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Title: The Civil War and the Mechanization of Western Farms

Citation Type: Miscellaneous

Publication Year: 2012

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Abstract: Agricultural implements played a key role in the mechanization of the West after the Civil War, both in manufacturing and in farming. Civil War experience changed many citizens and many economic factors in both areas, and these experiences drove industrialization. While many have advocated railroads as the model from industrialization, military organization and the Civil War seems to have had much more impact, at least in the West. Military organization forged soldiers into cohesive units and provided a model of a low-skill, interchangeable-laborer industry, which led to ex-soldiers' greater suitability to factory jobs but also to an increased sense of the value of their labor. Wartime labor shortages, combined with the Homestead Act, drove adoption of new technologies on the farm, leading to an upheaval in traditional farm labor structure. Finally, wartime innovations in precision manufacturing, coupled with incremental technological advances, led to increased production capacity and decreased labor costs especially at the McCormick Harvesting Machine Company, resulting in higher-quality, laborsaving, feasible agricultural implements for the Great Plains.

Url: http://web.mit.edu/afs.new/sipb/user/xela/Shared/sweettea/finalpaper.pdf

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Authors: Dorminy, Sweet Tea

Publisher: MIT

Data Collections: IPUMS USA

Topics: Land Use/Urban Organization

Countries: United States