Farmer Organizations

(Grange, Northern and Southern Farmers' Alliances,
Agricultural Wheel, Farmers' Union, etc.)

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Barnes, Donna A. Farmers in Rebellion: The Rise and Fall of the Southern Farmers' Alliance and People's Party in Texas. Austin: University of Texas P, 1984. 226 p.  A Sociologist's view.  Excellent summary of mobilization theories.  The author's primary tools of analysis are counter-ideology to legitimating explanation of the capital class, the development of an organization capable of disseminating this alternative view, and creative strategy escalation to nullify potentially demobilizing opposition countermoves.  From the author's 1982 University of Texas at Austin dissertation (Sociology), "The Dynamics of a Protest Movement: The Farmers Alliance and the People's Party Movement in Texas, 1877-1900." DAI, 48, no. 10A, (1982): 2730.   

_____. "Strategy Outcome and the Growth of Protest Organizations: A Case Study of the Southern Farmers' Alliance." Rural Sociology 1987 52(2): 164-186.  Studies the relationship between strategy development and membership mobilization.  The author notes differing alliance responses to crises caused by tactical/ideological innovation or externalized blame and compares them to Grange activity. American History and Life, 28:3547

Bess, Jennifer Jean. "Equal Rights for All and Special Privileges for None: Women's Participation in the Farmer's Alliance of Texas." M.A. thesis, University of Houston, 1998.  MAI, 37, no. 04, (1998): 1111.  The Alliance sought women's involvement and promised "equal rights for all, special privileges for none" in its constitution.  Women's involvement in the movement reflected the complexities of both class and gender. 

Clements, Roger V. "British Investment and American Legislative Restrictions in the Trans‑Mississippi West, 1880-1900." Mississippi Valley Historical Review. 42(2):207‑28. September 1955.  Alliance and Populist (and Granger) antagonism to questions of foreign ownership and operation of American farm lands.  See pp. 210, 213, 215, 218-19, 221, 222.  

Coulter, John Lee. "Organization among the Farmers of the United States," Yale Review. 18:273‑98. November 1909.  Some detail of how the farmer tries, via organization, to improve his lot.  Good pages on Alliance, and mention of Colored Farmers' Alliance.  

Dann, Martin. "Black Populism: A Study of the Colored Farmers' Alliance through 1891." Journal of Ethnic Studies 1974 2(3): 58-71.  The Colored Farmers' Alliance may have evolved out of secret rural societies.  Some locals probably were founded by Knights of Labor organizers sent South during the 1880's.  Reviews the career of Colonel R. M. Humphrey, and the spread of the Alliance from Texas into South Carolina and Virginia.  The turning point for the CFA was the failure of Humphrey's general strike call of September 1891, which discredited the militant wing of the Alliance and brought on direct confrontation with the White Alliance. America: History and Life, 14A:8287

Dethloff, Henry Clay. "The Alliance and the Lottery: Farmers Try for the Sweepstakes, 1892-1896." Louisiana History. 6(2):141‑59. Spring 1965.  The anti‑lottery movement provides a common impetus and a meeting for rural and urban reform movements in Louisiana. America: History and Life, 3:899

Dibbern, John. "Who were the Populists?: A study of Grass-Roots Alliancemen in Dakota." Agricultural History 1982 56(4): 677-691.  Examines membership records from the Marshall County, South Dakota Farmers' Alliance along with census and tax records.  Alliance members were more likely to be immigrants than non-Alliance farmers.  They also tended to be upwardly-mobile indebted property owners rather than tenants.  Their relatively high debt made them especially vulnerable to the boom and bust cycles of frontier agriculture. America: History and Life, 20A:8340

Elkins, F. Clark. "The Agricultural Wheel: County Politics and Consolidation, 1884-1885." Arkansas Historical Quarterly 1970 29(2): 152-175.  Two organized farm groups, the Agricultural Wheel and the Brothers of Freedom, actively participated in the elections of 1884. They had substantial success in seven of the 11 counties in which they yielded candidates.  Similarity of political goals and of social and educational interests of the two groups led to a merger in 1885. America: History and Life, 9:850

_____. "The Agricultural Wheel in Arkansas, 1882-1890." Ph.D. dissertation, Syracuse U, 1953. 

_____. "The Agriculture Wheel in Arkansas, 1887." Arkansas Historical Quarterly 1981 40(3): 249-260.  Details the demands of the state and national wheel organizations, and the circumstances of their 1887 meetings.  The Wheel merged with the Southern Farmers' Alliance in 1889. America: History and Life, 19A:9051

_____. "Arkansas Farmers Organize for Action, 1882-1884." Arkansas Historical Quarterly. 13: 231‑48. Autumn 1954.  

_____. "State Politics and the Agricultural Wheel." Arkansas Historical Quarterly 1979 38(3): 248-258.  The Agricultural Wheel movement was founded by disaffected farmers in 1882. It spread rapidly across the state and was involved unsuccessfully in the state election of 1886. America: History and Life, 17A:8407

Gaither, Gerald H. "The Negro Alliance Movement in Tennessee, 1888-1891." West Tennessee Historical Society Papers 1973 (27): 50-62.  Paternalism and self-interest exhibited by white Alliancemen indicates that black participation was welcomed only so long as white economic well-being was not threatened. America: History and Life, 17A:2649

Goodwyn, Lawrence C. Democratic Promise: The Populist Moment in America. New York, Oxford U P, 1976.  Abridged as The Populist Moment: A Short History of the Agrarian Revolt in America. 349 p. Derived from Goodwyn's Ph.D. dissertation, "The Origin and Development of American Populism. 510 p. Ph.D. dissertation, U of Texas at Austin, 1971. Dissertation Abstracts, 33:3538‑A.  The Alliance's unsuccessful experiments in cooperative buying and selling produced a mass-based "movement culture" that turned to politics in order to obtain government cooperatives with the subtreasury plan.  The subtreasury plan, not the free silver issue, thus, was the essence of Populism. 

Hearden, Patrick J. "Agricultural Businessmen in the New South." Louisiana Studies 1975 14(2): 145-159.  Southern agricultural businessmen allied with urban entrepreneurs calling for southern economic independence based primarily on large-scale textile manufacturing between 1870 and 1900.  Major farm groups such as the Grange and the Farmers Alliance supported this. America: History and Life, 14A:5240

Henningson, Berton E., Jr. "Northwest Arkansas and the Brothers of Freedom: the Roots of a Farmer Movement." Arkansas Historical Quarterly 1975 34(4): 304-324.  A class-oriented, anti-capitalist movement of 40,000 raised farmers' hopes by instilling confidence, calling for frugality, contracting with local merchants for supplies at lower prices, and entering politics. In 1885 it merged with the Agricultural Wheel. America: History and Life, 14A:5365

Holmes, William F. "The Arkansas Cotton Pickers Strike of 1891 and the Demise of the Colored Farmers' Alliance." Arkansas Historical Quarterly 32(2): 107-119. 1973. 

_____. "Ellen Dortch and the Farmers' Alliance." Georgia Historical Quarterly 1985 69(2): 149-172. Ellen Dortch (1863-1962) served as editor of the Carnesville Tribune in Franklin County, Georgia, during 1890-92. She strongly opposed the Southern Farmers' Alliance, the Georgia Alliance, and the People's Party, particularly attacking Thomas Jefferson Stonecypher, the local Alliance lecturer. Although she sympathized with the farmers' problems she was opposed to their political involvement in a third party. 

_____. "The Georgia Alliance Legislature." Georgia Historical Quarterly 1984 68(4): 479-515. Alliance legislaors in the 1890-1891 session did not vote in a radical or even a unified way, often differing with Georgia Alliance president Leonidas Livingston.  The Alliance-dominated legislature to pass reform measures endorsed by the Alliance. America: History and Life, 23A :1751

_____. "The Demise of the Colored Farmers' Alliance." Journal of Southern History 1975 41(2): 187-200.  The Colored Farmers' Alliance urged hard work, sacrifice, land ownership, and other typical farm positions to improve the lot of the Negro farmer. It failed because of racism, competition with other farm organizations, and divisiveness in its own leadership. A Cotton Pickers' League was formed and called a strike for higher wages. The strike failed, but whites equated it with the Alliance. Alliance members were farmers, and therefore hardly supporters of the strike. This position cost the Alliance support in Negro areas. America: History and Life, 14A:5241

_____. "The Leflore County Massacre and the Demise of the Colored Farmers' Alliance." Phylon 1973 34(3): 267-274.   Examines the Leflore County Massacre in Mississippi as a possible reason for the failure of the Colored Farmers' Alliance in 1889. America: History and Life, 23A :1751

_____. "The Southern Farmers' Alliance: The Georgia Experience." Georgia Historical Quarterly 1988 72(4): 627-652.  1887-91. The Alliance was exclusively rural, catering mainly to middle-level white farmers and their concerns, particularly the economic problems caused by the crop lien system. Cooperative Alliance-sponsored stores did not last long, but a successful boycott against using jute to bag bales of cotton was waged in 1889. Since blacks were barred from the organization, they formed their own branch of the Colored Farmers' Alliance in 1890, but it lasted less than two years. America: History and Life, 27:6596

_____. "The Southern Farmers' Alliance and the Georgia Senatorial Election of 1890." Journal of Southern History 1984 50(2): 197-224.  Despite the efforts to link the Southern Farmers' Alliance with radicalism and specifically with the subtreasury plan for cheap credit and flexible-currency populism, the Georgia Farmers' Alliance consisted of diverse and conflicting factions.  Georgia's largest alliance factions opposed the nationalization of the transportation system and remained loyal to the Democratic Party.  The Georgia Farmers' Alliance was also divided over the subtreasury plan.  The fact the radical faction was always a minority in the alliance explains the inability of the Populists to dominate Georgia. America: History and Life, 22A:4127

_____. "The Southern Farmers' Alliance and the Jute Cartel." Journal of Southern History 1994 60(1): 59-80.  Jute was used to wrap cotton bales. Jute mill owners formed a combination to limit production and raise prices in 1888.  The Farmers' Alliance formed a boycott to defeat this monopoly.  By 1890, the jute combination had failed. America: History and Life, 32:8001

Hunt, Robert Lee. A History of Farmer Movements in the Southwest, 1873-1925. 192 p. bibliographical footnotes. College Station: Texas A&M P, 1935.  Farmers' Alliance and Farmer's Union.  From Ph.D. thesis in agricultural economics at University of Wisconsin, 1934.  

Jeffrey, Julie Roy. "Women in the Southern Farmers' Alliance: A Reconsideration of the Role and Status of Women in the Late Nineteenth Century South." Feminist Studies 1975 3(1/2): 72-91.  The Alliance encouraged female participation in its affairs and proposed educational and economic equality for women.  Women were to be coworkers on the farm, sharing agricultural tasks and prosperity rather than any equal status in the larger political world.  The Alliance enlarged the traditional view of women, encouraged education and participation, but did not go further toward female equality outside farm life. America: History and Life, 15A:2350

Kane, R. James. "Populism, Progressivism, and Pure Food." Agricultural History 1964 38(3): 161-166.  Farmers' interest in pure food laws stemmed from belief that their economic interests were damaged by food adulteration and misrepresentation. As early as 1881 the Farmers' Alliance advocated a pure food law. America: History and Life, 1:1835

Kellam, George Thomas. "A Shadow of Itself: The Rise and Decline of Cooperative Radicalism in Texas, 1875-1876." M.A. thesis, University of Texas at Arlington, 1987.  MAI, 26, no. 02, (1987).  Populist radicalism was the joint creation of Western farmers and workers who shared common aspirations for a cooperative economic order.  The defeat of the Knights of Labor in 1886 left only the agrarian section of the reform movement to carry on the political struggle in the 1890s.  

Koch, William E. "Campaign and Protest Singing During the Populist Era." Journal of the West 1983 22(3): 47-57.  Singing added drama and emotional appeal to political gatherings staged by such groups as the Grangers, the Farmers' Alliance, and the Populist Party. Community glee clubs often supplied the music for such events. Samples of campaign and protest songs. America: History and Life, 21A:6297

Kolnick, Jeffrey. "Rural-Urban Conflict and Farmer-Labor Politics: Blue Earth County, 1885-1886." Minnesota History 1994 54(1): 32-45.  Blue Earth County's Farmer-Labor Party, in conjunction with the Farmers' Alliance and the Knights of Labor, had remarkable success in rallying voters and in influencing the major parties on local and state issues during 1885-86. This tradition of radicalism reemerged in the 20th century when, during the height of Franklin D. Roosevelt's popularity, the Minnesota Farmer-Labor Party was able to overshadow the state's Democratic Party. America: History and Life, 32:8471

Lester, Connie Lee. "Grassroots Reform in the Age of New South Agriculture and Bourbon Democracy: The Agricultural Wheel, The Farmers' Alliance, and the People's Party in Tennessee, 1884-1892." Ph.D. dissertation, University of Tennessee, 1998.  DAI, 59, no. 08A, (1998): 3171.  The agrarian movement in Tennessee attracted landowning farmers.  The Agricultural Wheel and Farmers Alliance developed cooperative agencies, educational programs, and political activism that both questioned and threatened New South industrialism and the political control of the Bourbon planter elite.   

Macune, Charles W., Jr. "The Wellsprings of a Populist: Dr. C. W. Macune Before 1886." Southwestern Historical Quarterly 1986 90(2): 139-158.  Describes the family background and early life of the author's great grandfather, Charles William Macune, president of the Southern Farmers' Alliance.  Born in Wisconsin, Macune became editor of the Burnet Bulletin (TX) in 1874, where he displayed his rapidly acquired Southern Democrat point of view.  He studied and later practiced medicine, before moving to Dallas and becoming involved in the Populist movement.  America: History and Life, 25A:2194

Masters, Mark. "Plow Boys and Prohibitionists: The North Texas Reform Insurgence of 1887." E.C. Barksdale Student Lectures 1985-86 9: 257-287.  The prohibitionists and reformers in north-central Texas in 1887 were reacting against efforts of Northerners to destroy traditional, agrarian, Southern society, but the efforts of the Texas Farmers' Alliance were thwarted by capitalist, libertarian entrepreneurs. America: History and Life, 25A:4651

McGreevy, John T. "Farmers, Nationalists, and the Origins of California Populism." Pacific Historical Review 1989 58(4): 471-495.  The Nationalist movement in California was stronger than in the rest of the nation.  Nationalists called for a classless society in which the competitive economic system would be abandoned in favor of industrial cooperation and government control of production.  At first, farmers were attracted to the movement, but gradually they turned to cooperatives as a means whereby their goals could be better realized. America: History and Life, 28:3952

McMath, Robert Carroll, Jr. "The Farmers' Alliance in the South: The Career of an Agrarian Institution." Ph.D. dissertation, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1972.  DAI, 33, no. 08A, (1972): 4313. 

McMath, Robert C., Jr. "Agrarian Protest at the Forks of the Creek: Three Subordinate Farmers' Alliances in North Carolina." North Carolina Historical Review 1974 51(1): 41-63.  Farmers and rural professionals were attracted by a program of economic relief, cooperative enterprise, and fraternal organization. Statewide decline of the Alliance in 1891 was associated with increased political activity. America: History and Life, 13A:6547

_____. "Preface to Populism: The Origin and Economic Development of the Southern Farmers' Alliance in Kansas." Kansas Historical Quarterly. 42(1):55-65. 1976.  Ex-Populist William F. Rightmire claimed that Union Labor Party leaders imported the Southern Farmers Alliance into Kansas after the 1888 general elections in order to further their political agenda.  McMath shows that the Southern Alliance had appeared in Kansas before Rightmire's date.  Farmers joined because they could save money on supplies and make more profit on their produce.  He does not dismiss the political role of the Alliance, but considers the economic interests more important. America: History and Life, 15A:5979

_____. "Populist Base Communities: The Evangelical Roots of Farm Protest in Texas." Locus 1988 1(1): 53-63. Farmers reflected on their economic plight and political helplessness, and expressed their disaffection through familiar community modes, such as camp meetings and religious metaphors. America: History and Life, 26:12532

_____. Populist Vanguard: A History of the Southern Farmers' Alliance. Chapel Hill: U of North Carolina P, 1975. 221 pp. The Alliance thrived best in unsettled frontier-like conditions which encouraged new forms of social organization.  The Alliance was like a church, fulfilling religious functions such as integration of the individual with neighbors, interpretation of events, and reinforcement of group values. 

Meredith, H(oward). L. "The 'Middle Way': The Farmers' Alliance in Indian Territory, 1889-1896." Chronicles of Oklahoma 1969/70 47(4): 377-387.  Leadership decisions prevented the formation of a Populist Party in Indian Territory. America: History and Life, S:7155

_____. "Charles W. Macune's 'Farmers' Alliance.'" Library Chronicle of the University of Texas 1966 8(2): 42-45.  The University of Texas Archive Collection holds Charles W. Macune's own manuscript account of the Farmers' Alliance, giving its meaning, purpose, and history. America: History and Life, 3:2631

Miller, Floyd J. "Black Protest and White Leadership: A Note on the Colored Farmers' Alliance." Phylon 1972 33(2): 169-174.  The role of white missionary, Richard Manning Humphrey, in forming and developing the Colored Farmers' Alliance in 1888. America: History and Life, S:2809

Ogilvie, Leon Parker. "Populism and Socialism in the Southeast Missouri Lowlands." Missouri Historical Review 1971 65(2): 159-183.  Political trends in the Missouri Lowlands have usually paralleled those throughout the State.  The two major exceptions are the Populist and Socialist movements.  The Agricultural Wheel and the Farmers' Alliance were closely associated with the region. America: History and Life, 9:921

Paisley, Clifton. "The Political Wheelers and Arkansas' Election of 1888." Arkansas Historical Quarterly Spring 1966 25(1): 3-21.  Arkansas farmers founded the Agricultural Wheel in 1882.  The National Union Labor Party adopted their demands in 1888.  Democrats defeated the ULP 99,123 to 81,213 in November.  This threat encouraged Democrats like Jefferson Davis to adopt the language of the agrarians. America: History and Life, 3:2632

Parsons, Stanley B.; Parsons, Karen Toombs; Killilae, Walter; and Borgers, Beverly. "The Role of Cooperatives in the Development of the Movement Culture of Populism." Journal of American History 1983 69(4): 866-885.  Lawrence Goodwyn, Democratic Promise: The Populist Moment in America (1976) argued that the failure of a substantial cooperative movement in the Great Plains and Southern states during the 1880's led to radical economic policy and political movement.  The authors use quantification to show that the supposed sequence of steps from cooperatives to monetary reform to political action did not materialize in any of the states examined, except possibly Texas. America: History and Life, 21A:914

Perkey, Elton A. "The First Farmers' Alliance in Nebraska." Nebraska History 1976 57(2): 242-247.  Indicates that the birthplace of the Farmers' Alliance in Nebraska was a schoolhouse located a few miles north of Filley in Gage County.  One of its organizers, Jabez Burrows, became president of the organization in 1887, and then edited its newspaper, the Alliance, until his death in 1899. America: History and Life, 14A:8814

Redding, Kent. "Failed Populism: Movement-Party Disjuncture in North Carolina, 1890 to 1900." American Sociological Review June 1992 57(3): 340-352.  The author used county-level data on North Carolina Farmers' Alliance membership and People's Party votes to gauge the relationship between them.  He found a "striking disjuncture" between Alliance membership and People's Party support.  America: History and Life, 30:13727

Remele, Larry. "'God Helps Those Who Help Themselves': The Farmers' Alliance and Dakota Statehood." Montana 1987 37(4): 22-33.  The Dakota Farmers Alliance promoted insurgent political traditions and progressive ideas.  Alliancemen elected farmer supporters to the 1889 territorial legislature and constitutional convention.  The Alliance influenced the South Dakota Convention to write a progressive constitution, but was less successful in North Dakota.  America: History and Life, 26:3246

Riney, James Edward. "The Farmers' Alliance in Wise County, Texas, 1880-1897." M.A. thesis, University of North Texas, 1979.  MAI, 18, no. 03, (1979): 0206. 

Rodabaugh, Karl Louis. "The Alliance in Politics: The Alabama Gubernatorial Election of 1891." Alabama Historical Quarterly. 36(1): 54-80. 1974.  Reuben Kolb moved the Farmers' Alliance into politics in 1890.  Establishment Democrats raised the race question.  Kolb lost the gubernatorial nomination to Thomas G. Jones, which dashed Alliance hopes.  America: History and Life, 14A:5356

Rogers, William Warren. "The Agricultural Wheel in Alabama." Alabama Review 1967 20(1): 5-16.  The Agricultural Wheel came to Alabama in 1886, and lasted until 1889 when it merged with the Farmers' Alliance.  It endorsed cooperative manufacturers, attacked the Interstate Commerce Commission, the Alabama State Railroad Commission, and the State legislature for failure to take action against the Louisville and Nashville Railroad. America: History and Life, 5:476

_____. "The Farmers' Alliance in Alabama." Alabama Review. 15:5-18. January 1962.  

_____. "The Negro Alliance in Alabama." Journal of Negro History 1960 45(1): 38-44.  Negro alliances generally had the strong sympathy and support of the white alliances, with which they cooperated.  Both black and white alliances declined sharply after 1891 when they began to neglect their economic programs and became involved in politics. America: History and Life, 0:4720

Saloutos, Theodore. Farmer Movements in the South, 1865-1933. 354 p. Berkeley, U of California P, 1960.  Reprinted: Lincoln, U of Nebraska P, 1964.  Grange, Farmers' Alliance, Populist Party, and Farmers' Union. 

Schwartz, Michael H. "An Estimate of the Size of the Southern Farmers' Alliance, 1884-1890." Agricultural History 1977 51(4): 759-769.  At its height in 1890, the Southern Farmers' Alliance probably numbered about 857,000 members.  This figure was well below previous estimates of up to three million members, but still represent an impressive percentage of adult southern males. America: History and Life, 16A:2220

_____. Radical Protest and Social Structure: The Southern Farmers' Alliance and Cotton Tenancy, 1880-1890. 302 p. New York: Academic P, 1976.  Derived from the author's 1971 Ph.D. dissertation, "The Southern Farmers' Alliance: The Organizational Forms of Radical Protest." Ph.D. dissertation (Sociology), Harvard University, ADD, X1971, (1971): 0328.  The leaders of the Farmers' Alliance were oligarchs who led the movement into politics which diverted resources employed in economic conflict.  A sociologist's view.  The Southern Farmers Alliance was a rational response to oppressive social and economic conditions.  Focuses particularly upon conflicts between leaders and rank and file members.  Challenges conservative cliometricians assumption that South had a free labor market because of dominance of tenancy.  Contains detailed chapter on a North Carolina county Alliance. America: History and Life, 20A:2586

_____; Rosenthal, Naomi; and Schwartz, Laura. "Leader-Member Conflict in Protest Organizations: The Case of the Southern Farmers' Alliance." Social Problems 1981 29(1): 22-36.  The alliance leadership's own interests led to the Alliance's demise. 

Scott, Roy V. "Milton George and the Farmers' Alliance Movement." Mississippi Valley Historical Review 1958 45(1): 90-109.  Milton George was instrumental in forming the National (Northern) Farmers' Alliance which he imbued with his philosophy of local farmers meeting to improve economic, educational, and social conditions, 1880-87. America: History and Life, S:2825

_____. "The Rise of the Farmers' Mutual Benefit Association in Illinois, 1883-1891." Agricultural History 1958 32(1): 44-55.  The Farmers' Mutual Benefit Association began as a cooperative grain marketing group in southern Illinois in 1883.  The Association became most active in cooperative business enterprises, and by 1890 was engaged in most types of business. It was also of importance in providing a social outlet for farm families. The Association eventually merged with the Populist Party and lost its identity, both as an economic and a social force. America: History and Life, 0:4931

Shannon, Fred A. "C.W. Macune and the Farmers' Alliance." Current History 1955 28(166): 330-335.  Analyzes the evolution of the agricultural sub-treasury plan and related reforms.  C.W. Macune stabilized the Alliance movement in Texas, led the movement for consolidation into a Southern Alliance, and formulated the idea of an elastic sub-treasury plan. Although unsuccessfully attempted by the Texas Alliance, Macune's plan in essence was adopted by the federal government in the U.S. Warehouse Act of 1916. America: History and Life, 0:3106

Simms, James Y., Jr. "Impact of Russian Famine, 1891-1892, Upon the United States." Mid-America 1978 60(3): 171-184.  During 1891-92 Russia suffered one of the severest famines in its history, which aided the US grain growers in opening markets, and Farmers Alliance and Populist Party by showing the importance of American farmers in the international grain crisis. America: History and Life, 16A:6689

Simons, George B. "David Ward Wood." In History of the Republican Party and Biographies of Its Supporters. 289 p. David Ward Wood, ed. Chicago: Lincoln Engraving and Publishing Company, 1895.   Wood was editor for Milton George's Western Rural, and was active in Farmers' Alliance affairs.  

Spriggs, William Edward. "The Virginia Farmers' Alliance: A Case Study of Race and Class Identity." Journal of Negro History 1979 64(3): 191-204.  Because of limited contact and cooperation with the white Farmers' Alliance (and racism), the Virginia Colored Alliance identified itself more with its race. America: History and Life, 18A:2725

Steelman, Lala Carr. "The Role of Elias Carr in the North Carolina Farmers' Alliance." North Carolina Historical Review 1980 57(2): 133-158.  Carr was president of the North Carolina Farmers' State Association when the Southern Farmers Alliance absorbed it in 1888.  Despite his upper class standing, Carr became a leader in the militant and powerful farm protest movement, as executive committee chairman (1887-89) and then as Alliance president (1889-91).  He attempted to steer the Alliance away from partisan politics. America: History and Life, 19A:2637

Tarbell, Ida M. The Nationalizing of Business, 1878-1898. 313 p. New York: Macmillan, 1938. Ch. 8, "The Farmers Organize." 

Taylor, Carl C., et al. Rural Life in the United States. 549 p. bib., illus., maps. New York: Knopf, 1950.  Farmers' Alliance, pp. 510-520. 

Wagner, Mary Jo. "Farms, Families, and Reform: Women in the Farmers' Alliance and Populist Party." Ph.D. dissertation, University of Oregon, 1986. DAI, 47, no. 07A, (1986).  Women contributed to the organization, philosophy, and political platforms of the Farmers' Alliance and Populist Party.  Often, their writings and speeches espoused traditional female values.  They left home for long periods of time to campaign for the new party, often emphasizing temperance and woman suffrage.  They did not perceive a contradiction between domesticity and political work, but incorporated the ideology of domesticity into the larger goals of Populism.  Although Populist women did not win suffrage and temperance planks at national Populist conventions, they did acquire valuable political experience in the public sphere and form important networks with other women. 

Watkins, Marilyn P. "Political Activism and Community-Building Among Alliance and Grange Women in Western Washington, 1892-1925." Agricultural History 1993 67(2): 197-213.  During the late 19th and early 20th centuries the Farmers' Alliance and the Grange in Lewis County, Washington often relegated women to such tasks as food preparation.  Such organizations, however, also gave women a political voice. America: History and Life, 32:4663