Digital History: The Farmers' Revolt

One of the first laws passed in Franklin Roosevelt's first hundred days was the Agricultural Adjustment Act. Read about how it helped farmers in crisis. and how it was the forerunner of the federal farm program in existence today. [pdf]

A very good explantion of the frustration and desperation felt by farmers not only in Massachusttetts but throughout the new United States as states attempted to collect taxes in order to pay off war debts. Daniel Shays and his men were...

Find out about the influences in John Brown's life that led him to think inciting a slave insurrection would be the way to get rid of slavery. Read about his actions in Kansas, and the raid he planned at Harper's Ferry. [pdf]

After reading about the system of sharecropping or tenant farming for the African American in the South, look at poverty statistics for African Americans vs. whites between 1960 and 1990. Is there a corelation between the sharecropping...

"Right on, man." Find what led to the nationwide rebellion of the Baby Boomer generation.

A charismatic demagogue, Joe McCarthy grew up on a Wisconsin farm and attended a one-room schoolhouse. While still a teenager, he established a thriving business as a chicken farmer. He dropped out of school after eighth grade, but...

Read about the arson conspiracy trials in New York in which slaves were accused of conspiring to burn down the city. Information is included about other slave revolts over the decades.

Read about the plight of American farmers in the Great Depression. Franklin Roosevelt instituted several programs to help the rural population, the most important of which was the Agricultural Adjustment Act. Find out whom this act...

Read the testimony of a Pueblo Indian, captured by the Spanish after the Revolt of 1680, giving his ideas of why the Indians attacked the Spanish and destroyed the images of Christianity they found.

A brief look at the frustrating course of the Mexican War. Read about California's revolt from Mexico, Gen. Scott's capture of Mexico City, and Mexico's refusal to surrender.