Benjamin Tillman - Tillmanism

Tillmanism

The Hamburg Masacre had established Tillman as a leader of the white supremacist of his community. He parlayed this local popularity into a wider notoriety by attending the 1876 State Democratic Convention which nominated Wade Hampton as the Democratic candidate for governor of South Carolina. In November 1876, in an election that was fraught with violence and voter fraud, the Democrats of Edgefield were able to suppress the Republican/African American majority of several thousand in Edgefield County, producing a 3,134 Democratic/white majority vote from the county in favor of Wade Hampton. Bolstered by this vote from Edgefield, Wade Hampton was able to eke out a narrow victory of only 1,134 votes state-wide. Thus, in 1876, the Repulican Reconstruction government was ended and white supremacy was established in South Carolina. Jim Crow laws, which would be passed over the next few years, would assure that no further African American political leaders would be elected in South Carolina for a century.

The almost total suppression of the African American vote in South Carolina, allowed a subtle breach in the white vote to become apparent. This split in the white vote was based on economic class lines. Starting with the election of Wade Hampton as Governor in 1876, South Carolina fell under the rule of the wealthy "Bourbon" or "aristocratic" classes which had been in control of the state prior to the Civil War. However, in the 1880s, the Bourbon class was not as strong nor as populous as it had been before the Civil War. The Bourbon class was largely based in the Lowcountry area, or the lowlands along the coast of South Carolina. Lowcountry agriculture was largely dominated by large rice growing plantations. However, by 1883, rice prices had fallen to about a third of what they had been previously. Charleston, the commercial center of the Lowcountry fell into a relative decline. West of the Lowcountry of South Carolina was the Piedmont area. In earlier times, the inland area of the Piedmont was dominated by large plantations which raised cotton. However, since the Civil War, continuous cotton cropping of the land of the Piedmont and the use of commercial fertilizers had stripped the soil of the Piedmont of all nutrients and cotton yields had fallen dramatically.

The area west of the Piedmont of South Carolina was known as the "upcountry" section. Composed of rolling hills, the upcountry was composed of small farms operated by individual farm families. These small farmers were the other part of emerging fissure in the white vote during the 1880s. These small farmers saw the Bourbon rule of the state government as being against their own interests. Along with the large landowning interests of the Lowcountry, the small farmers of the upcountry blamed the merchants, bankers and the railroads for their poor economic condition. Consequently, the term "Bourbon" came to include the both the railroads and bankers and merchants from all areas of the state. These groups were seen as antithetical to the interests of the small farmers of the upcountry. Presenting himself as the friend of ordinary white farmers, "Pitchfork Ben" Tillman became the champion of these small farmers and the upcountry became his strong base of support in the State of South Carolina. Tillman's support for measures that would aid the small farmer, as opposed to the Bourbons, became the essence of what was to be called "Tillmanism."

The National Grange of the Patrons of Husbandry was the first real organization that tried to aid the farmer in solving his economic problems. The Panic of 1873, caused additional hardship for the small farmers of the upcountry. Between 1872 and 1875, many South Carolina farmers joined the Grange and participated in the co-operative program of buying and selling that the Grange established. These farmers also joined the Grange in agitating for state regulation of the railroads.

Reading about the modern ideas in farming, Ben Tillman came to recognise that the farmers of the upcountry needed to break with the agricultural practices of the ante-bellum period, wherein most of "our lands...are going down the river and rapidly deteriorating in intrinsic value by false farming." Tillman realized that there was a great need for education of ordinary farmers in the methods of modern farming. He put his ideas for agricultural reform in articles that he wrote for Southern Cultivator and other agricultureal magazines. One of Tillman's ideas for the education of the farmers attracted the attention of some influential people of the state. One of his ideas was for an agricultural college to be established in South Carolina. One of the people interested by the concept of a separate state college dedicated to agricultural research and education of farmers was Thomas G. Clemson. Clemson was the son-in-law of John C. Calhoun and was quite wealthy. When he died on April 2, 1888, Clemson left a cash endowment of $80,000 and the 814 acre Calhoun estate called Fort Hill to a board of lifetime trustees for the establishment of the proposed agricultural college. The agricultural school became known as Clemson College (later Clemson University) and Thomas Clemson's will appointed Ben Tillman as one of the lifetime trustees of the new agricultural school.

Another attempt by Ben Tillman to educate farmers was his founding of the South Carolina Farmers Association and campaigned across the state giving speeches on behalf the Farmers Association. The Farmers Associatiion also became the major vehicle by which Ben Tillman became a political power in South Carolina.

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