Question

Summarize the following text. "The great common people of this country are slaves, and monopoly is the master. The West and South are bound and prostrate before the manufacturing East...Money rules...The parties lie to us and the political speakers mislead us. We were told 2 years ago...to work and raise a big crop that was all we needed. We went to work and plowed and planted; the rains fell, the sun shone, nature smiled, and we raised the big crop that they told us to; and what came of it? Eight-cent corn, ten-cent oats, two-cent beef, and no price at all for butter and eggs...Then the politicians said we suffered from overproduction. Overproduction, when 10,000 little children, so statistics tell us, starve to death every year in the United States."

Answer 1

The summary addresses the Southern states' economic reliance on cotton and slavery, their attempt to convert this into political power, and the challenges faced by farmers and workers due to economic exploitation and agricultural overproduction.

Step-by-step explanation:

The text discusses the economic and socio-political dynamics of the mid-nineteenth century United States, particularly the Southern states' reliance on cotton and slavery for economic success. Southern states created an economic monopoly with their cotton production, which led to significant political efforts, such as trying to sway Great Britain to recognize the Confederate States of America during the Civil War. Moreover, the text describes the plight of common people, labor exploitation by the capitalist class, and the intertwined issues of agricultural overproduction and under-compensation, highlighting the struggles of farmers facing declining prices and mounting debts despite increased productivity, and the societal impacts of these economic conditions.