Populism was a broad-based farmers’ movement that attempted to address the problems of low commodity prices and unfair competition experienced by farmers in the late nineteenth century. Through the Grange and then the Farmers’ Alliance they created cooperatives and sought railroad rate regulation to reduce their costs and eliminate monopolistic practices. Failing to achieve these goals, many Virginia farmers rushed to join the national People’s Party or Populists, who were demanding more forceful federal action to deal with farm problems that included new election laws, state and national income and corporation taxes, and the coinage of more silver. Faced with the liability of being a third party and Democratic charges that they were “cranks” and “radicals” whose victory would restore “Black Reconstruction”, Virginia Populists won only a small percentage of the presidential vote in 1892 and suffered a devastating defeat in the 1893 governor’s race. Strongest in the tobacco counties, Populism had a modest impact in the Old Dominion, where crop diversity and better farm conditions minimized its appeal.
Further Reading
G. Terry Sharrer, A Kind of Fate: Agricultural Change in Virginia, 1861-1920
This Vignette Provided By
Ronald Heinemann, Old Dominion, New Commonwealth: The History of Virginia, 1607-2007
