It is virtually impossible to answer the question of whether America's farmers or industrial workers had it worse in the period 1865 through 1916, because issues of gender, culture, and race make it difficult, if not impossible, to generalize about people in either occupation. Furthermore, regional differences exacerbated the differences in how each group was treated. Therefore, instead of ignoring these differences, this paper will concentrate on how gender, cultural, and race impacted each occupation, and then attempt to determine which group, as a whole, lived under worse working conditions.
             Any discussion of American history that begins in 1865 has to, by necessity; discuss the tremendous social changes caused by the U.S. Civil War. First, the Civil War helped highlight regional differences in the United States; the North was linked with industry and the South with agriculture. Furthermore, after the Civil War there was no incentive for the United States government to push for industrialization in the South. On the contrary, preventing the South from becoming industrialized was a way for the North to make sure that the South would not be able to secede from the Union. Second, the Civil War was responsible for the deaths of nearly a million Americans, from injuries and disease. As with most wars, the majority of those deaths occurred in young, working age males. Therefore, the Civil War left a gap in the labor force, and also forced many women and children to work because they had no husband or father to provide financial support. Furthermore, the end of the Civil War led to a tremendous change in financial status for many Americans. Reconstruction led to a restructuring of the economy of the South; and the defeat of the Confederate Army left millions destitute. Of course, the most significant political and social change following the end of the Civil War was the end of legalized slavery.
             The best-understood ty...