1874 - 1875 Crop Failure and Hard Economic Times in North Louisiana Submitted by: T. D. Hudson Date of Submission: 11/2008 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ************************************************ ================================================================================== ================================================================================== 1874 - 1875 Crop Failure and Hard Economic Times in North Louisiana ================================================================================== ================================================================================== Background: By the mid-1870s, Louisianians still endured occupation by the Union Army, who enforced state government rule by the Radical Republicans. After unfair elections in 1868 and 1872, the campaign leading up to the 1874 elections proved the most bizarre in history. In an attempt to intimidate the white citizens and keep them from voting, a rogue Yankee army captain had his soldiers cut telegraph wires at Vienna and arrest leading citizens in newly-created Lincoln Parish (formerly part of Union) and in Claiborne Parish, just to the west of Union Parish. The district judge, James E. Trimble, although Yankee-born and a Republican, fought back against this anarchy, and ultimately his court convicted the Yankee officer. However, the Radical Republican governor commuted the officer's sentence, an event that infuriated the citizens of north Louisiana. These events caused long-lasting repercussions across Union Parish and the entire state, with subsequent Congressional investigations held in New Orleans. Ultimately, they probably hastened the end of Reconstruction in Louisiana. In the midst of this political backdrop, ordinary citizens in north Louisiana had already endured difficult economic times during the post-war period. Many Union Parish residents lost their farms and had to move west and start over again. This was the situation up until 1874, when the crops across the northern portion of the state failed due to drought. The 1874 crop failure proved devastating to many in Union Parish as well as across north Louisiana. The crop lien system had already created debt among many white farmers, and the 1874 crop failure prevented them from paying back merchants for the supplies they had been advanced to plant their crops the previous spring. In addition, the black farmers, the majority of whom worked at sharecropping, received no payment for their work that year and had no way of purchasing supplies to make it through the 1874 - 1875 winter. Records in Union Parish, including suits and mortgages, show the long-lasting effects of the 1874 crop failure on the people. Merchants refused credit for many, forcing farmers to heavily mortgage their farms and property. If they didn't lose their farms, it took several years for the farmers to recover from this calamity. Some actually never recovered, remaining in debt for the rest of their lives. Crops did better in the latter 1870s, but the hard economic times of 1874-1875 served as an introduction to the 1880s, when very low agricultural pricing caused much hardship and unrest among the Southern farmers. This situation, and the fact that the ruling polititians ignored the plight of the poor whites and blacks, led to the creation of the "Farmer's Union" across the South and West. The first chapter in Louisiana formed in Lincoln Parish, but one had formed in the Spearsville area by the mid-1880s. This movement culminated with the explosion of the Populist Party in the early 1890s ================================================================================== ================================================================================== 1874 Crop Failure in North Louisiana From the "Ouachita Telegraph", a newspaper published in Monroe, Ouachita Parish Louisiana Issue of 11 September 1874, page 2 ================================================================================== ================================================================================== The Crops. But little seems to be said about the cotton caterpillar. The general failure of the late crop, in consequence of the drouth, appears to have left no disposition to murmur against the caterpillar. He may come, or not, it will be all the same. The general average, both on the river and in the hills, even with the reduced acreage left out, is considerably below that of last year. The early picking is large, it is true --- almost unprecedented; but the late picking will be incomparably short. The almost entire crop will be in market before the 10th of November. The corn crop is a general failure all over North Louisiana. Bread will be an object next year. Farmers ought to save all the forage possible. The prospect for peas, potatoes and turnips has been improved by recent rains, Of neither, however, will there be the usual yield. ================================================================================== ================================================================================== 1875 Crop Prospects in North Louisiana From the "Ouachita Telegraph", a newspaper published in Monroe, Ouachita Parish Louisiana Issue of 16 April 1875, page 2 ================================================================================== ================================================================================== The Crops. Reports obtained from a radius of thirty miles in almost every direction agree in representing the crops as rather backward. Nearly all the early planting of corn has been ploughed up and planted over. The corn crop will of necessity be late, and, with a July drouth, very slim. The acreage planted, however, is considerably in excess of that planted last year. Farmers have been busy the past week in planting cotton, and the prospects generally are favorable thus far for a good crop of the staple. Laborers are working well. The ground is in fine condition. ############################################################# File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/la/union/newspapers/articles/1874crop-failure.txt