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What was the Granger Movement?

The Granger Movement began in the United States of America in the year 1867, This event was in support of the farmers of U. S, in particular, the ones that lived in the Middle West who faced monopoly while transporting their grains from one place to another.

  • This movement was also followed by the American Civil War of that time.
  • Oliver Hudson Kelley laid the foundation stone for this event and was strong enough to stand alone in order to start this powerful movement.
  • Oliver was initially an employee in the Department of Agriculture in 1866 when he traveled to the South that had shocked him to the extent that he decided to lead the change.
  • He noticed how the agriculture practices in the South that were almost flawless were given no importance.
  • He decided not to let the agricultural system go in vain and therefore in the year 1867 decided to begin an organization that would benefit those farmers.
  • The organization was named ”The Patrons of Husbandry” was started to initiate the farmers in discussions related to educational benefits as well as to spread the importance of social issues among them.
  • Inside the organization, there was an occurrence of a secret tradition and there was also a division into local units called “Granges”.
  • At the beginning of this it was noted that the only response that came from was Kelley’s home state of Minnesota but eventually it was spread across vast areas and by 1870, nine states were believed to have Granges.
  • This got further importance wherein towards mid-1870’s it was seen that almost every state got at least one Granges and therefore its national membership actually reached 800,000.
  • When the farmers were inquired as to what pulled them towards this huge movement, they said that this unified event was a strong step in order to stand against the unreasonable demands of the monopolistic traders of transportation.