Question

what is the purpose of the document? what effort is this group or individual trying to solve? document 1 in the 1870s and 1880s, farmers had to borrow, hoping that the prices of their harvests would stay high, so they could pay the bank for the loan, the railroad for transportation, the prices for their produce went down, and the prices of transportation and loans went up, because the individual farmer could not control the price of his grain, while the monopolist railroad and the monopolist banker could charge what they liked. it was in texas that the farmers alliance movement which would become the populist party began in 1875. it was there and across the south that the crop - lien (loan) system was most brutal. by this system the farmer would get the things he needed from the merchant: the use of the cotton gin at harvest time, whatever supplies were necessary. he didnt have money to pay, so the merchant would get a lien - a mortgage on his crop - on which the farmer might pay 25 percent interest. historian lawrence goodwyn says the crop lien system became for millions of southerners, white and black, little more than a modified form of slavery.... the farmer would owe more money every year until finally his farm was taken away and he became a tenant. source: excerpts from howard zinn, a peoples history of the united states, page 283, 284 (1980, 2003). this is making me think that i can use this document to write about: historical context

Explanation:

The document is an excerpt from a historical text detailing the struggles of 1870s-1880s U.S. Southern farmers. Its purpose is to outline the exploitative economic systems (like crop-lien) and unfair market conditions farmers faced, and to contextualize the formation of the Populist Party as a response. The Populist Party (growing from the Farmers Alliance) aimed to solve the issues of unregulated monopolistic power (railroads, banks, grain merchants) and the predatory crop-lien system that trapped farmers in debt and poverty.

Answer:

• Purpose of the document: To detail the economic exploitation and hardships faced by Southern U.S. farmers in the 1870s-1880s, and explain the origins of the Populist Party as a response to these issues.
• Group/individual: The Farmers Alliance (which evolved into the Populist Party) and the Southern farmers they represented.
• Problem they are trying to solve: They sought to end the exploitative crop-lien system with exorbitant interest rates, the unregulated monopolistic control of railroads, banks, and grain merchants over crop prices, fees, and loans, which trapped farmers in cycles of debt and loss of land.