The farmers of both the south and the west would agree with the opinion that Eugene Debs held about the capitalist system because the farmers were unable to profit from their crops. When farmers could not profit from their crops one season it would hurt them a great deal financially for the following season. This seemed to be a never-ending cycle for the farmers that eventually drove them to borrow from the railroad companies as well as banks, which predictably resulted in large debts for the farmers. The farmers developed a system of sharecropping, which at first seemed to be a good bargain for the ex-slaves because the arrangement offered some freedom to work independently, and they frequently got half the crop. The system quickly proved to be disastrous for both poor blacks and whites. Sharecroppers needed more than land to farm. They also required seed, fertilizers, and provisions to live on until the crop was harvested. To obtain these they borrowed against their share. Falling crop prices, high credit rates, and unscrupulous merchants and creditors left many croppers in debt after the harvest. The system eventually tied poor blacks and whites to sharecropping and an endless cycle of debt. The farmers needed a way out of this cycle because it was never ending and the farmers were not benefiting from the accumulation of debt. .
Agricultural prices in the United States began to decline. The economic welfare of farmers suffered badly; many believed that the management of currency was at fault and that the government's currency policy was determined by Eastern bankers and industrialists. After attempts at independent political action failed, a loosely knit confederations called Farmers' Alliances were formed during the 1880s. Separate organizations were founded in the North and South, and Southern blacks organized their own alliances.
The Farmers' Alliances agitated for railroad regulation, tax reform, and unlimited coinage of silver and attempted to influence the established political parties.