It was early in the 1790’s when the United States had to develop a vision of what
it wanted to be in the years to come, and how it wanted to do things. This was a question George Washington would have to deal with constantly, especially given the fact that he was the first president of the United States. Everything he would do would then set a precedent for all the presidents after him. To make matters even more difficult, he was receiving advice from Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson, two men who had completely different visions for the United States. Alexander Hamilton wanted the United States to be a capitalist nation that boasted of a diverse economy and large urban areas. On top of that he favored the creation of a strong central bank, and he preferred a loose interpretation of the Constitution. Jefferson, on the other hand, wanted a strict interpretation of the Constitution and therefore he did not approve of the creation of a strong central bank. He also wanted the United States to be a pastoral nation that relied primarily on agriculture.
As time progressed it seemed as if Alexander Hamilton’s vision would ultimately
prevail. In between George Washington’s election for the presidency in 1789 and the beginning of the Great Depression of 1929 America would experience an unprecedented growth and development in technology and its industries. Events such as the Civil War would catalyze advancements in technology, and science would continue to be used for industrial, military, and civilian applications. Americans would also witness the rise of titans of industry such as John D. Rockefeller and Andrew Carnegie, men who would amass outrageous amounts of wealth. Nevertheless, even during the time of the Industrial Revolution many still lived on the farms. Slavery had been abolished in the South by the Thirteenth Amendment, but slavery would soon be replaced by sharecropping and tenant farming. After the Civil War and even before it many people from the South had moved to the Midwest to work on more fertile soil. To them farming was still an efficient way to make profit and earn a living.
If most people still lived on the farms during the Industrial Revolution, then in
what period of time was Thomas Jefferson’s dream of a pastoral America totally destroyed? One could argue that it was during the Roaring Twenties. After all, the decade of the 1920’s marked the first time that more than half of the American population dwelled in the urban areas. As the cities became safer, cleaner, and more glamorous, people began to find the idea of living in a city absolutely irresistible. However, that did not mean that farmers were struggling either. In fact, in the years prior to the 1920’s farmers had earned more profits than ever before. During the Great War the United States was not the only country that needed food. Countries such as France and Germany had seen how their soil had been ravaged by warfare. In the final years of the Great War countries in Europe were running dangerously low on food, and somebody had to provide them with it. The Americans had food in abundance, so American farmers were not only feeding themselves in the 1910’s but most of Europe as well. This forces us wonder what went wrong with the farmers after the 1920’s.
One would immediately point fingers at the Great Depression, but there was one
specific event of the Great Depression that ruined the lives of farmers for many years, and that was the Dust Bowl. This era would also become known as the “Dirty Thirties.” After the stock market crashed people would soon see how their wealth disappeared over night, and farmers would soon face the consequence of not only a flawed economic system but also terrible farming practices that had been used for many years. For generations farmers in the Midwest had overworked the land to the point where the soil was infertile. Then, several storms from the North came and picked up loose topsoil creating dense clouds of dust. These storms would kill cattle and pasture lands, forcing families to leave the Midwest and move into California.
The more we read about the Dust Bowl the more we realize that the conditions
that these families were living inhumane. Farmers, especially the ones in South Dakota, were barely surviving by burning horse manure to keep themselves warm and eating thistle soup in order to avoid starvation. However, the Dust Bowl was not only a natural disaster. To many artists like John Steinbeck it also marked the end of the Jeffersonian dream. In his book “The Grapes of Wrath” Steinbeck expressed grief because of how the inability of American farmers to work with the land had led to their ruin. After the Dust Bowl the soil on the Midwest would never the same, and as a result a huge chunk of arable land in America would be lost. This would force farmers to abandon their lifestyle and move into the cities to find other jobs. Hamilton’s vision had prevailed because he knew America needed a diverse economy in order to survive.
Sources:
It was defiantly a hard blow to have 150,000-square-miles devastated by this dust bowl, not just for the farmers but the whole country. I think its interesting how big events like this often lead to a chain reaction of big events that turn out badly. If the dust bowl had been less severe or not happened at all how do you think the outcomes would have been different?
ReplyDeletehttp://www.history.com/topics/dust-bowl