yield
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Drought
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Insect invasions
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Competition with foreign suppliers
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Worldwide supply exceeded demand
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Price for crops fell
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Farmers could not pay loans taken out to purchase land & equipment
3) What were the economic roots of populism in South Carolina?
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Debt
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Sharecropping & tenant farming
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Crop lien system
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Overproduction of cotton
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Competition with foreign countries
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Falling prices
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Bank foreclosures
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Forfeiture of land due to non-payment of taxes
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Crop failures due to drought, army worms & boll weevil
4) What were the political roots of the populist movement in the United States?
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Worsening economic conditions
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Farmers organized Grange (social organization to relieve isolation)
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Grange evolved into a political organization
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Regional Farmers’ Alliances formed: White Farmers’ Alliance & Colored Farmers’ Alliance in SC
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Alliances unite to form Populist Party
5) What were the Populist Party goals?
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Regulation of Railroads & Banking
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Free & unlimited coinage of silver
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A system of federal farm loans
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Popular election of Senators
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Secret Ballot voting
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Graduated Income Tax
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Tried to attract factory workers with 8 hour work day & restrictions on immigration
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Party successfully elected senators, governors, & state legislators in South & West
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In SC farmers worked within the Democratic Party
6) How did Tillman help the small farmer?
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Fight between Tillmanites and Democratic Conservatives for control of SC
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Establishment of Clemson Agricultural College to teach farmers better crop management & to
develop new crops to improve their economic prosperity
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Clemson built on land left by Thomas Clemson son-in –law of JC Calhoun & money provide by the
federal Morrill Act
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Opposed USC as elitist
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SC established South Carolina State College to comply with the “separate-but-equal” doctrine as
did other southern states, SC State received little money
7) What changes occurred in crop production in South Carolina?

Clemson & SC State Colleges encouraging crop diversification
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Natural disasters & entrepreneurship
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Charleston Earthquake of 1886: largest, most destructive, costliest, & most lethal east of the
Mississippi River
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Charleston’s response to catastrophe revolutionized and modernized practices in construction,
disaster preparedness/response, & scientific study to this day
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Hurricane of 1893 & others struck Charleston, wiped out rice fields
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The destruction of the rice fields & competition from the Far East brought end to the production of
“Carolina Gold”
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Lowcountry farmers turned to truck gardening of vegetables to local markets
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Tobacco was introduced as cash crop to the Pee Dee region
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Upstate farmers planted peach trees
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Cotton continued to dominate SC’s agriculture into 20th c.