The south grew faster than the north due to industrialization

● The north was already more industrialized

○ Allowed the south to quintuple its growth without passing the north

Economic system was designed to exploit the workers for the benefit of the few
● Bacon’s Rebellion
● Civil War
● The New South

Factory workers in the South received half of the national average and worked longer hours

Due to overproduction, farmers started losing their farms

● Led to sharecropping
○ Lack of factory jobs
○ Lose farm, but you can stay here, but pay me a bunch of rent
○ Trapped southerners in poverty for years
■ Could not create generational wealthy
■ South did not educate their children as much

Farmers Alliance was formed

● Leaders realized that all farmers were struggling
● Allowed all farmers to join the alliance
● The southern gentry created racial animosity
○ Most farmers in the alliance were low income whites and african american
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