During the late 1880s, as farmers experienced their hardest years financially, several political struggles unfolded that challenged Redeemer hegemony in southern states. Through the years, farmer and labor organizations—the Virginia Readjusters, the Greenback Party, the Knights of Labor—had tried to foment change but without lasting success. Beginning in the 1860s, farmers turned to fraternal organizations, one of which was the National Grange of the Patrons of Husbandry, or the Grange.