today we're looking at the grainger movement and farmers alliances
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the national grange was and still is an organization of farmers that together promote the
agricultural industry and support farmers and their families grange is an old english term
meaning an isolated farm and the official name of the national grange is the national grange of
the order of patrons of husbandry which husbandry is another term for keeping livestock and farming
the national grange was founded shortly after the american civil war oliver kelly who was a clerk
for the department of agriculture toured the south and western parts of the united states after the
war and was concerned about the lack of innovation and education among farmers many farmers were
using outdated agricultural methods and kelly felt there needed to be an organization that would
bring farmers together and promote innovation in agriculture the first grange was founded in
fredonia new york in 1868 within a few short years several other chapters were established
the national grange was unique in that it encouraged participation by women at a time
when women were not extended equal rights and two it allowed members as young as 14. if you were old
enough to operate a plow you were considered old enough to be part of the grange the organization
offered several initiatives to help farmers such as providing education on new farming practices
and even organized social gatherings for farming families living in isolated areas they also formed
cooperative stores where farmers bought and sold items from each other on a cash-only basis
to prevent farmers from taking out loans and going into debt membership in the national grange grew
steadily as farmers began to face serious issues in the 1870s and the grange became a movement as
grangers pushed for political and economic changes one major problem was the supply of crops grew
faster than the demand which caused crop prices to plummet for example a bushel of corn fell from 41
cents in 1874 to only 30 cents by 1897 a major contributing factor to this overproduction or
surplus of crops was americans taking advantage of the homestead act and starting new farms
it's estimated that in the 1870s that close to 190 million new acres of land were being plowed
and farmed also industrialization was moving quickly and new more efficient farming machinery
was being developed that could harvest more crops and allow farmers to cultivate more land
this in turn led to farmers needing more land to farm and the need for new expensive machinery
so many farmers borrowed money from banks to get land and equipment many of these banks charged
very high interest or in other words an additional charge for borrowing money in some cases banks
were charging over 300 percent interest on loans farmers were having a difficult time
making profits paying back loans and supporting their families they blamed many of their problems
on railroads which they felt were charging too much to transport crops and again on banks that
were charging high interest rates on loans that farmers had taken out for land machinery or seed
the granger movement as it came to be known put political pressure on state governments to do
something to help farmers during the 1870s many states across the midwest passed laws to regulate
how much railroads could charge for transporting crops however railroads also put pressure on these
state legislatures and by the end of the 1870s many of these regulations had been lifted as the
1880s approached the granger movement began to lose momentum and by the 1880s farmers began to
join farmers alliances across the south and west these alliances offered many of the same support
that the national grange did and their memberships rapidly grew by 1890 the southern alliance of
farmers had over 2.5 million members additionally close to 1 million african-american farmers had
joined farming alliances that were formed solely to aid african-american farmers these alliances
again established cooperative stores in an attempt to keep farmers from going into debt eventually by
the late 1880s and early 1890s the farmers alliances began to get involved in politics
in the election of 1890 farmer alliance candidates won 50 seats in the house of representatives three
seats in the u.s senate and six governor races after this political success the farmers alliances
movement transformed into a national political party the people's party of the usa which also
came to be known as the populist party this party was rooted in the idea of being the party of the
common man and looking out for their interest but the story of the populist party will have to wait
for another bell ringer so with that hopefully you learned something and thanks for watching