Part 3, Chapter 9 The Valley and the Shadows Summary

Many areas of the world suffered an economic depression in the 1870s and again in the 1890s. The United States was, in many ways, a microcosm of the larger social dynamics. Agriculture in the United States shouldered the burden of industrial development. Farmers saw declining prices and rising interest rates. Social differentiation became more pronounced. Social tensions grew. Black social and political power weakened after Reconstruction. The time from 1877 to 1901 has sometimes been referred to as the "nadir" of black life. They suffered more widespread and state-sponsored repression.

During the late 1880s, white landowners and tenant farmers began attending meetings of the Agricultural Wheel or Farmer's Alliance in large numbers. These groups claimed to stand for the interests of small farmers and drew on the political legacies of the Greenbacks. The...