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Line 17: − ==Self image of farmers== − When [[Harry Truman]]'s Secretary of Agriculture [[Charles Brannan]] in 1949 proposed a plan of direct assistance to small farmers, he justified it by reasserting the importance of the small family farmer as the foundation of American democracy. However in the Grange small farmers opposed the plan because it too closely resembled welfare and would undermine their self image as independent yeomen and successful entrepreneurs. Agribusiness used the same images to oppose it for its own reasons. Brannan sought to protect the small farmer against competition from the large companies, but the plan was not accepted by Congress because farmers self-image would not allow for welfare.<ref> Karen J. Bradley, "Agrarian Ideology and Agricultural Policy: California Grangers and the Post-world War II Farm Policy Debate," ''Agricultural History'' 1995 69(2): 240-256, [http://www.jstor.org/stable/3744267 in JSTOR]</ref> Line 26:
Line 24: − [[File:Sloth-1873.jpg|thumb|290px|In their self image, [[Yeomen]] farmers hated laziness, ignorance and sloth; 1873 Grange poster]] −
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==From yeoman to redneck==
==From yeoman to redneck==
After the Civil War the status of the yeomen fell drastically. Many became sharecroppers or tenants--they worked land owned by landowners in town. In the towns the rising southern middle class rejected the celebration of rural life associated with the yeoman. They denounced as "demagogues" the radical leaders who appealed to the poor farmers, for example [[Ben Tillman|"Pitchfork Ben Tillman]] who was governor and senator from South Carolina. As the poor farmers endorsed lynching of uppity blacks, the middle class townsfolk denounced lynching in the name of [[Law and order]]. Some poor farmers moved to mill towns, especially to work in the textile mills of the Carolinas. The money was much better than on the hard-scrabble farms, but this again represented a fall in social status. By the end of the century the middle class was ridiculing the former yeomen as "rednecks" and "hillbillies."<ref>"Redneck" refers to being sun-burned from worked in the hot fields. "Hillbillies" lived in remote mountain areas. Stephen A. West, ''From Yeoman to Redneck in the South Carolina Upcountry, 1850–1915.'' (2008)</ref>
After the Civil War the status of the yeomen fell drastically. Many became sharecroppers or tenants--they worked land owned by landowners in town. In the towns the rising southern middle class rejected the celebration of rural life associated with the yeoman. They denounced as "demagogues" the radical leaders who appealed to the poor farmers, for example [[Ben Tillman|"Pitchfork Ben Tillman]] who was governor and senator from South Carolina. As the poor farmers endorsed lynching of uppity blacks, the middle class townsfolk denounced lynching in the name of [[Law and order]]. Some poor farmers moved to mill towns, especially to work in the textile mills of the Carolinas. The money was much better than on the hard-scrabble farms, but this again represented a fall in social status. By the end of the century the middle class was ridiculing the former yeomen as "rednecks" and "hillbillies."<ref>"Redneck" refers to being sun-burned from worked in the hot fields. "Hillbillies" lived in remote mountain areas. Stephen A. West, ''From Yeoman to Redneck in the South Carolina Upcountry, 1850–1915.'' (2008)</ref>
==See also==
==See also==
* [[The South]]
* [[The South]]
==Bibliography==
==Bibliography==
* Ash, Stephen V. "Poor Whites in the Occupied South, 1861-1865," ''Journal of Southern History,'' 57 (February 1991), [http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0022-4642(199102)57%3A1%3C39%3APWITOS%3E2.0.CO%3B2-8 in JSTOR]
* Ash, Stephen V. "Poor Whites in the Occupied South, 1861-1865," ''Journal of Southern History,'' 57 (February 1991), [http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0022-4642(199102)57%3A1%3C39%3APWITOS%3E2.0.CO%3B2-8 in JSTOR]
* Bolton, Charles C. "Planters, Plain Folk, and Poor Whites in the Old South," in ''A Companion to the Civil War and Reconstruction,'' ed. Lacy Ford (2005), 75–94.
* Bolton, Charles C. "Planters, Plain Folk, and Poor Whites in the Old South," in ''A Companion to the Civil War and Reconstruction,'' ed. Lacy Ford (2005), 75–94.