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Hard times in the 1880s and 1890s created a groundswell of agrarian revolt. A bitter farmer wrote from Minnesota, “I settled on this Land in good Faith Built House and Barn. Broken up Part of the Land. Spent years of hard Labor in grubbing fencing and Improving.” About to lose his farm to foreclosure, he lamented, “Are they going to drive us out like trespassers . . . and give us away to the Corporations?”

Farm prices fell decade after decade, even as American farmers’ share of the world market grew. In parts of Kansas, corn sold for as little as ten cents a bushel, and angry farmers burned their crops for fuel rather than sell them on the market. At the same time, consumer prices soared (Figure 20.1). In Kansas alone, almost half the farms had fallen into the hands of the banks by 1894 through foreclosure. Farmers soon banded together into Farmers’ Alliances that gave birth to a broad political movement.