Final answer:
American farmers in the nineteenth century faced economic challenges due to overproduction and high debts, while post-Civil War black farmers struggled to buy land, leading many into sharecropping.
Step-by-step explanation:
Farmers throughout history have faced numerous challenges and competitors over land. In the last quarter of the nineteenth century, American farmers contended with economic hardships due to rapidly declining farm prices, high tariffs, and foreign competition. They often entered cycles of debt, taking loans to purchase farming necessities and expanding production in hopes of making a profit.
After the Civil War, former black slaves who had the skills and desire to farm struggled to acquire land, often becoming sharecroppers or farm hands for white landowners. Additionally, the competition over farmland wasn't only limited to the United States. In Britain, small-scale farmers were evicted from their land as large landholders aimed to expand their own enterprises, such as sheep herds due to the burgeoning wool market. This example illustrates a broader historical pattern where smaller farmers are often outcompeted by larger, wealthier entities.
The struggle for farmers was further compounded by overproduction, which led to the collapse of commodity prices and heightened the farmers' predicament. They also dealt with price manipulation by commodity traders and high transportation costs, which made profitability even more difficult. The irony was that the efforts at increasing production to mitigate debt often led to further price reductions and exacerbated their financial woes.