Chapter 17:
Between the end of the Civil War and the turn of the century, American agriculture grew immensely but farmers themselves faced great challenges. Farming became increasingly corporate-dominated as well as specialized and mechanized, which played a large part in driving prices down and hurt smaller farmers. While cattle ranchers, exhausted Plains soil, Indian resistance, and water needs all tested farmers' resolve, the greatest problems were posed by price deflation and storage and railroad transportation costs. The situation was particularly acute in the South, as advocates of a "New South" tried to diversify the region's economy and break its dependence on cotton. As part of the New South agenda, southern states also moved to assure themselves a labor pool by further depriving blacks of any rights they may have gained in the post-Civil War years. Farmers in the South and West responded to these pressures with the Grange movement and various Farmers' Alliances, even going so far as to form a national political party, the Populists, which nominated James B. Weaver for president in 1892. The late nineteenth century in addition saw the last gasp of Native American life in the Ghost Dance movement, which was effectively snuffed out at Wounded Knee.
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