Answer:
It hurt them by reducing the money they had to pay back loans.
Step-by-step explanation:
After the civil war, the West region found itself in a great expansion and attracted many independent farmers who saw that land as an opportunity to grow economically. However, the war caused a sharp drop in the prices of agricultural products, causing these farms to spend more money than they profited from their farms, which ended up generating debts that were accumulating more and more.