1) In the late 19th century, farmers in South Carolina struggled with overproduction of cotton, natural disasters like droughts and pests, and the sharecropping system. 2) The Populist movement organized farmers across the South and Midwest to advocate for reforms that would help farmers, including regulation of railroads and banking, free coinage of silver, and establishment of land-grant colleges. 3) South Carolina was impacted by major natural disasters like the 1886 Charleston earthquake and the 1893 Sea Islands hurricane, which destroyed crops, property, and killed many people.

1. Plight of SC
Farmers
8.5-6—Compare the plight of farmers in South
Carolina with that of farmers throughout the United
States, including the problems of
overproduction, natural disasters, and sharecropping
and encompassing the roles of Ben Tillman, the
Populists, and land-grant colleges.

2. Recap of what’s happening…
• Postwar agriculture depression continues after
the end of Reconstruction
• Sharecroppers & tenant farmers (difference?)
• Cotton dominates the economy, but doesn’t
bring prosperity
• In stead of helping the farmers, Conservatives
passed crop lien laws that allow creditors first
dibbs on the farmer’s crops

3. Supply & Demand
Video
teaching us
about supply
& demand
with cookies!
(3:00)

4. Dropping Cotton Prices
• SC hand picked cotton through the 20th century
• Other regions mechanized cotton harvests, raised supply
• SC had fertilizers that raised cotton yield
• SC competed against foreign markets as well
• Worldwide supply exceeded the demand causing the
price of cotton to fall
• Farmers in the Midwest & South couldn’t make their
payments on loans
• In SC, farmers planted more cotton to make more
profits, but only caused the price of cotton to fall even
more

5. • SC farmers felt the
impact of dropping
cotton prices
through bank
foreclosures, forfeiti
ng their land for
non-payment of
taxes, droughts &
pest that led to crop
failure
1. Army Worm
2. Boll Weevil
3. Draught
1
23

6. Populist Movement Recapped
• Appealed to suffering small farmers in mill
workers
• Farmers organized the first Grange (a social
organization designed to alleviate the isolation
of farm life)
• In the Midwest it evolved into a political
organization
• SC- 1800s: White Farmer’s Alliances & Black
Farmer’s Alliances
• By 1890s alliances united to form the Populist
Party

7. Populist Party
• Supported :
– Regulation of railroads & banking
– Free unlimited coinage of silver
– A system of federal farm loans
– Advocated for democratic reforms:
• Popular election of Senators
• Secret ballot
• Graduated income tax
• 8 hour work day
• Immigration restrictions
SC did not form a separate party, but worked to control
the Democratic Party
Tillmanites in SC

8. • Tillman supported Clemson as an agricultural
college
• Opposed elitism of the University of South
Carolina
• Tillman advocated the establishment of
educational facilities for farmers to teach them
better crop management and to develop new
crops to increase their economic prosperity
• Clemson was a “land grant college”
• Both colleges encouraged diversification of crops

9. Earthquake of 1886
Video (3:35)

10. Earthquake of 1886
• Epicenter near
Summerville, SC
• Destruction more
graphic in the city of
Charleston rather than
the agricultural
countryside
• Largest, most
destructive, costly, &
lethal earthquake east of
the Mississippi
• City’s response to the
disaster revolutionized &
modernized practices in
construction, disaster
prep/response, &
scientific study that
continues even today

11. Sea Island Hurricane-1893
• Sea Islands were the home to the
Gullah People
• Wiped out rice fields &
consumption from the Far East
ended the production of “Carolina
Gold”
• Lowcountry farmers turned to truck
gardening supplying local stores
• Tobacco was introduced as a cash
crop in the Pee Dee region, but
nowhere else in SC
• Some Upstate farmers planted
peach trees, but continued to grow
cotton into the 20th century

12. Sea Islands Hurricane n August 1893 a major hurricane, known as the "Sea Islands Hurricane" struck the offshore
barrier islands of Georgia and South Carolina. Over 1,000 people were killed (mostly by drowning); and 30,000 or
more were left homeless as nearly every building along the barrier islands was damaged beyond repair. After the
disaster, a 10-month relief effort was run by the American Red Cross.
from Scribner's Magazine, February 1894
The year of our Lord eighteen hundred and ninety-three will long be remembered as the year of storms.
Inland gales rose and blew furiously southward. Cyclones rushed out of the tropics and raged northward.
Hurricanes plunged through the Mexican Gulf and shook the southern region. Tornadoes crashed along
the Atlantic coast, carrying death and destruction with them. The memory of the oldest inhabitant fails
him when he tries to recall such another year of storms. The records show no parallel to it. And the
storms themselves have wrought unprecedented destruction to life and property.
A storm in the South Atlantic and Gulf coasts is no new experience to the people who live near the
danger line of the sea, nor even to the people who live far inland. It is a part of the climate. It belongs to
expectation.
"The August hurricane was not unexpected. In fact it had been heralded, and for at least three days
before it made its appearance warnings had been given."
These elemental disturbances are confined to no particular area, as the oldest inhabitant will tell you.
Their feeding-grounds are in the tropical seas, the treacherous West Indian waters - but when they gather
strength and gain bulk, they rush madly forth, describing vast circles, or tearing straight ahead until they
exhaust themselves. They sweep along the coasts, or go raging inland, sometimes in the shape of a
whirling cyclone, and sometimes in the shape of a roaring hurricane. And the effects of them are felt
hundreds of miles in all directions, even when they fail to break across the coast-line barriers; for the
inland winds that are roguishly playing rock-a-bye baby in the tree-tops are keen for a frolic, and no
sooner do they feel that preparations for one are going forward in the tropics than they hurry to join and
feed the monstrous riot of the elements. And so wildly do they rush and tear along in their haste to
become part of the whirl and swirl in the tropics, that trees and houses fall before them. This sweep of the
inland winds to the central disturbance, or to the mad vacuum behind it, is usually described as a
storm, but the frolicsome gales that form it are merely feeders of the real storm.