concept

sharecropping

Facts (22)

Sources

Debt slavery | Definition, History, & Facts | Britannica britannica.com Britannica 15 facts

claimContracts between landowners and sharecroppers typically forbade sharecroppers from saving cotton seeds from their harvest, which forced sharecroppers to increase their debt by purchasing seeds from the landowner.

accountIn the American South, a system of debt slavery existed among sharecroppers and landowners from the 1860s until World War II.

accountLandowners in the American South provided sharecroppers with land, seeds, tools, clothing, and food, with the costs of these supplies deducted from the sharecroppers' portion of the harvest.

accountFollowing the American Civil War and the abolition of slavery, many African Americans and some whites in the rural American South worked as sharecroppers, renting small plots of land from large landowners and pledging a percentage of their crops at harvest.

accountTo escape debt, sharecroppers attempted to earn extra money by working on neighboring farms and selling produce like eggs, milk, and vegetables, but banks generally refused to lend money to them, increasing their dependence on landowners.

accountThe Great Depression, combined with the South's overproduction and overemphasis on cotton, had devastating effects on sharecroppers, as cotton prices fell dramatically after the 1929 stock market crash.

claimSharecropping provided African Americans more autonomy and the ability to keep families together compared to the system of chattel slavery.

claimSouthern courts were unlikely to rule in favor of Black sharecroppers against white landowners.

claimOnce in debt, sharecroppers in the American South were legally forbidden from leaving the landowner's property until the debt was paid, effectively creating a state of slavery.

claimAfrican Americans in the post-Civil War South faced limited options due to racism and the legacy of slavery, and they constituted the bulk of Southern sharecroppers.

accountSharecroppers in the American South often incurred substantial debt to landowners during bad harvest years or periods of low commodity prices, such as when cotton prices fell in the 1880s and 1890s.

claimSharecropping provided more autonomy than slavery for African Americans and enabled families to stay together, though these advantages were minor compared to the poverty and hardships of debt slavery.

accountImmediately following the American Civil War, financially distressed landowners would rent land to African American sharecroppers, secure their debt and labor, and then drive them away just before the harvest to avoid paying them.

accountIndebted sharecroppers had the option to continue working for the same landowner to pay off debt with the next harvest or to begin farming for a different landowner with the debt incorporated into the new contract.

accountThe Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1933 offered farmers money to produce less cotton to raise prices, but many white landowners kept the money, left land previously worked by African American sharecroppers empty, and invested in mechanization, which reduced the need for labor and increased poverty and underemployment.

History of forced labor in the United States - Wikipedia en.wikipedia.org Wikipedia 5 facts

claimFollowing the Emancipation Proclamation and the adoption of the Thirteenth Amendment, involuntary servitude persisted in the United States through forms such as convict leasing, peonage, and sharecropping.

claimLandowners abused the sharecropping system by forcing tenant farmers to purchase seeds and tools from the landowner's store at inflated prices.

claimLandowners kept sharecroppers in perpetual debt by exploiting the sharecroppers' illiteracy to manipulate accounting books, debiting expenses against profits, and miscalculating net profits after harvest.

claimSharecropping involved poor white farmers and formerly enslaved African Americans (freedmen) farming land owned by others in exchange for a share of the crops.

claimIn the sharecropping system, landowners provided seeds and tools in exchange for a percentage of the money earned from the crop and a portion of the crop itself.

Systemic Debt Slavery - David Korten davidkorten.org David Korten · davidkorten.org Jan 8, 2021 1 fact

accountFollowing the American Civil War, sharecropper arrangements forced Black Americans into debts that functioned as a form of bondage similar to slavery, as white landowners controlled the land and jobs necessary for survival.

Slavery v. Peonage | Themes | Slavery by Another Name - PBS pbs.org PBS 1 fact

claimMany workers became trapped in cycles of unpaid labor after becoming indebted to planters through sharecropping loans, merchants through credit, or company stores through living expenses.