sharecropping

Examples of sharecropping in the following topics:

• Agriculture, Tenancy, and the Environment

  • The American South remained heavily rural for decades after the Civil War; sharecropping was widespread as a response to economic upheaval.
  • However, sharecropping, along with tenant farming, became a dominant form in the cotton South from the 1870s to the 1950s, among both blacks and whites.
  • Sharecropping was a way for very poor farmers, both white and black, to earn a living from land owned by someone else.
  • Prior to emancipation, sharecropping was limited to poor landless whites, usually working marginal lands for absentee landlords.
  • Sharecropping was by far the most economically efficient, as it provided incentives for workers to produce a bigger harvest.

• Devastation in the South

  • As a result, a system of sharecropping was developed in which landowners broke up large plantations and rented small lots to the freedmen and their families.
  • Sharecropping was a way for very poor farmers, both white and black, to earn a living from land owned by someone else.

• Farm and Rural Programs

  • Over the remaining years of the Great Depression, the once-common practice of sharecropping and tenant farming became exceedingly rare and vast amounts of tenant farmers were put out, without homes or means of income.
  • By the last half of the century sharecropping and tenant farming had become obsolete.

• Conclusion: The Effects of Reconstruction

  • The system of sharecropping allowed blacks a considerable amount of freedom as compared to slavery.

• Economic Growth

  • As a result, a system of sharecropping was developed where landowners broke up large plantations and rented small lots to the freedmen and their families.

• Johnson's Plan

  • Such bargaining soon led to the practice of sharecropping, which gave the freedmen both greater economic independence and social autonomy.