Question

The "New South" emerged following Reconstruction, defined by particular people, groups, and events. Thomas Watson and the Populist Party was a group that influenced politics in the New South during this time. To what specific demographic did this political party appeal to in the 1880s and 1890s?

Answer 1

B. poor white farmers who were struggling from debt and low cotton prices

Answer 2

The Populist Party was a short-lived political party established in 1891 in the United States of America during the populist period that took hold in the late nineteenth century. It culminated between 1892 and 1896, then quickly vanished.

It appealed to the poorer classes, mainly cotton farmers in the south (particularly in North Carolina, Alabama and Texas) and wheat farmers in other states (such as Kansas and Nebraska). It represented a form of radical struggle against a form of ruralism (called agrarianism) and hostility towards banks, railways, and the elites in general.