History of the United States II / Unit 11 USH2 1518 worked example, 60 to 90 seconds
Plowing Under
The idea
In nineteen thirty-three, a year of breadlines, the government ordered ten million acres of cotton plowed under and six million baby pigs and two hundred thousand sows slaughtered. The anchor gives the reason: a bumper crop, and a programme slow to take effect.
In practice
Cotton fields turned under while families in the cities stood in line for bread.
Where people slip
The destruction looks absurd and was not. The problem the Act attacked was price, not supply: the Yawp says farm prices had been plummeting as production climbed. It states the logic of the programme, decreasing supply, thereby raising prices, and records that the market price did rise. The cost fell on those without land. The Yawp says the benefits bypassed the southern tenants and sharecroppers who needed them most.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
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